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Ealing W5 · Flat refurbishment

Flat refurbishment in Ealing

Divided villas, 1930s blocks and the Northcote Avenue flats

Flats in W5 range from the Edwardian flats of Northcote Avenue, built to look like houses, through the 1930s blocks of Montpelier Park and Haven Green Court, to houses near the town centre that are still being converted. This page follows Ealing Council’s documents on those buildings, the window and front-garden questions a conversion raises in a conservation area, and the steps that apply if Ealing Council is your landlord.

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Flat refurbishment in Ealing at a glance

In the residential enclave of the Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area, the council’s July 2020 update says houses are still being converted into flats and that the pressure is likely to increase with Crossrail and rising property prices; the conservation area panel it met pointed to large houses there that consist of many flats. Around Ealing Common, the 2020 update records further subdivision, with examples on The Common, Fielding Terrace and North Common Road. Before refitting a flat in a converted house, find out when and how the house was divided, and check the address against the current map.

Ealing Council: Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area (residential enclave) update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: Ealing Common Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: review of conservation areas, including the 19 November 2025 committee decision

For the whole area, including conservation areas, permissions and working hours, read our Ealing renovation guide.

Approved guide prices

What does a flat refurbishment cost in Ealing?

A flat refurbishment in Ealing runs £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, and a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically lands between £60,000 and £110,000. Most programmes take 16–32 weeks on site. A written scope and site assessment are needed before any project price can be fixed.

Scope of workGuide rateTypical total
Full flat refurbishment (2-bed)£900–£1,700/sqm£60,000–£110,000
Typical programme16–32 weeks on site

Guide rates exclude VAT and are set by depth of work, not by postcode. Compare scopes in our London refurbishment cost-per-square-metre guide or try the cost calculator.

The buildings

Blocks and conversions the council’s documents name

Ealing Council’s appraisals and 2020 updates name W5’s blocks of flats and record what conversion has done to the fronts of houses. The dates given below are the documents’ own.

In Montpelier Park, the April 2009 appraisal describes 1930s blocks with flat asphalt roofs, brown stock or dark polychrome brick and, typically, metal-framed windows with curved corners and horizontal bars. On the section of Eaton Rise it covers stands Welsby Court, three blocks round a courtyard open on one side, its two side blocks with rounded balconies. The appraisal calls the windows intrinsic to these blocks’ merit, yet found a good proportion of the metal originals already replaced; by 2020 a few Crittall windows had given way to PVC-U, for example at Mount Eaton Court, a 1950s block.

Ealing Council: Montpelier Park Conservation Area Character Appraisal, April 2009 · Ealing Council: Montpelier Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020

On the north side of Haven Green, the March 2008 appraisal describes Haven Green Court as a four-storey mansion block of 1937–8 in brick with stone features and a mansard of green pantiles, its metal windows by then mostly replaced; the 2020 update records it as retained on the local list. In the Ealing Town Centre enclave, the 2020 update describes Grosvenor Court, a complex of 15 flats made by joining two sets of late Victorian villas, and recommends Northcote Avenue’s flats of 1902, which appear as houses, as positive contributors. Check the address.

Ealing Council: Haven Green Conservation Area Character Appraisal, March 2008 · Ealing Council: Haven Green Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area (residential enclave) update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area Character Appraisal, December 2007

On the Brentham Garden Estate, which the council’s page titles as W5, the March 2008 appraisal says nearly every building went up as a family house. The exception is Holyoake House, designed by George Lister Sutcliffe in 1912 as 24 flats around three sides of a quadrangle, to house single people and elderly couples who could not afford the rent on even the smallest Brentham house; in 2008 it needed some maintenance. In Mount Park, the 2020 update names modern flatted developments such as Blakesley Court, Brampton Court, Elm Close and Daphne Court. Check the address.

Ealing Council: Brentham Garden Estate Conservation Area (W5) · Ealing Council: Brentham Garden Estate Conservation Area Character Appraisal, March 2008 · Ealing Council: Mount Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020

Permissions and local rules

What a flat owner here needs to settle first

Windows in a flat in a conservation area

Do new windows in a W5 flat need permission?

Ealing’s March 2023 Generic Management Plan applies only in conservation areas, and it treats flats’ windows twice. Its paragraph 5.28 says planning permission is usually required to install new PVC-U windows in flats. Its paragraph 5.40 X says planning permission is always required for replacement windows in flats in conservation areas, and asks a block’s residents to agree where possible so every window matches. If the building is listed too, ask the council whether listed building consent is needed as well before any window is ordered.

Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023

The front of a converted house

What does the council look at outside a conversion?

