12-Unit HMO Conversion, Southwood Road
12-Unit HMO Conversion, Southwood Road
Major upgrade from 9 units to 12 units, each with en-suite and tea station. Two new communal kitchens, full strip-out and rebuild.
- 33% unit increase (9 → 12 units)
- En-suite + tea station per room for premium rents
- Two new communal kitchens
- Full fire strategy implementation
An existing 9-unit HMO in Eltham was reconfigured to 12 units, with two communal kitchens and a tea station inside every room. The brief was a density uplift without losing the amenity that justifies a premium room rate.
We took the building back to shell, redesigned the internal layout around the licensing thresholds, and rebuilt with a full fire strategy and M&E refresh. Coordinating it as a single design-and-build package kept the variations under control on a complex existing building.
Currently on site, the scheme demonstrates how careful planning of room sizes, circulation and shared amenity can unlock additional rentable units inside a fixed envelope.
Density uplift on existing HMOs in Eltham (Greenwich)
The interesting Eltham plays right now aren't greenfield. They're existing HMOs that were licensed years ago at a lower unit count than the building can support. Southwood Road is a textbook example: same footprint, three more rooms, materially better amenity per resident.
Getting there requires honest design work against Greenwich's licensing standards: minimum room sizes, sanitary provision per occupant, kitchen and communal space, fire compartmentation and means of escape. Squeeze rooms below threshold and the licence isn't issued; over-provision and the yield disappears.
We use that envelope as the design brief rather than a hurdle. The schemes that work in Eltham are the ones where the licensing maths, the fire strategy and the build sequence are all resolved before site start.
More projects in Greenwich
Other schemes we've delivered in the same borough, with the local planning context that shaped them.
Planning something similar?
Whether it's an HMO, a change of use or a whole-house extension, we'd like to hear about it. Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat.