Finding decent opportunities in the market is for many property investors and developers a daily task involving speaking with agents, using online search tools to look for vacant or ‘opportunity’ sites, or other ways of trying to find a ‘gem’ of a deal.

Looking for opportunity in refusals
Many successful developers and investors, especially those investing in their ‘local’ area or within an established market that they know, will keep an eye out for planning applications submitted to or recently decided by the local planning authority, especially if the decision was a refusal.

In such cases, a ‘tired’ landlord or property owner, or speculative developer seeking to ‘cut their losses’ after a disappointing planning result might be looking for a potential exit. If you know how to find potential solutions in a planning refusal, this can open up an opportunity to strike a great deal with a willing vendor.

This was exactly the case with this development, a proposal for rear extensions and extra units to a three-storey, semi-detached block in a Conservation Area in the London Borough of Southwark:

The existing property comprised 3 x 4-bedroom flats – one on each floor to the property, with a generous rear garden area:

Planning permission had recently been sought for a part-1 and part 2-storey rear extension and to convert the property into 6 flats – three studios on the ground floor and 2 flats on the first floor and a flat on the second floor:

However, this was refused for the following reasons:

“…poor quality, owing to undersized ground floor units A and B, poor outlook and access to daylight/sunlight, and the unacceptable risk to the privacy of occupiers of unit B”.  

This referred only to the ground floor units, so it was assumed that the remaining proposed units to the upper floors were all acceptable.