Council documents record conversion’s effects: the 2009 Ealing Common appraisal tied it to poorly kept front yards and brick refuse stores, and the 2020 Haven Green update lists bins, hardstandings, satellite dishes and rooflights among its problems. For conversions in conservation areas, the 2023 plan’s guidance for landlords asks that the house keep the look of a single-family home, with its original front doorway and no new front entrances, and that doorbells, letterboxes, meter cupboards and bin stores be kept to a minimum. The council’s FAQs add that painting the front of a converted house there needs planning permission regardless.

Ealing Council: Ealing Common Conservation Area Character Appraisal, March 2009 · Ealing Council: Haven Green Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023 · Ealing Council: Ealing conservation areas FAQs, 2023–24 consultation

If Ealing Council is your landlord

Which works need the council’s consent as landlord?

These are Ealing Council’s rules, as landlord, for its own leaseholders only; for any other flat the lease decides. Its written consent is needed for major or structural changes and for replacing windows, extensions, loft conversions and removing walls; a surveyor may check the flat and the work. It owns and maintains the windows, so you cannot replace them on your own. Among other grounds, it will not permit works in parts outside the lease, such as lofts or common gardens, unless they are bought; for a loft conversion the loft space must first be bought, if the surveyor approves.

Ealing Council: improvements and alterations to your home, for council leaseholders

Sound, fire and building control in a divided house

Which Building Regulations questions come up in a flat?

When a W5 house gains flats, or a different number of them, Ealing building control treats it as a material change of use: the building or affected part needs upgrading, with fire safety, ventilation and energy conservation always and sound insulation in specific cases. It says new flats and flat conversions need pre-completion sound testing, and that a Building Notice is no option for flats with common areas. In a building under 11 metres, GOV.UK says the responsible person has a duty to make sure every fire door, each flat’s front door included, can give adequate protection.

Ealing Council: building control, change of use · Ealing Council: building control, the regulations · Ealing Council: building control application forms and charges · GOV.UK: Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fact sheet on fire doors (regulation 10)

Working hours, skips, parking and the conservation area maps for the whole area are in our Ealing guide. Local guidance checked ; requirements depend on the address, the building and the complete proposal.

What the work covers

The work a W5 flat refurbishment covers

Layout and stacking

The layout starts from what lies above and below. Ealing’s Development Management DPD, adopted in 2013, says stacking kitchens and bathrooms above one another in flats can help reduce the loss of amenity, and that the duty to control noise and other emissions applies between separate flats within one development. Its 2022 Housing Design Guidance, evidence for the draft New Local Plan and not adopted, makes a similar point for subdivided houses: rooms with similar uses placed above one another to limit noise between homes.

Ealing Council: Development Management DPD, adopted 10 December 2013 · Ealing Council: Housing Design Guidance, November 2022 (evidence for the draft New Local Plan, not adopted)

Floors, ceilings and heights

Floors are opened with the flat below in mind, and the new build-up is drawn before boards come up. If the work creates a new flat, for instance in a roof, the DM DPD’s space standards count usable floor area only where there is at least 2.5 metres between finished floor and finished ceiling, with limited exceptions in storage areas, under pitched roofs and at points in stairways; where ceilings fall below that, furnished floor plans must show the spaces remain usable.

Ealing Council: Development Management DPD, adopted 10 December 2013

Entrance, meters and dishes

The scope names every item outside the flat’s own walls: the entrance door, meters, bins, dishes and the stair. In a conservation area, the 2023 plan says multiple meter cabinets in flat conversions need careful planning, for example at the side of the house or in a discreet semi-underground box, and that planning permission is likely to be needed for any satellite dish on a front elevation or on a roof facing the highway. The lease then decides who may alter each item.

Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023 · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

How we work

How we run a Ealing flat refurbishment

  1. First visit

    We see the flat, then the entrance, stairs or lift that serve it.

  2. Lease and consents

    We go through the lease’s consent requirements with you and the managing agent at the start.

  3. Survey and design

    Drainage and services are traced on site. Our own architects and structural engineers design the layout and any structural change around those routes, and any new external vent or window is checked for planning.

  4. Price and contract

    A fixed written price and a JCT contract follow the survey, scope and specification. The price names its allowances and exclusions, with consent fees and any common-parts work shown separately.

  5. Working in the building

    Common parts are protected and their condition recorded; deliveries keep to the building’s rules, and noisy work to those rules and the council’s permitted hours; key decisions go to a director.

  6. Handover

    Commissioning, drawings, certificates and any managing-agent close-out. Completed work carries a 12-month defects-rectification period under the JCT contract terms.

