The London property market may be a world apart for those who live well away from the South East region of England but there can be no denying that property values in the centre of the UK's capital city are now at stratospheric levels in comparison with local average incomes. One of the main factors behind this phenomenon is tightly enforced planning restrictions and regulations, as anyone who has attempted to gain consent for a large extension or for a change of use in London will quickly testify. In central London in particular, planning enforcement is so rigorous that getting permission for any meaningful extension is almost impossible in some boroughs, notwithstanding the resistance to change from neighbouring property owners.

And of course the rise in property values means that whatever your income level a move up the rung of London's housing ladder can come at a very high price for those with a growing family. Many London homes are now well into the 4-5% SDLT brackets so moving on to add another bedroom or two comes at a very significant cost once agent, legal and finance fees are added into the equation.  
Loft extensions are often chosen as a way of 'improving without moving' by adding that much desired extra bed-space, but the cost and hassle of doing the work is

not always appropriate to the return, irrespective of the added value to be gained. As such 'going down' has become a very notable trend in many inner London boroughs in the last ten or so years and in the wider media there have been some well publicised examples of huge dig-outs being reported to create underground garages, gyms and swimming pools which are desired by the increasing numbers of London's high net worth property owners.

Despite all the publicity, it seems that few of the more ambitious and grandiose schemes actually get off the drawing board although John Hunt, the founder of Foxton's has a huge scheme in Kensington currently under construction, which incorporates a tennis court and a showroom for his collection of Ferraris!