Week 37: Permitted Development Rights
Morning everybody and what a beautiful day it is, but, hold on you could be reading this at night, in that case good evening. This week I was thinking of discussing a slightly different yet related project as the past three weeks have all been about numbers and the finance side of things. I wanted to mention this as it's important to perhaps consider this element before embarking on your build project. This way you factor these into your equations. So what are permitted developments? It's basically the council allowing small scale extensions and adaptations on your build project. These are allowable (hence the name permitted) and you don't need to put planning applications in place. This is a total break-through as planning is one of the single most break or make factors in a deal as there is just no way of knowing if your application will be accepted. Also, they take so long where 3-4 months is quite the average. Even if you don't plan on carrying out any extensions as such in your current project it is still great to know for future reference and see what options are available to you. There is just so much information out there on the net that if you run a simple google search it will pull up tonnes of information for you. I don't want to list all the allowable works but only mention a few that most people will want to carry out at some point on their property journey.
The one that really excites me is the addition of new floors on an ordinary house. Just so you can grasp this; a traditional 3 bed semi with two floors can now benefit with an additional floor without prior approval and wait it gets better, you can on top of this still have a loft conversion bringing a two floor house to four! How crazy is that? This way one is fully utilising a small patch of land by taking it all the way up as land is so scarce and not to mention expensive. This would, however, totally change the look of the house from a more traditional to a townhouse style. So basically they shave off the current roof, add another floor from scratch and then put the roof back on again. You could opt to have a brand new roof put in with the view of having some loft space if the aim is to get more volume per footage out of your house. In terms of practicality this sounds really good but aesthetically not sure how it will sit visually as the end product is neither a house nor a flat but a combination of the two. People have already started doing this in North London, I will be sharing these pics on Instagram (hope I don't get into trouble). Of course from a cost point of view if your budget allows for it then why not get the roof/loft done at the same time. If the place is starting to look like a building site you might as well get all the works done at the same time….just food for thought.
On the other hand I will be starting off on the less adventurous permitted developments where you extend out to the side by 3 meters, basically the perimeter of the house. Sometimes this is all you need, an extension need not be a massive addition of space. This three meters is basically the difference from a kitchen to a kitchen diner, breakfast bar, utility space, extra storage WC etc. It can take an upstairs tiny box room and turn it into a habitable space, that office you always wanted, walk in wardrobe, en-suite or even a 2nd shower room. It is these small additions that really make the biggest difference. This could add a lot of value to your build project without going over budget. It also wets the appetite for future projects as you ease your way into entry level structural works. This is the route I'm thinking of taking as free flow of cash is limited and I didn’t want to take on a complex build as a first project. Little increments seem safer and of course cost-effective. I will do another piece on this nearer the time as the topic is huge and it would be great to share time-scales, costs and hiccups with my lovely readers.