HMO Conversions Eltham

HMO conversion in Eltham is controlled at both ends, by planning and by licensing. Royal Greenwich's Article 4 direction needs planning permission to convert a house into an HMO across the whole borough, and it has been in force since 27 September 2018. Every HMO in the borough must also be licensed. For a landlord turning an Eltham family house into a shared house, or upgrading an existing one to licence standard, we build the rooms, bathrooms, kitchen and fire protection to the consent and the licence conditions.

In Eltham, 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 Eltham: 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 permission for any new HMO in Eltham

In Eltham, a new HMO needs planning permission whatever its size. Nationally, Class L of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 lets a C3 dwellinghouse become a C4 house in multiple occupation without an application. Royal Greenwich's borough-wide Article 4 direction, in force since 27 September 2018, removes that right, and the council says any new HMO for 3 or more unrelated adults needs planning permission. So the planning application comes first, before layouts are fixed or rooms are advertised.

The size of the house then decides the kind of application. The London Plan defines HMOs for three to six people as Use Class C4 and HMOs for more than six people as Sui Generis, so a large Eltham semi planned for seven or more tenants is a different use again. Your planning agent or designer prepares the application and deals with the council. We cost the build from the proposed layout early, so you know whether the scheme works before the fees are spent.

Housing in Eltham

Around 14,360 homes make up Eltham on the valuation list; 27% are flats and 73% houses, and 17% date from before 1919, 52% from between the wars and 30% from after 1945.

HMO licensing across Eltham and Royal Greenwich

Every HMO in Eltham needs a licence, however small. Royal Greenwich runs both mandatory and additional HMO licensing across the whole borough. Mandatory licensing applies where 5 or more people from 2 or more households share facilities, which matches the GOV.UK definition of a large HMO. Additional licensing covers HMOs where 3 or 4 people from 2 or more households share. There is no size of shared house in the borough that falls outside both schemes.

The mandatory scheme stops short of flats in purpose-built blocks of three or more self-contained flats, which only an additional licensing scheme can catch.

The landlord applies for the licence, not the builder, and the conditions that come with it set the standard the building work has to meet. GOV.UK says renting out an unlicensed HMO can lead to an unlimited fine. So we read the Royal Greenwich HMO standards alongside the planning drawings from the first visit to the Eltham house. We then build the rooms, amenities and fire protection to them, so the property is ready for the licence inspection when the work ends.

Room sizes, ceilings and bathrooms in an Eltham HMO

Royal Greenwich's HMO standards shape the layout of an Eltham shared house room by room. No room with a floor area under 4.64 square metres may be used as sleeping accommodation, and each room should have a ceiling height of at least 2.1m over at least half of its floor area, with floor below 1.5m headroom discounted. The national minimum bedroom sizes that are mandatory licence conditions sit on top of that, so the smallest figure is a floor, not a target.

The amenities follow the number of occupants. Royal Greenwich's standards require each bath or shower room to contain a wash hand basin, and set the minimum acceptable bath size at 1700mm by 700mm. Where a scheme includes self-contained units with their own kitchen and bathroom, Royal Greenwich treats them as self-contained accommodation that must meet London Plan Policy D6 space standards. A studio inside an HMO scheme is therefore measured as a flat, which changes how many fit on each floor of the Eltham house.

Fire safety, sound and energy in an Eltham shared house

Fire protection drives the layout and specification of an Eltham HMO conversion. A shared house needs a protected escape route from every bedroom to the front door, which usually means fire doors with self-closers on each letting room and the kitchen, fire-resisting linings to the stair enclosure, and interlinked smoke and heat detection. The LACORS housing fire safety guidance is the recognised guide to the standard, and the building regulations Part B apply to the building work. We build and commission the system to the approved design.

Sound and energy come next. Tenants in separate households live on the other side of partition walls and floors, so new stud walls between letting rooms get acoustic insulation, and the floors over bedrooms are packed before ceilings close. An HMO is a private let, and since 1 April 2020 landlords cannot let or continue to let properties covered by the MEES Regulations below an EPC rating of E without a valid exemption. Insulation and heating controls in an interwar Eltham semi are chosen with that rating in view.

• En-suite shower rooms added to bedrooms
• Hot water sized for several sharers showering at once, with any gas work by a Gas Safe registered engineer
• Thumb-turn bedroom locks that open from inside without a key

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 5 statistical areas in Eltham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Related reading for Eltham landlords planning hmo conversions: bathroom renovation in Eltham, hmo conversions across Greenwich, bathroom fitting in London, how snagging works at handover, how we handle hmo conversions across London and Wet Room Guide.

Working With GS Renovation in Eltham

An HMO conversion is judged twice: by planning and by the licence inspection. We build to the approved planning drawings and the Royal Greenwich HMO standards together, setting out rooms, bathrooms and the kitchen to the licence numbers and installing the fire doors, detection and escape route in the right order. A registered electrician certifies the installation and the alarm, a Gas Safe Register engineer does the gas work, and you receive the certificates your licence application for the Eltham house needs.

• Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish
• EPC upgrades done while the walls and floors are still open
• Every bedroom measured against the national minimum room sizes

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