Written on 14 March 2022 by Courtney Manton in Property News
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is consulting on plans to prevent owners from knocking together homes to create so called ‘mega-mansions’.
The council has approved more than 70 applications to combine multiple homes over the past four years, leading to fears about the impact on housing supply. The borough has the second highest population density in England, and more than 3,000 people looking for homes on its housing register.
The proposal is part of the council’s local plan, which is out for consultation until 23 March. Local plans set out the rules by which future planning decisions are made in a borough.
The council previously tried to curtail the growth of mega-mansions in 2015, by introducing a single-storey limit on basement excavations.
The new policy also aims to protect the environment and reduce the impact on residents’ quality of life from construction noise.
The council’s deputy lead member for planning, Kim Taylor Smith, said such projects, “need to be done thoughtfully, protecting our unique collection of villages and towns as well as growing our borough.”
Central London’s period character means combining homes is one of the few ways of creating extra-large houses.
Last summer, two neighbouring Kensington properties were reportedly bought by singer Adele for £11 million and combined to create a dream mansion.
And a project in Mayfair saw two Portland stone mansions turned into one of the UK’s most expensive homes, with 15 bedrooms and a ballroom, across eight floors.
Kensington and Chelsea is the UK’s most expensive council area. In the borough’s priciest street homes cost £29 million, more than 100 times the UK average.
Read more about this story in the Evening Standard.
