Article 4 Areas in London: The Map Every HMO Investor Needs to Check Before They Commit

You’ve found a property that pencils out, and you’re ready to move on it. Before you put in a formal offer on a house or flat you plan to convert into a shared home in London, there is one check that has ended more HMO deals late in the process than almost any other: whether the borough will let you make that change without planning permission at all. 

Article 4 Directions decide that answer, and in London the picture has shifted substantially over the past eighteen months. Boroughs that were once open to permitted development have gone borough wide. Others are proposing to follow. If you’re working from a borough list you saved a year or two ago, it may already be wrong. 

This guide sets out what Article 4 actually restricts, how to place your borough into the right category today, and the order of checks that protects your deal. 

Before you commit, it can help to talk it through with someone who deals with Article 4 boroughs regularly. We offer a free call to look at your project, understand what you’re trying to achieve, and flag anything about your address that’s worth checking before you go further. Book your discovery call. 

What Article 4 Actually Restricts 

An Article 4 Direction is a planning tool that removes a permitted development right. In HMO terms, it takes away the right to change a single dwelling, use class C3, into a small HMO shared by three to six unrelated people, use class C4, without applying for planning permission first. 

Not every Article 4 Direction relates to HMOs. Some boroughs use Article 4 to protect conservation areas, or to control commercial to residential conversions, and those directions have nothing to do with shared housing. The words “Article 4” on a council page don’t always mean HMO restrictions, so it’s worth confirming what the direction actually covers before you assume it applies to your project. Our guide to how use classes and permitted development actually work covers this distinction in more depth. 

Where a direction does cover HMOs, you’ll need full planning permission for the conversion, assessed against local planning policy rather than against the fact that a small HMO is what you’re proposing. A large HMO of seven or more people always needs planning permission everywhere, Article 4 or not, so this guide matters most for the three to six person schemes most portfolio landlords are working with. 

Why London’s Map Keeps Moving 

London’s Article 4 position for HMOs is not settled. Several boroughs that were previously unrestricted, or only partially restricted, have extended their coverage in the last two years. Ealing brought in an immediate direction for Perivale in late 2024, then extended a non-immediate direction across the rest of the borough in November 2025. Hillingdon moved to borough wide immediate coverage in December 2025, and Merton completed its own coverage in March 2026. Sutton went borough wide in February 2025, and Lambeth added coverage across its Streatham wards in August 2025. 

At the time of writing, a small number of boroughs, including Hammersmith & Fulham and Harrow, have signalled that a borough wide direction may follow, without one confirmed yet. That status can change quickly, so treat any borough marked as unrestricted as current rather than permanent. 

This is the detail a static list can’t capture. The categories below give you a working starting point, but the only way to know your exact position is the borough’s own interactive Article 4 map, checked against your address. 

Checking Your Borough 

The groupings below reflect the position as of July 2026. Confirm the current status on your borough’s own map before relying on it, since this is exactly the kind of snapshot that has changed before. 

Boroughs currently fully covered The clearest recent shift is Croydon, Ealing and Hillingdon, which all moved to full borough coverage within the last two years, followed by Merton and Sutton. Earlier adopters include Bexley, Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets, where borough wide coverage has been in place for longer. If your site sits in any of these, build a full planning application into your budget and timeline from the outset. 

Boroughs currently partially covered Some boroughs restrict specific wards rather than the whole area. Lambeth’s Streatham wards are a recent example. Haringey, Southwark and Lewisham have also applied Article 4 to defined areas at different points, though Lewisham’s coverage has since extended further. Partial coverage is where the costliest assumptions happen: a street on one side of a ward boundary can sit outside the direction while the next sits inside it. 

Boroughs currently without Article 4 for HMOs, for now A number of boroughs, including several in central and inner London, currently have no HMO specific Article 4 Direction in place. That gives you permitted development rights today, but the pattern above shows this position isn’t guaranteed to last. If an unrestricted borough is part of your investment case, check the council’s current planning policy pages again shortly before exchange, not just when you first started looking. 

Confirming Your Exact Site 

Borough level status is a starting point, not a final answer. The order of checks we run with clients, and the first stage in our HMO Deal Filter™, looks like this. 

