Knocking two terrace houses together

Now then!
Has anyone had any experience joining two terrace houses together.
Might buy the neighbour’s house and knock through and was just wondering what knowledge stw had on the subject?

There’s a house down the road been for sale for ages. Was a semi, now knocked through and joined up. Proportions are odd and it’s not sold for the asking price. I can’t see how they won’t lose money on it considering the price the both houses were on the market for and the cost of the work!

You’ll need planning permission for the use of the newly created building as a single dwelling house.

And building regs sign off.

Ever since I saw this done in one of the Beatles’ films I’ve wanted to do this.

Not sure it stacks up financially though.

worked in a council house once door between both of them, so when large family moved on they could easily be converted into 2 houses again, weird 2 staircases and two bathrooms etc 2 front doors and 2 rear doors.

seems totally logical now

I have an image of 2 houses swinging in a massive newton’s cradle now

I can’t believe it makes any financial sense – one big house won’t sell for twice what two smaller ones get (assuming the smaller ones are viable size). Especially not one big house on a terrace. Which is also going to lead to issues with mortgage providers and valuations. Conversely you should be able to sell yours, add on what you were thinking of spending on the other one and get something better.

Though if it suits you not to move, then go for it.

Doing it right now.

Through terrace and back to back so we’re ending up with an L shape. You do NOT need planning permission to make two dwellings into one. You DO need planning permission to split them back up again. You do need building regs though, but only so you can sell in the future.

Services are easy to hook up, don’t let anyone tell you it’s hard. You’ll need to get revalued by the council, again, easy.

Towergate insurance are good for insuring when you’re two houses, but kinda one.

Make sure you open up walls properly so you don’t end up with some kinda crazy warren; we’re tearing the stairs out from next door.

All the best; scariest and most exciting thing we’ve done – well worth it.

It’s easier and cheaper to start with two houses that are already next to each other.

Used to dream about buying the other 3 in our old row of 4 terraced.

Knock them together – lap pool in the cellar and bowling alley in the attic.

I’m not helping much here, am I…

We have two (little) terrace houses next door to each other. We never saw the need to knock them through and it gives a nice bit of space/independence for us and guests.

If you come to sell, will you get your return on investment back? I’d considered buying next door to knock through but was not convinced that we would get our money back

I’d love to buy next door and knock through, just don’t have a spare £600k* knocking about….

*absolutely insane SE prices

in the long term I’m planning on buying the house next door, old boy lives there now has road access to his garden and it would give me access to mine. I’d partition the garden off from the house and rent it out.

Knocking through might be tough, the walls are 3ft thick…

Knocking through might be tough, the walls are 3ft thick…

It’s a home not an investment portfolio

id consider buying next door just to rent it out……

its a semi detached house so having some say over who your attachee is would be nice….

*awaits the STW rental lynch mob.

*awaits the STW rental lynch mob.

i can just hear the chant now Ben.

“why are we lynching” “we dont know” “when do we want it” “yesterday” “how will we pay” “hobnobs”

awaits the STW rental lynch mob.

“Some people say I look like me Da’….”

Can’t imagine it’s a better option than selling up & upsizing to a purpose built house considering the restrictions you’ll have on layout etc without doing significant structural work.

Unless it’s a newer timber frame construction which I guess would make it much easier & cheaper to adjust the layout.

I’d consider it to get a couple of extra bedrooms and keep living in our street which we love. It probably doesn’t make any sense financially but then an equivalent size place around here would be similar money, if better laid out.

Make sure you open up walls properly so you don’t end up with some kinda crazy warren; we’re tearing the stairs out from next door.

As a wee nipper I had a friend who lived in half a farm courtyard thing that had two staircases and a long twisty circular route around it, it was AWESOME, we were always having races around the house… 🙂

Buy house next door, move in, leave wife and kids in existing house. You can thank me later.

My Wife and I have discussed this, as our neighbour is getting on a bit and at some point the house will be up for sale.
However, the house prices have gone mental down here over the last couple of years.

The two bed bungalow we’re attached to is now worth £500k, and knocking together would not give us a house worth £1,000,000+

It could be awesome if done well though!

Obviously a different story in the North where houses still cost the same as a decent bike! ;o)

russianbob – Member
You do NOT need planning permission to make two dwellings into one.

I’m not so sure about that. I’ve heard it depends on the council. Some councils don’t like losing potential property especially when there’s pressure on them to supply more housing. Two into one is the loss of a house, even if it’s making one house bigger. One into two, while maybe it needs planning permission, is almost certainly going to be granted.

I was looking into doing similar buying the downstairs flat, but indications are the council may not like it, but then depends if they prefer lots of small houses or are in the need for more family sized houses.

Financially it would have been a bad move as the two flats are worth far more than one house. I was interested in it though based on making life a hell of a lot easier in trying to move house, i.e. I don’t have to move, don’t have to find a buyer and deal with chains and all kinds of faff. Plus location is ideal for me.

Ended up scrapping it though as I found out just how much house prices have gone up, and to buy the other property means finding the deposit which was really a bit too high compared to my original prediction, plus loan to value is high which makes it more difficult to get the banks to lend.

Would certainly have been easier if I had bought the house next door to my soon to be Mrs 🙂 as in easier to knock the downstairs into one for my dad and us to live on the upper floors (2 x 3 storey mid terrace houses) as it is now we have the complexity and costs of two households 14 miles apart 🙁

A couple we know bought two three storey town houses off plan and had them adapted into one at building stage a quirky and expensive house if ever you have seen one, but clearly suits them

I’m not so sure about that.

I can’t see how they can stop you? After all if me neighbour and I want to knock a doorway and join up our houses, it’s just a BC matter.

I’ve read some saying that the council may allow it without planning permission but it for sale purposes it legally remains two properties and must be sold as such in the future.

You could just have them linked and not even apply to change the registry to one property, though you’ll pay two council tax then and technically have two sets of services.

Update: I remember now digging through emails I’d enquired with a property lawyer and planning permission wasn’t mentioned but a change of use application may be required and that may be where local councils step in to object if they see it as a loss of property. You could go on without the change of use, but then you have two council taxes.

I also recall a property lawyer was on LBC’s property hour saying similar things, although advising that combining two properties was usually not a concern, but combining three or more might be.

All that said, maybe this more related to flats combining into one house. Two houses into one are still a house.

Well STW you have not disappointed me.
An amazing array of advice thank you.
We are looking at doing it because we like where we live, we have good neighbours and we need a bigger family house. We would end up with a good sized house with a very spacious garden to boot. Saying all that though, we got our house cheap and my neighbour is planning on selling hers to us for a good price so the money doesn’t really come into it.
I will definately check with my LBC regards planning but I think you are correct russianbob, that seems to ring a bell from when I looked into it a little bit last year.
Complete internal restructuring is on the cards though as we want to make the space work and not just live in two connected terrace houses + a possible extension out the back.
No sign of retirement anytime soon!