Retrofit is rapidly becoming a national planning priority. This is not simply down to the need to meet sustainability and net zero targets, but because it increasingly reflects the commercial realities of the office market. 

The UK office market is now firmly two-tier. Best-in-class new and refurbished buildings are outperforming, while weaker secondary stock faces rising vacancy rates, obsolescence pressure and, in some cases, conversion to alternative uses. Across the UK, the ‘flight to quality’ has hardened, with occupiers prioritising amenity-rich, energy efficient and highly flexible space 

At the same time, development economics are becoming more challenging. New build office schemes face rising shell and core costs, fit-out costs, contractor shortages and an increasing reliance on pre-lets. In London, new build costs can reach £1,000–£1,300 per sq ft, while many regional markets are seeing limited new supply and growing Grade A shortages. In this context, the recent BCO / CoStar market outlook concluded that ‘retrofit-first’ is increasingly becoming the default route to viability in order to help meet the supply challenges in the market. 

Planning policy is now catching up with this retrofit-first approach. The proposed rewriting of the National Planning Policy Framework intends to give ‘significant weight’ to proposals that improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings through adaptation and retrofit. This is an important shift because it recognises that reusing and improving existing buildings will be essential to meeting both economic and environmental objectives.  

We are now seeing this shift across many local authorities in London, with retrofit-first policies becoming the default approach for development. 

With this context, projects following the retrofit-first approach should therefore become less challenging over time as both national and local planning policies continue to favour this form of development. 

The BCO Conference’s ‘Festival of Enlightenment’ theme feels particularly relevant in this context. The market increasingly requires a more enlightened view of office assets — one that challenges the assumption that older buildings are automatically obsolete. Many office buildings are not beyond saving; they are simply constrained by planning, policy or design assumptions. 

In many cases, the challenge is not whether a building can be retained. Instead, the challenge is whether there is enough creativity around extension, reconfiguration, repositioning and change of use to unlock its next phase of life. The opportunity is to see value where others see constraints. 

As the office market continues to evolve, retrofit is no longer a niche sustainability argument. It is becoming the most commercially rational response to rising costs, constrained supply and changing occupier expectations. This is why retrofit should now be seen not only as a design or ESG issue, but as a national planning priority — and perhaps the clearest example yet of a more enlightened approach to the future of the office market. 

Read about the BCO / CoStar market outlook https://www.bco.org.uk/bco-costar-office-outlook-series-key-takeaways-and-trends-for-2026-and-beyond

Find out more about the BCO Conference https://www.bco.org.uk/edinburgh2026