Flat Refurbishment Peckham

Flat refurbishment covers the largest share of Peckham's housing, because 74% of homes here are flats. They range from converted Victorian houses to post-war estate blocks and newer blocks, and 24% of Peckham homes were built in 2000 or later. Each one sits inside a building shared with neighbours, so the work starts with the lease and the managing agent. We renew kitchens, bathrooms, wiring, heating and finishes inside the flat, for owner-occupiers, landlords between tenancies and buyers of a dated flat.

For Peckham, published UK averages put a full flat refurbishment at £33,000 to £48,000 and a basic one, with budget kitchen and bathroom fittings, at £15,000 to £18,000, and London flats usually cost more (Checkatrade and MyJobQuote, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Peckham: we refurbish the flat within the terms of your lease and licence to alter, protect the common parts throughout, and a registered electrician certifies the new consumer unit and circuits.

Leases, licences to alter and managing agents in Peckham

With 74% of Peckham homes being flats, a refurbishment here often starts with the lease. Read the alterations clause first, because clauses vary: some bar alterations, some need the freeholder's licence to alter, and some allow non-structural work. Where consent is needed, ask the freeholder or managing agent before stripping out, especially if you plan to move a kitchen or bathroom. The agent may also want method statements and set working hours. Getting that paperwork settled before the start date protects the programme, because an instruction from the agent to stop halfway through strip-out costs far more time than the wait.

Who you ask depends on the building. In a converted period house in Peckham the freeholder may be a small company owned by the flats, and consent can be quick. On a post-war estate the landlord may be the council or a housing association, with its own forms for leaseholders. A newer block usually has a professional managing agent, block rules on deliveries and lift use, and an insurer who wants to know about any work to pipes or wiring.

Housing in Peckham

Around 26,680 homes make up Peckham on the valuation list; 74% are flats and 26% houses, and 36% date from before 1919, 2% from between the wars and 56% from after 1945.

Floors, leaks and new bathrooms in a Peckham flat

Floors matter in a converted period house or a block. Swapping carpet for timber or tile can carry more impact sound to the flat below, and your lease may require carpet or an approved acoustic layer under hard floors. We agree the build-up with you before ordering, protect the common parts, and keep dust and debris out of shared hallways and stairs. A short letter to the neighbours with the programme dates saves most arguments.

Water is the other risk in a Peckham flat, because a leak from your bathroom lands in someone else's ceiling. We tank the shower area, test new pipework under pressure before the walls close, and fit isolating valves the next owner can find. Adding a WC or shower where there was none is building work: Southwark's fees schedule lists a building control charge for installing a new WC, shower or utility, so allow for that approval in the programme.

Letting a Peckham flat: energy ratings and selective licensing

A Peckham landlord refurbishing a flat between tenancies has two sets of rules to meet. Southwark states it is illegal for a domestic landlord to let a property with an EPC rating of F or G. GOV.UK adds that since 1 April 2020 landlords can no longer let or continue to let properties covered by the MEES Regulations below E without a valid exemption. In a flat, electric heating, single glazing and an uninsulated top-floor ceiling are the usual weak points.

Southwark's selective licensing wards include Peckham Rye and Rye Lane, and designations 3 and 4, which cover wards including Peckham, came into force on 1 November 2023 and cease to have effect on 31 October 2028 unless revoked earlier. Other parts of SE15 fall in other wards, so check the address on Southwark's licensing map. A licence sets conditions the flat has to meet, so the refurbishment is the moment to deal with alarms, electrical safety, damp and heating. The landlord applies; we build to those conditions.

Working inside a shared Peckham block safely

Getting materials in and waste out is half the job in a Peckham block. Plasterboard, worktops and a bath have to go up a common stair or in a lift that the managing agent will want protected with boards and sheeting. Where there is no space for a skip, rubble leaves in bags on a booked collection. We keep the route clean each evening, because the common parts belong to every leaseholder and the agent inspects them.

Fire safety inside a block is shared between you and the freeholder. Your flat entrance door and the walls and floors that separate flats form part of the building's fire protection, and changes to them are matters for the freeholder or the responsible person, not only the flat owner. Where a taller block is a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act, building control for the work sits with the Building Safety Regulator, although competent person scheme work such as a rewire does not need its approval. We check which applies before we quote.

• Boiler replacement on the flue route the building allows, by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• Rewires inside the flat, signed off at the end by a registered electrician
• Method statements and product details for the freeholder's licence to alter

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

If you are weighing up options for your Peckham property, it is worth reading bathroom renovation in Peckham, flat refurbishment across Southwark, London builders who work inside occupied blocks, fitting a new kitchen inside the flat footprint, how we handle flat refurbishment across London and Wet Room Guide.

The GS Renovation Difference in Peckham

We run a Peckham flat refurbishment around the building it sits in. You get a method statement and programme that a managing agent can approve, protection for the common parts, and a sequence that keeps water and dust out of the neighbours' flats. A registered electrician certifies the consumer unit and wiring, and an engineer on the Gas Safe Register handles any boiler. The handover file carries the certificates a landlord, a letting agent or a freeholder will ask for.

• New pipework pressure tested so nothing leaks into the flat below
• Kitchens and bathrooms renewed within the existing footprint and drainage
• Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).