What to check before you buy a house you plan to extend
Eight checks — permitted development, designations, the neighbours' history, the street's ceiling price — before you make an offer.
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Planning, explained in plain English.
Guides to the questions we answer every week on calls — written properly, by the architect, not by a content agency. The first articles are in preparation.
In preparation
The first series.
Extend or move? The honest maths for 2026
Stamp duty, moving costs, ceiling prices — the full sum, worked through for a typical London and Essex semi.
Planning refused. What actually happens next
Appeal or resubmit, how to read your refusal reasons, and the twelve-week window nobody tells you about.
Approved with conditions — now discharge them
Why permission is a clock starting, which conditions block your start on site, and how long discharge really takes.
Permitted development in 2026: what still needs no permission
Extensions, lofts and outbuildings you can build without a planning application — and the traps that quietly remove those rights.
The Thames Water build-over agreement, explained
The consent most rear extensions discover late. What triggers it, what it costs, and when to start it.
What a loft conversion really adds to your value
The returns by house type, when three-to-four bedrooms pays, and when the numbers say leave the roof alone.
Can't wait for the article? The Property Insight Report answers most of these questions for your specific address.
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Tell us about the project.
Whether it is a first conversation or a scheme someone else has already started, we are happy to hear where you have got to.
If you would rather arrive with facts than questions, start with the Property Insight Report — the fee is credited against your project if you go on to commission us.
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