Real projects, clearly located

Examples of our flat refurbishment work elsewhere in London

None of these projects is in Ealing. Each card names where the work was done, so you can judge the finish and the approach before you brief your own.

Your brief

Before you ask for a quotation

  1. Describe the building

    Tell us if the flat is in a purpose-built block or a divided house, and roughly when the house was converted if you know. Give the floor, what lies above and below, and whether the building is listed or on the council’s local list.

  2. Send the lease and name the landlord

    Find the lease and mark its clause on alterations, and tell us who the freeholder or managing agent is. Where Ealing Council is your landlord, its consent form is meant for leaseholders who have already checked and applied for whatever planning permission or building control approval the work needs.

  3. Mark what reaches outside

    List anything that changes the outside or the shared parts: windows, a satellite dish, a flue, a rooflight, the entrance door, the front garden or, for a ground-floor flat, a rear extension. Those items bring the council, the freeholder or both into the job.

Ready to take the next step? Send the address and a short outline of the work.

Book a free feasibility visit

Questions before you begin

Flat refurbishment in Ealing: questions

Can a flat here be extended at the back?

Each proposal is weighed on its own. Ealing Council’s July 2020 update for Montpelier Park records a continuing trend towards converting houses into flats or HMOs, with associated extensions and basements. The council’s register shows that in 2008 it refused permission for a flat on Park Hill to replace existing extensions with a single-storey rear extension enlarging two bedrooms and the kitchen and forming a bathroom. One decision does not set a rule, and the lease still has its say.

Ealing Council: Montpelier Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020 · Ealing Council: search for planning applications (the public planning register) · LEASE: alterations and home improvements

If my flat is above a shop on The Broadway or The Mall, what applies?

Check the address first, because two documents cover only their own areas. The Central Ealing Neighbourhood Plan, part of the Development Plan since October 2017, says the core retail area falls largely within the Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area. For that conservation area, the council’s December 2007 management plan listed satellite dishes on many front elevations and concrete tiles replacing slate or tile roofs among its threats, and said planning permission is likely to be needed for a dish on the front of flats.

Ealing Council: Central Ealing Neighbourhood Plan, Referendum Version (Development Plan since October 2017; its own area only) · Ealing Council: Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area Management Plan, December 2007 · Ealing Council: Ealing Town Centre Conservation Area

Does the HMO direction affect a flat refurbishment?

Only if the use changes. Ealing’s non-immediate Article 4 direction, in force since 14 November 2025 across the borough apart from Perivale ward and the OPDC area, removes the permitted change from a house to a small HMO, which the council describes as three to six unrelated people sharing basic amenities such as a kitchen or bathroom. A new HMO for more than six already needs a planning application. Refitting a flat as a home is a different matter, but tell us if the plan involves letting rooms.

Ealing Council: Article 4 directions removing HMO permitted development rights

Will a new flat made by conversion need outdoor space?

Ealing’s Planning New Garden Space SPD, adopted on 9 June 2015, says the DM DPD policies it supplements apply to all new homes, including those from conversions or subdivisions. It says private outdoor space should be directly attached to the flat it serves, as a balcony or wintergarden upstairs or a private garden or terrace on the ground floor, and that proposals for excessively narrow, irregular or overshadowed gardens will be refused. For conversions in conservation areas, the 2023 plan adds that amenity space will need to meet future occupants’ needs.

Ealing Council: Planning New Garden Space SPD, adopted 9 June 2015 · Ealing Council: Generic Management Plan for Conservation Areas, March 2023

Does it matter if my block is locally listed?

It can. Ealing’s Development Management DPD, adopted in 2013, counts buildings on the council’s Local Heritage Assets Register as heritage assets and says assets may be identified at any point up to and including the application stage. The 2020 Montpelier Park update recommended that Helena Court, Mount Eaton Court and the inter-war flats at Mount View stay on the local list, and recorded Welsby Court as no longer on it. Ask the council for the current entry before any outside work is drawn.

Ealing Council: Development Management DPD, adopted 10 December 2013 · Ealing Council: Montpelier Park Conservation Area update addendum, July 2020

How much does a flat refurbishment cost in Ealing?

Guide rates in Ealing are £900–£1,700/sqm excluding VAT, with a full two-bedroom refurbishment typically between £60,000 and £110,000, over a 16–32 weeks programme. A written scope and site assessment come before any fixed price.

Book a free feasibility visit

Talk to us about your Ealing flat

Tell us the address and what you want to change in your Ealing flat. We reply within one working day, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

Or call 020 7101 3168. We serve Ealing from our studio at Unit 3, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 6DN.

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