Money Well Spent

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Thinking about selling your home? Well you should be thinking about getting pre-approved planning permission too. For a comparatively small amount of money, you can radically improve the price tag and appeal of your property.

“It increases the value of your property, plain and simple,” states Brik co-founder, Mike Horne. “If you’re in an environment where there’s no stock on the market, but there are ten buyers for every house, which you are if you’re selling in SW6, then having pre-approved planning permission could net you a big win.” And when you lay out the facts and figures, it all makes a lot of sense. Say, for instance, your house is 2000 sq ft, worth £2 million, and can hold a basement that will cost around £500,000. That conversion, if built, would push the value of the property up to around £3 million. But with pre-approved planning permission, and a near guaranteed and dramatic increase in value, combined with a current market that’s incredibly low in stock, you could potentially sell your property for up to £2.5 million. That’s a lot of potential return on an investment of just couple of thousand pounds and a bit of paperwork!

Applying, and hopefully being granted planning permission before you sell your home will not only increase the value and appeal of the property, but could save you money too. If, for example, you decided to carry out some major works while you were still in the house, you might find yourself footing the bill of rented accommodation while the really messy part happens at home. And planning permission isn’t even that hard. Your end of the grunt work shouldn’t take more than two-weeks when fitted in around the rest of your life, but much less time if you block out a couple of days. Once submitted, it shouldn’t take more than eight weeks for the council to get back to you.

Where the process could dogleg is with the architects and surveyors who tend to be booked up quite far in advance. But that’s not the only reason you should seriously consider getting your skates on – the Community Infrastructure Levy. This two-tier tax will apply to extensions and new builds across the capital – it’s already being applied in central London – and will charge by the square meter. Currently in consultation in Hammersmith and Fulham, according to the councils website, the charge will be £50/m2.

“It just strikes me that anyone with the potential to extend, should, but of course, obtain planning permission, because it future proofs you to a certain degree.”

But this could go up. But if you applied for planning permission now, you would be exempt from the levy, and even if you’re not planning to move right now, your documents will last five years and can be renewed for a significantly smaller fee. Putting the levy aside for a moment, having planning permission in place is just a good idea, because you simply don’t know what else is around the corner.

“Get it now before the council changes its mind,” states Horne. “Lets say in two-years time the council banned basement conversions or loft extensions. It’s probably not going to happen, but lets just say that they did, it would be superb if you had the maximum amount of permission already in place. It just strikes me that anyone with the potential to extend, should, but of course, obtain planning permission, because it future proofs you to a certain degree. If you can afford it, do it.”