HMO Conversions Bermondsey

HMO conversion in Bermondsey is a licensing job as much as a building one. Southwark's additional licensing designation covers the whole borough until 1 March 2027 unless revoked earlier, so even a small shared house here needs a licence. Its HMO Article 4 directions are drawn around individual streets, such as Bywater Place, Surrey Docks, SE16, so the planning route depends on the exact address. With houses only 11% of Bermondsey homes, suitable houses are scarce. We build a shared house, or upgrade an existing one, to the licence and fire standards the landlord has to meet.

In Bermondsey, a light HMO conversion for four to six tenants typically costs £40,000 to £75,000 in construction, or £90,000 to £150,000 with an en-suite to every bedroom (indicative London ranges, Mayfair Studio and LetCompliance, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Bermondsey: we build the fire doors, detection, bathrooms and kitchens to the council's HMO standards, the landlord applies for the licence, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics.

Planning for a Bermondsey HMO: Class L and Article 4

Turning a Bermondsey house into a small HMO can sit inside permitted development. Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 allows a change from a Class C3 dwellinghouse to a Class C4 HMO, which the London Plan defines as housing three to six people. Southwark says planning permission is needed for an HMO let to 7 or more people, or for any HMO in an Article 4 direction area. Its HMO directions are drawn around streets, such as Henshaw Street, SE17 and Bywater Place, Surrey Docks, SE16.

Before any HMO work starts, check whether the address falls inside a direction and how many people will live there, because that decides whether your designer submits a planning application or relies on the permitted route. Class L also does not let one house become two or more separate C4 HMOs. Where an application is needed, Southwark Plan 2022 Policy P9 asks new HMOs for communal indoor and outdoor space, refuse and recycling storage and one cycle parking space per occupant, and no overconcentration of HMOs locally.

Housing in Bermondsey

Roughly 27,150 dwellings sit on the valuation list for Bermondsey. 11% are houses and 89% flats, and by age 9% predate 1919, 12% are interwar and 73% post-war.

Southwark's HMO licensing schemes and Bermondsey shared houses

While the additional designation runs, every HMO in Bermondsey needs a licence of one kind or another. A large HMO, rented to 5 or more people forming more than 1 household, needs a mandatory licence. Southwark's additional licensing designation was made on 28 October 2021, came into force on 1 March 2022 and applies to the entire borough. It covers HMOs let to a maximum of 4 people who share bathrooms or kitchens, so a three or four person shared house is caught as well.

Mandatory licensing does not reach a flat in a purpose-built block of three or more self-contained flats; where such a flat is shared, it is the council's additional scheme, if any, that applies.

The additional designation ceases on 1 March 2027 unless revoked earlier, so check whether it has been renewed before you plan. It also includes section 257 HMOs, meaning buildings of 3 or more floors converted into 3 or more self-contained flats under the same ownership or control, and Southwark does not charge for those licences. The landlord or their agent applies. GOV.UK warns that renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine, so the building work is timed to finish before the licence inspection.

Room sizes and amenities under Southwark's HMO Standards

Southwark's own HMO Standards set the layout of a Bermondsey shared house. A single letting room needs at least 10 square metres and a double room 14 square metres where the kitchen is in a separate room. Rooms should have a ceiling height of at least 2.3 metres over at least half of the habitable floor area. In a terrace with a low rear addition or attic rooms, that height rule decides which rooms can be let at all. Southwark's figures sit above the national minimum sleeping room sizes, which are mandatory conditions of an HMO licence in England: 6.51 square metres for one adult, 10.22 square metres for two, and no room under 4.64 square metres used for sleeping.

Amenities follow the number of occupants. Where exclusive facilities cannot be provided, the Standards require one bathroom or shower room, one toilet and one wash hand basin for every 5 occupants, and one set of kitchen facilities for every 5 occupants. Those ratios fix the plumbing layout, so the number of occupants is agreed before first fix. We then route soil and waste pipes through the Bermondsey house so each new bathroom drains to the stack without boxing across a bedroom.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Bermondsey HMO

Fire safety in an HMO is about the escape route and the doors onto it. A Bermondsey shared house typically needs fire doors with self-closers on every letting room and the kitchen, an interlinked fire detection and alarm system, and a protected stair that leads straight outside. Part B of the building regulations applies to the building work, the council's HMO fire standards apply to the licence, and the LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised guide to how the two fit together.

Sound and energy come next. Letting rooms share walls and floors, so we add insulation between rooms and under floors where tenants will hear each other. Where the house needs an EPC, for example when it is let as a whole, MEES applies. GOV.UK says private landlords may not let domestic properties on new tenancies with an F or G rating unless an exemption applies. Since 1 April 2020 that applies to continuing lets too. We time insulation, heating and controls so the new EPC is done on the finished Bermondsey house.

• Insulation and heating upgrades toward the minimum EPC for letting
• Small HMO conversions for three to six sharers
• Hard-wearing floors, finishes and decoration for a let house

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

Related reading for Bermondsey landlords planning hmo conversions: bathroom renovation in Bermondsey, hmo conversions across Southwark, bathroom fitting in London, how snagging works at handover, our London hmo conversions page and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

Working With GS Renovation in Bermondsey

An HMO has to pass a licence inspection as well as building control, and the two look at different things. We build to the room sizes, amenity ratios and fire standards the licence needs, with a registered electrician for the alarm and wiring and fire doors fitted and adjusted before the inspection. You or your agent hold the planning and licence applications. We give you a written quotation after a site visit and a programme that ends before your Bermondsey tenancy dates.

• Kitchens and bathrooms counted against the council's amenity standard
• Existing HMOs brought up to licence conditions, fire works first
• Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you

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