I’ve spent the last month tracking two projects that show where UK housing is heading. One is a derelict hotel in Coventry. The other is a car park in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Both are becoming homes.
Britain has 4.3 million missing homes. We built barely 200,000 in 2023-24. The government wants 1.5 million over this Parliament.
The math doesn’t work unless we change what we’re building on.
What’s Actually Happening Right Now
Capital & Centric started converting the 655-space Midway car park in January 2026. They’re calling it “Karparc.” The £20m project removes ramps, adds floors, puts rooftop “Dutch houses” on top, and keeps basement parking.
The result: 111 apartments. One-bed rentals range from £900 to £1,000. Gym, mini cinema, yoga studio, residents’ lounge. First occupancies in about 18 months.
Co-founder Tim Heatley: “I’ve been contacted by car park owners and councils across the country about other multi-storeys off the back of the plans.”
This is the first car park conversion of its kind in UK history. It won’t be the last.
In Coventry, a different approach: demolish the derelict Allesley Hotel and build 55 homes from scratch. It’s not conversion, but it shows what happens when existing structures are too far gone. The hotel became unusable after vandalism and arson. Developer Avant Homes West Midlands reduced the original 62 unit scheme to one to five bed properties.
The council wants almost £1.4m in Section 106 contributions for health, sport, and education. They requested more than £1m to compensate for tree loss. The developer refused the tree payment but agreed to £210,000 toward biodiversity net gain credits.
Six objection letters. Nearly 50 letters of support. Highways, conservation, and tree officers all raised concerns. The planning committee meets on March 5.
Even when you’re not converting, just clearing derelict eyesores, every project looks like this: messy, contested, expensive.
Why This Matters More Than New Builds
Embodied carbon will account for 50% of built environment emissions by 2035. Right now, buildings are responsible for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions and 11% from materials and construction. That shift occurs because we’re reducing operational emissions while construction emissions remain high.
Converting non-residential buildings to residential avoids the massive embodied carbon hit of new construction. Research shows retrofitting generally saves 50% to 75% of embodied carbon compared to demolishing and rebuilding.
Retrofitting generally saves 50-75% of embodied carbon compared to new construction. The deep retrofit of The Entopia Building in Cambridge saved around 60% compared to demolition and rebuilding.
Capital & Centric emphasizes this in their Karparc pitch: saving embodied carbon while improving thermal performance. It’s not just marketing. The numbers support it.
But carbon savings mean nothing if you can’t deliver fast enough.
We have 8,242 vacant local authority-owned properties as of 2025, up from 6,324 in 2021. Local authorities alone could create over 25,000 homes by converting vacant offices and shops they already own.
Add private sector vacant commercial property, and you’re looking at hundreds of thousands of potential homes. These buildings exist. The infrastructure exists. The locations work because they were built where people needed services.
You don’t need to acquire land, extend utilities, or fight greenfield battles.
You need planning permission and money.
The Window Is Open, But It’s Closing
March 2024 brought changes to Permitted Development Rights that removed the 1,500 square meter floorspace cap on conversions. Is the requirement for a property to be vacant for three months before applying? Gone.
There’s a catch: the government gave this an initial three-year window before potential revisions.
That means developers have until March 2027 to take advantage of the most favorable conversion rules we’ve seen. After that, who knows? Policy changes when political winds shift.
I’ve watched this pattern before. Windows open. Smart developers move. Everyone else waits. The window closes. The people who moved made money. The people who waited complain.
Tim Heatley’s phone is ringing with inquiries from car park owners, telling me people are waking up. The question is whether they move fast enough.
What’s Standing in the Way
The Coventry project shows the real barriers. It’s not technical.
It’s about:
Highway officers worried about traffic
Conservation officers worried about character
Three officers worried about canopy loss
Section 106 negotiations that drag on for months
Objection letters from neighbors
Biodiversity net-gain requirements that add costs
Every project faces this. The Allesley Hotel developer agreed to pay £210,000 for biodiversity credits but refused the £1m tree compensation. These negotiations determine whether projects happen.
The developers who succeed know which battles to fight and which to concede.
Avant Homes is investing £18m to regenerate the Allesley site. They’re not walking away over tree compensation, but they’re also not paying £1m for it. They found a middle path.
Capital & Centric is spending £20m on a car park conversion that local residents initially doubted. They’re betting that delivery changes minds better than promises.
Why Repurposed Buildings Will Dominate by 2030
Five things need to happen. They’re all in motion.
First: The current Permitted Development Rights need to stay favorable. If the 2027 review tightens restrictions, the momentum stops.
Second: More projects like Karparc need to be completed successfully. One car park conversion is a novelty. Twenty is a trend. A hundred is an industry.
Third: Local authorities need to see conversions as solutions, not problems. The planning committees that approve these projects quickly will see more housing delivered in their areas. The ones that drag their feet will keep complaining about housing shortages while blocking the fixes.
Fourth: The financial model needs to work for developers. Capital & Centric expects one-bed rents to be around £900 to £1,000. If those numbers hold and occupancy stays high, other developers will follow. If they don’t, the money goes elsewhere.
Fifth: Embodied carbon regulations need to get stricter. Right now, saving carbon is a nice-to-have. When it becomes a must-have, conversion becomes the default choice.
What I’m Watching For
I’m tracking three signals that will tell me whether this becomes the norm or stays niche.
Signal one: How many car park owners contact Capital & Centric in the next six months? Tim Heatley said he’s already hearing from people across the country. If that turns into actual projects, we’ll know the model works.
Signal two: Whether the Coventry planning committee approves the Allesley Hotel conversion on March 5. If they do, it shows that even contested projects with objections can get through. If they don’t, it tells developers that derelict buildings still face too many barriers.
Signal three: What happens to Permitted Development Rights in the 2027 review? If the government extends or expands them, expect a wave of conversions. If they tighten them, the window closes.
The Uncomfortable Truth About UK Housing
We’re not building enough homes because we’re building them the same way we always have: new developments on new land with new infrastructure.
That approach worked when land was cheap and planning was simple. It doesn’t work now.
The buildings we need to convert are sitting empty right now. The Allesley Hotel. The Midway car park. Thousands of vacant offices and shops across the country.
Some will become homes. Most won’t, not because conversion is impossible, but because it requires developers to think differently and councils to approve differently.
The projects that succeed will be the ones where someone looked at a derelict building and saw apartments.
By 2030, we’ll know whether that’s normal or rare.
I’m betting on normal. But I’ve been wrong before.
What You Should Do With This Information
Developers: Look at your local vacant buildings: the car parks, old offices, derelict hotels, everyone ignores. Run the numbers on conversion before dismissing it.
Local authorities: Count your vacant buildings. Then ask why they’re still vacant during a housing shortage.
Construction professionals: Learn retrofit and conversion now. The skills that built new homes won’t be enough. You need to work with existing structures.
Industry watchers: Track the Karparc project. If it delivers on time and fills up fast, you’re watching the future of UK housing.
The window is open. Who walks through it?
