HMO Conversions Highgate

HMO work in Highgate covers two jobs: turning a family house into a shared house, and upgrading an existing HMO to meet Camden's licence conditions. Camden's additional licensing applies to the whole borough and has been in force since 8 December 2025, so a share of 3 or more people in 2 or more households needs a licence here. We build the room layouts, kitchens, bathrooms and fire protection that the licence and Camden's standards set, while the landlord applies for the licence itself.

In Highgate, 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 Highgate: 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 a shared house in Highgate under C3, C4 and sui generis

The planning route for a Highgate HMO depends on how many people will live there. Moving from a family dwelling in Class C3 to a small shared house in Class C4 is permitted development under Class L of the 2015 General Permitted Development Order. The London Plan glossary puts three to six sharers in C4, while a share of seven or more is sui generis and needs planning permission. Class L also does not allow one former house to become two or more separate C4 HMOs.

Before relying on Class L, check with Camden whether an Article 4 direction has taken it away for the property, since the London Plan leaves such directions to boroughs and asks them to weigh the strategic and local value of HMOs. Camden's Policy H10 in its Local Plan backs a new HMO only where it will not involve the loss of two or more self-contained homes, among other criteria, and it also resists losing HMOs or making part of one self-contained. In Highgate, that shapes both new shares and changes to existing ones.

Housing in Highgate

On the valuation list Highgate counts about 10,090 homes, 69% flats and 31% houses; 47% predate 1919, 24% are interwar and 28% post-war.

Camden's HMO licensing schemes and a Highgate property

Two licensing schemes can apply to a Highgate HMO. Mandatory licensing is for a large HMO, meaning in GOV.UK terms a house let to 5 or more tenants from more than 1 household. Below that, Camden's additional licensing picks up shares of 3 or more people in 2 or more households. Camden made that designation on 2 July 2025, and it has run borough-wide from 8 December 2025, ending on 8 December 2030.

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.

This is the third such scheme to cover all of Camden, following the one that began in December 2020 and lasted 5 years, so a Highgate landlord whose licence dates from that scheme should plan for renewal. The landlord applies, and the licence conditions then set the standard of the rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and fire safety. Letting an unlicensed HMO can bring an unlimited fine according to GOV.UK, so we build to the conditions and leave the house ready for the council's inspection.

Room sizes, kitchens and bathrooms under Camden's HMO standards

In a Highgate shared house, every letting room is sized by Camden's HMO standards. With a separate kitchen, the minimum is 9m2 for a single bedroom and 11m2 for a double. If the room has its own cooking facilities, those minimums become 12m2 and 14m2. Both sit well above the national licence minimums of 6.51m2 for one adult and 10.22m2 for two, and no room under 4.64m2 may be slept in at all. Whatever the size, a room may hold two people at most. We set out the partitions to those figures on site, measured to finished wall faces, before any board goes up.

Kitchens are sized by the number of sharers. One complete set of cooking facilities serves up to five tenants under Camden's rules, with a second set needed beyond that, and the floor area of a shared kitchen grows with the number who use it. Putting kitchens or bathrooms inside bedrooms is a different matter: Camden says self-containment of shared accommodation may need planning permission, so owners in Highgate should speak to planning before adding them.

Fire safety, sound and energy in a Highgate HMO

Fire safety is the core of any Highgate HMO conversion, because several unrelated households share one escape route. The usual package follows the LACORS housing fire safety guidance and the building regulations. It means fire doors with self-closers to every letting room and the kitchen, a protected stair enclosure, interlinked smoke and heat detection, and fire-resisting construction where the old lath ceilings fall short. The licence conditions confirm the exact specification, we build to it, and the installers' test certificates go to the landlord.

Sound and energy come next. Tenants in separate rooms hear each other through timber floors and stud walls, so we add insulation and resilient layers between lettings where the rooms are rebuilt. Where the house is let on tenancies the MEES Regulations cover, a rating below E has barred new and continuing lets since 1 April 2020 unless a valid exemption applies. In Highgate, heating controls, insulation and draught proofing go in while the house is empty.

• Service holes sealed so each bedroom and the kitchen stay separate fire compartments
• Bedroom layouts checked against the national minimum room sizes
• Large HMO conversions for seven or more, once planning is granted

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Highgate West, Highgate East and Highgate Wood. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once you know the scope of the hmo conversions in Highgate, it helps to read bathroom renovation in Highgate, hmo conversions across Camden, bathroom fitting in London, what a snagging list covers, how we handle hmo conversions across London and Renovation Budget & Contingency.

The GS Renovation Difference in Highgate

An HMO has to satisfy a licence inspection, a fire specification and the tenants who live there, so the detail matters. We build the room layout to the measured standards, fit the fire doors, detection and protected escape route the licence sets, and coordinate the registered electrician and the engineer on the Gas Safe Register. The firm is led by its founder, Abdelaaziz Saaid, who has decades of hands-on building experience. You get a written quotation and a programme that fits your lettings timetable, with one named contact.

• One point of contact from first survey to handover
• Finished and snagged before the council's licence inspection
• Detection laid out to the grade the council's HMO fire guidance sets

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