Start with the council’s own interactive Article 4 map for the exact address, not a borough wide summary. Confirm whether the direction is immediate or non-immediate, and the date it came, or comes, into force. That matters because it affects your timeline, and in some boroughs, whether compensation applies to applications refused shortly after an immediate direction takes effect. Where the borough shows no HMO Article 4 Direction, apply for a Lawful Development Certificate, known as an LDC (Proposed), before relying on permitted development. It costs far less than the price of being wrong, and it gives you a written decision from the council rather than an assumption. Where a direction does apply, review the borough’s own HMO planning policy, including any concentration thresholds, before you assess design options, since that policy will shape what a viable scheme actually looks like on the site. A feasibility review before you buy covers planning, licensing and layout together, useful if you’d rather have all three checked in one pass. 

Planning status sits alongside licensing and layout in a full deal assessment, and it feeds directly into yield, compliance and your exit route too. It’s usually worth running first, because a refusal or a lengthy application can change your numbers before any of the other checks matter. 

It’s also worth knowing that a fully covered borough doesn’t automatically end a project. We delivered a five-unit HMO conversion on Soham Road, a London terraced house inside a borough with full Article 4 coverage, working within a tight budget, and the council supported the proposal once the design addressed their concerns. 

What Happens If You Get This Wrong 

Getting this wrong rarely shows up immediately. It shows up when a planning application is refused after you’ve already committed to a purchase, when a lender or a JV partner asks for evidence of lawful use you can’t produce, or when a tenancy has to be unwound because the property was let as an HMO without the permission the borough required. A similar exposure exists around operating without the right licence, which is a separate risk worth checking alongside this one. None of these situations are cheap to fix, and all of them are avoidable with a check that takes considerably less time than the deal itself. 

For a joint venture partner, it’s also a credibility point. Presenting a scheme that turns out to need a planning application nobody budgeted for tends to damage trust faster than almost any other early stage mistake. 

What To Do Next 

If your borough falls clearly into one of the categories above, the next step is straightforward: confirm the exact position for your address, then either proceed with an LDC application or build a planning application into your project timeline and budget. Our guide to what an Article 4 Direction is covers the mechanics of immediate and non-immediate directions in more depth, and our wider guide to Article 4 areas across the UK is useful if you’re weighing up locations beyond London. 

Checking this yourself is the right first step. If you’d rather have someone confirm the position directly, our planning team can review your address, talk through what you’re trying to build, and set out the realistic route forward, whether that’s an LDC application, a full planning submission, or a design approach shaped around what the borough is likely to approve. It costs nothing to have that conversation, and it’s often the fastest way to know exactly where you stand. 

We also send updates on shifts like these, including future changes to Article 4 coverage across London, through our HMO Masters newsletter. 

FAQs 

Does Article 4 apply to HMOs I already have? 

No. Article 4 Directions aren’t retrospective, so a property already lawfully used as an HMO before the direction came into force isn’t affected by it. The detail that catches people out is evidence. If the council later questions the use, you need to be able to show continuous, lawful HMO use from before the direction’s start date, not just that the property was operating that way at some point. 

What’s the difference between Article 4 and needing an HMO licence? 

They’re separate systems. Article 4 is about planning permission for the change of use from a single home to a small HMO. Licensing, whether mandatory, additional or selective, is about the standard and management of the property once it’s operating as an HMO. A property can need a licence without ever touching Article 4, and a property affected by Article 4 will usually need a licence as well once it’s let. 

Is there an official Article 4 checker for London? 

No single national tool exists. Each London borough publishes and maintains its own Article 4 map, and that’s the most reliable source for a specific address. Third party maps, including this one, are a useful starting point, but they summarise a picture that keeps changing rather than replacing the council’s own current position. 

If my borough has no Article 4 Direction, is my HMO conversion guaranteed to go ahead? 

No. Permitted development still needs to satisfy the conditions set out in the General Permitted Development Order, and the property still needs to meet Building Regulations, fire safety standards and licensing requirements once it’s operating. An unrestricted borough removes one hurdle, not all of them.