BNP Paribas sells first office to residential conversion in Southampton13th September 2013

BNP Paribas Real Estate, on behalf of Atlanta Trust, has sold Capella House, Cook Street, Southampton, to Roxan Construction Ltd. The 14,000 sq ft office, which was previously home to the Ministry of Defence, will be the first office to residential conversion in Southampton under the new Permitted Development Rights Bill.

Ricky Poonia of BNP Paribas Real Estate’s Southampton agency said: “Packaged as an alternative use development site, we managed to minimise our client’s holding costs while affecting a swift sale. This is a prime example of how landlords are exploiting the recent relaxing of planning regulations, making it easier to obtain a change of use from offices to residential uses.”

Nigel Pugsley, head of the Southampton planning team at BNP Paribas Real Estate, said: “This temporary measure represents a real opportunity to secure a higher value use for underperforming office stock. We are providing expert advice to an ever increasing number of clients wishing to investigate how they too can benefit from this change to the planning system.”