Flat Conversions Fulham

Flat conversion in Fulham means dividing a Victorian or Edwardian terraced house into self-contained flats, or occasionally putting old flats back together as one house. Houses are only 24% of Fulham homes and terraced houses 22%, so the supply of houses to convert is limited, and the borough's Policy HO2 limits it further with a minimum original floor area. The questions on an SW6 conversion come in order: is the house big enough, will each flat meet the space standards, and can the floors between them stop fire and sound.

In Fulham, converting a house into two or three flats is published at £50,000 to £120,000 including professional and council fees, and an England-wide guide puts a straightforward two-flat split at £40,000 to £80,000 in construction alone, which is the part a builder prices (indicative London ranges, Architectural Drawings and Mayfair Studio, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Fulham: we build the conversion to the approved drawings, building control inspects the fire and sound separation, and a registered electrician certifies each flat's electrics.

Which Fulham houses are big enough to convert into flats

In Hammersmith and Fulham a house can only be split into two or more flats if its original net floor area is more than 120m2. That is the first test in Local Plan Policy HO2 (Housing Conversion and Retention), and it can rule out a smaller terraced house before design work starts. Dividing a house into flats needs planning permission in any case. Measure the original house, not the extended one, and have your designer confirm the figure before you commit to drawings.

Policy HO2 also requires at least 50% of the new units to have two or more bedrooms, and family housing to have access to garden or amenity space. On a Fulham terrace that usually points to a garden flat with two or more bedrooms on the lower floors and a smaller flat above. It also rules out a stack of studios, whatever the floor area. Where the garden goes with one flat, the drawings need to show how bins and bikes for the other flat reach the street.

Housing in Fulham

Roughly 24,310 dwellings sit on the valuation list for Fulham. 24% are houses and 76% flats, and by age 58% predate 1919, 4% are interwar and 39% post-war. Where most homes are flats, a flat in Fulham can be split or combined only with the freeholder's consent, and changing the number of homes usually needs planning permission as well.

Space standards each new Fulham flat has to meet

Every flat created by a conversion in Fulham has to meet minimum space standards. Local Plan Policy HO11 applies floor area and room size standards, including the Nationally Described Space Standards, to conversions and changes of use. London Plan Policy D6 adds that a single bedroom must be at least 7.5 square metres and 2.15m wide. A double or twin bedroom must be at least 11.5 square metres. On a narrow Fulham terrace the width rule is the one that tends to bite.

Ceiling height is where period houses often fall short. Policy D6 sets a minimum floor to ceiling height of 2.5m for at least 75 per cent of each dwelling's gross internal area. A tall Victorian ground or first floor usually meets that, while a converted roof space or low back addition may not. We check the layout against these figures on site before any walls go up, because a room drawn a few centimetres short is costly to put right after plastering.

Fire separation and sound insulation between the new Fulham flats

Turning one Fulham house into flats makes the floors and walls between them into separating elements, so they must stop fire and sound. Approved Document E sets the standard for flats formed by a material change of use at 43 dB airborne for walls, floors and stairs, and a maximum of 64 dB impact for floors and stairs. In a pre-1919 house with timber floors, that usually means a new ceiling, insulation and a resilient layer.

Fire separation under Part B follows the same lines. The staircase becomes a protected escape route, each flat needs a fire door onto it, and service holes through floors must be fire stopped. We build these to the building control drawings and leave the ceilings open until the inspector has seen the fire stopping. Sound testing then follows at completion, so the floor build-up is done once and not reopened after a failed test.

Meters, party walls and CIL on a Fulham conversion

Each new Fulham flat needs its own supplies and its own address. Separate electricity meters, a gas meter or an all-electric heating system per flat, and a water supply that can be isolated flat by flat are agreed with the utilities early, because their lead times often set the completion date. The new addresses come through the council's street naming and numbering process, which the owner starts once planning is granted, so the utilities have something to register.

Conversions also touch neighbours and money. The council strongly recommends following the Party Wall Act 1996 before any work affecting party walls, such as new steels bearing into them or sound linings fixed to them; the building owner serves the notices. Creating a new dwelling makes a development liable for CIL in Hammersmith and Fulham, and in a conservation area a design and access statement is needed for applications for one or more dwellings.

• Separating walls built and lined for sound between flats
• Steel beams and new openings built to the engineer's design
• Insulation to the walls, roof and floors the conversion touches

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 6 statistical areas in Fulham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once you know the scope of the flat conversions in Fulham, it helps to read structural alterations in Fulham, flat conversions across Hammersmith and Fulham, building control sign-off for a conversion, renovations across London, our London flat conversions page and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

The GS Renovation Difference in Fulham

A flat conversion is a sequence of structural, fire, sound and services work that has to be right before any finishes go on. We run it as one programme: stripping out, new floors and partitions, separate services and meters for each flat, fire stopping, insulation and then kitchens, bathrooms and decoration. You get one point of contact who works to your structural engineer's design and books every building control inspection in the right order.

• Fire strategy for the stair and each flat entrance settled before strip-out
• Mains-wired, interlinked smoke and heat alarms to the approved fire strategy
• Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.