London’s empty offices are being turned into homes – including the Times newspaper’s old print site and the National Crime Agency office in Vauxhall
Key Points
- London-listed landlord CLS Holdings has announced that it is converting or selling several of its London office buildings for residential property development.
- This will include the National Crime Agency (NCA) which plans to vacate its headquarters in Spring Gardens in Vauxhall by September.
- In a separate deal, CLS said it had submitted a pre-application to convert its New Printing House Square property into new homes.
- CLS noted that the deals still depends on planning permission but it follows a new trend of turning some of London's biggest office blocks into homes.
London-listed landlord CLS Holdings has announced that it is converting or selling several of its London office buildings for residential property development.
In its half-year results published on Wednesday (12 August), the group said that this will include the National Crime Agency (NCA) which plans to vacate its headquarters in Spring Gardens in Vauxhall by September. The NCA is CLS Holding’s largest tenant.
This comes after CLS agreed to sell the building to housebuilder London Square, which plans to redevelop the site under a new project called Citadel Place.
CLS noted that the deal still depends on planning permission but it follows a new trend of turning some of London’s biggest office blocks into homes. In this case, CLS said that the development includes a high level of affordable housing and will help bring what was largely a redundant office building back into use.
New Printing House
In a separate deal, CLS said it had submitted a pre-application to convert its New Printing House Square property into new homes. New Printing House Square was the home of The Times newspaper from the mid-1970s until the newspaper moved to Wapping in 1986.
Leases on the building expire in June 2029 and ClS anticipates conversion work to begin from that point onwards.
CLS has also secured planning permission to convert its remaining standalone student accommodation units at Spring Mews in Vauxhall into serviced apartments.
This follows a range of deals which completed earlier this year. The company exchanged contracts on the Clockwork Building in Hammersmith, with completion due in the final quarter of 2026, and sold Columbia House in Bracknell In July.
CLS said it is selling properties better suited to alternative uses, and has submitted further pre-applications elsewhere in its in its UK portfolio to redevelop selected properties or make use of underused space.
The wider office market
The group’s data shows that 17.7% of UK office space stood empty at the start of June, down slightly from 18% at the start of December. Vacancy across the London office market sits at 8.4% and 11.7% across the South East.
Investors spent around £15 billion on UK commercial property in the first half of 2026, a fall of more than 40% on the same period last year.
Leasing take-up in London reached around 510,000 square meters in the first half of the year, similar to the same period last year.
