A new build can take in excess of three years from inception through to operation – and that’s assuming a site has already been secured. For developers and operators this means a long wait before they see a return (until mid-2012 at the earliest) and that’s also dependent on their ability to raise finance in this restricted market.

Conversions on the other hand present opportunities to ‘re-life’ existing building stock. They also have the added benefit of shorter overall programmes, lower construction costs (in the order of 65 percent of new build costs) and quicker returns. What’s more, they open up access to some prime city centre locations which may otherwise be unattainable, and they present a more sustainable solution by re-using existing buildings.

Hotel conversions are often difficult projects, combining problems associated with working in existing buildings designed for a different use with fixed budgets and tight programmes to deliver viability and optimum revenue stream.

The conversion of an existing building into a hotel generally involves an upgrade of the building to meet the current ‘deemed to satisfy’ requirements of the BCA. Depending on the scope of works, this could mean a full upgrade of the whole building to meet BCA requirements or the upgrade restricted to the defined scope.

Download the pdf for the full report.