Feasibility, permitted development strategy, conversions and Class MA for landlords, developers and portfolio owners across London and the Home Counties. One designer across your portfolio, a fixed fee per project, and a written view of the planning route before you commit capital.
Indicative fee in two minutes. Written fixed-fee quote within 24 hours. Free and without obligation. Nothing to pay until you accept a written fee proposal.
Every acquisition with an uplift in it is a planning bet. These are the four points where the bet is decided, and what we do at each.
The uplift is a planning assumption
The extra flat, the loft, the office floor turned residential: each is priced into your offer before anyone has checked the council will allow it. We test the assumption against the council’s policies, Article 4 directions and site constraints, in writing, before you commit capital.
The cheapest permission is the one you already have
Where permitted development applies, a Lawful Development Certificate is faster and cheaper than a full application, and lenders and buyers accept it as proof. Where it does not apply, you need to know on day one, not after the survey.
Finance costs are decided by the council’s calendar
Eight weeks for a householder decision, 42 or 56 days for prior approval, and longer where a council runs behind. We publish what to allow for every council we serve, so the holding cost is budgeted rather than hoped.
The sale or refinance needs paper, not promises
A valuer and a buyer’s solicitor will ask for the decision notice, the certificate, the discharged conditions and Building Regulations completion. We produce those documents in the order they will be asked for.
Nine services, each priced as a fixed fee per project. The service pages list what is included and excluded.
Pre-acquisition feasibility
A written planning appraisal of the address: permitted development rights, constraints, the realistic route, the risks and the drawings the application will need. Sized to an auction or exchange timetable.
What is included →Permitted development and Lawful Development Certificates
The certificate that turns “we think it is permitted development” into a document a lender will lend against and a buyer’s solicitor will accept.
What is included →Conversions and HMOs
Flat conversions and houses in multiple occupation, including Class C4 changes where an Article 4 direction removes the permitted development route and a full application must meet the council’s space, amenity and management standards.
What is included →Office to residential under Class MA
Prior approval for Class E to residential: the vacancy and floorspace tests, natural light, noise and contamination reports, and a 56-day determination.
What is included →Extensions and lofts for lettings uplift
The extra bedroom that changes the rent band or the valuation, designed to the permitted development limits or the council’s policies from the first line.
What is included →Appeals and retrospective regularisation
Unauthorised works discovered after completion, an enforcement notice, or a refusal on a scheme you inherited. We read the reasons and advise which route has the better odds before more money is spent.
What is included →Building Regulations packages
Construction drawings and specifications for tender and for build, coordinated with the structural engineer, and the completion certificate your exit depends on.
What is included →Design review and second opinion
A scheme you inherited with the purchase, drawings a vendor or agent has supplied, or a refusal you did not expect: a written view on whether it will pass, and what to change if not.
What is included →Full design and documentation package
For the site that needs more than a standard extension: concept to Building Regulations in one fixed-fee programme, with the planning case built into the design from the first sketch.
What is included →Investors do not need a design process. They need the same reliable output, on a date, every time.
One designer, from survey to decision
One designer across your portfolio. They learn your standard specification, your councils and what your lender asks for, so the third instruction is faster than the first.
A standard package and a dated programme
Every instruction gets the same deliverable list and a programme with dates: survey, drawings issued, submission, validation, decision. Live applications are reported weekly.
Fixed fee per project, in writing
Each project is quoted as one figure that lists every drawing and every exclusion. Repeat-client terms are agreed once and applied to every instruction that follows.
We speak to your team directly
Structural engineers, party wall surveyors, letting agents, solicitors, building control and the case officer. You are copied in, not relaying messages.
Our approval commitment
If a council refuses an application we designed and advised on, we revise the scheme in response to the reasons for refusal and resubmit it at no further design fee. We can make that commitment because every scheme is designed to the council’s own policies from the first line. The conditions are on our terms page.
What we do not do
We do not source deals, take equity, sell property or manage the build. We are paid a fee for planning and technical documentation, and that independence is why our appraisal can tell you not to buy.
Conditions of the approval commitment are set out in our terms.
Council fees and statutory periods for England, and the range our council data shows you should actually allow. Our own fee is quoted per project.
Fees from 2025-04-01; verify before applying. Council by council detail, dated and sourced, is in our planning facts.
Anything not covered here, ask on a call. We would rather answer the awkward question before you exchange than after.
Yes. A pre-acquisition feasibility study sets out the permitted development position, the constraints on the address, the realistic planning route for what you intend, the risks that could stop it and the drawings and reports the application will need. We agree the return date when you instruct; auction and exchange timetables are usually workable if you send the address and your intent early. The study is written so it can go to your lender or joint-venture partner as it stands.
Yes. Many London boroughs have Article 4 directions that remove the permitted development right to change a house (Class C3) to a small HMO (Class C4), so a full planning application is needed and is judged against the council’s space, amenity, refuse and management standards. We check the direction for the address, design to those standards and act as your agent through the decision. HMO licensing is a separate process run by the council’s housing team; we can prepare the plans it requires.
Typically the decision notice with any conditions discharged, or the Lawful Development Certificate where the works were permitted development; the Building Regulations completion certificate; and party wall awards where they applied. We produce the planning and Building Regulations documents and keep them in an issue-controlled set so they can be handed over in one file. Party wall matters are handled by a surveyor we can introduce.
Yes. We regularly supply drawings to builders directly, co-branded or under their own name, and coordinate with their engineer and building control inspector. If your contractor already has a drawing partner, we can limit our role to the planning appraisal and the application.
No. We charge a fee for planning and technical documentation and nothing else. We do not source, sell, take equity or manage the build. That is what allows a feasibility study to say the uplift is not achievable when it is not.
Planning drawings are typically issued two to three weeks from survey and submitted within two working days of your sign-off. From validation the council has 8 weeks for a householder application or certificate and 56 days for Class MA prior approval; our planning facts table shows what each council actually takes. A written fixed-fee quote follows the survey within 24 hours.
Send the address and what you intend to do with it. We come back with the planning route, the risks and a fixed fee before you exchange. Magna Studio charges a fee for documentation and nothing else.
Free and without obligation. Nothing to pay until you accept a written fee proposal.
