Empty offices in a B-listed building on Glasgow’s busiest shopping street can be turned into flats, the council has ruled.

The owner of 101 to 107 Buchanan Street has received permission to convert the upper floors — above footwear chain Dune London — into six homes.

TCS Freehold Investments Ltd says that economic changes due to Covid-19 have provided a “fresh opportunity” to bring the vacant third floors and attic level back into use.

Glasgow City Council has a strategy which aims to double the amount of people living in the city centre to 40,000 by 2035, which includes encouraging the conversion of empty properties.

New uses are required as the rise of online shopping has seen a fall in the demand for retail space.

Plans submitted on behalf of the applicant state various uses have been considered, but access to the building has been a “key issue.”

The planning documents said: “As a property owner with a long term view and desire to ensure that their buildings are kept maintained the applicants have considered how best to bring the upper floors back into regular use.

“It is considered without the benefit of lift access, the upper floors just cannot compete with the offer elsewhere in the city centre for commercial use.

“However, Glasgow has a strong history of residential tenement flats accessed from a common close/stairway, often with retail uses at ground level.

“Recent developments elsewhere on Buchanan Street have also indicated that there is a desire for flats on what many consider to be a shopping or commercial street.”

Built in approximately 1826, the property, which has a common close at 107 Buchanan Street, is within the Central Glasgow Conservation Area.

Council officers approved the planning application for the property.

Part of the building was used by optometrists Black and Lizars until 2007, when current owners TCS Freehold Ltd purchased the site.

The plans state: “They have endeavoured unsuccessfully to purchase the remaining elements in order to have a controlling interest in the entire building.

“While the present tenants lease the whole of the property owned by the applicants, they effectively only use the basement, ground and first floors and partially use the second floor.

“The third floors and attic level remain vacant. Economic changes due to the Covid-19 pandemic mean that a fresh opportunity presents itself to the applicant to negotiate with existing tenants and bring the upper levels back into full usage.”

Permission to turn the offices into five flats was previously granted in 2017 but had expired before the new application was submitted.

In July, the council received an application to turn empty upper floors on the corner of Bath Street, Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street — including the former Vapiano restaurant site — into over 70 serviced apartments.

That application, from Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), which is Germany’s largest pension fund, has yet to be determined by the council but could also see vacant retail space converted into residential accommodation.

The site covers 2-10 Bath Street and 227-249 Buchanan Street, which includes the former Cleland Testimonial Building and George Hotel.

The serviced apartments would run “much like a hotel” but with “small kitchen and dining areas” so “guests can treat the apartments effectively as self catering type accommodation.”