Which postcode districts around Bexley do we cover for garage conversion work?
Most garage conversions never reach a planning officer. Nothing is added to the building, so the work usually sits inside permitted development, and the consent that actually governs it is building regulations approval — a different body, a different test, and one that a conversion cannot skip. What the table below settles is the other half: which authority would determine an application if the address turns out to be inside a designation, or subject to a condition on the original estate permission. The fees quoted are the statutory England planning rates for 2026.
| Postcode | Area | Dominant stock | What it means for a garage conversion |
|---|
| DA5 | Old Bexley | Georgian villas, Victorian cottages | A DA5 address in Old Bexley is validated and decided by Bexley Council. Old Bexley village carries a conservation area, so confirm the designation before assuming a garage frontage can change under permitted development. |
| DA6 | Bexleyheath | 1930s semi-detached | DA6 falls entirely inside the borough, so a Bexleyheath garage conversion goes to Bexley Council and to no one else. |
| DA7 | Bexleyheath / Barnehurst | 1930s semi-detached | DA7 covers Bexleyheath and Barnehurst, both in Bexley. Householder decisions across the borough ran at 91.7% granted over 2,859 determinations in the twelve quarters MHCLG has published, where London as a whole sat at 83.0%. |
| DA8 | Erith | Victorian terraces, post-war estates | DA8 is Erith, all of it Bexley. The council issued 24 enforcement notices borough-wide across 2023-24 to 2025-26; unauthorised conversions are uncommon here, though not impossible. |
| DA14 | Sidcup | 1930s semi-detached, Edwardian villas | DA14 is Sidcup. The greater part is Bexley, but the district reaches over the boundary, so check which authority holds your address before paying an application fee to either. |
| DA16 | Welling | 1930s semi-detached | Welling is DA16 and wholly Bexley. Some 37.0% of the borough's 101,740 homes date from 1930 to 1939 on the VOA count at 31 March 2025, and those interwar semis are where an attached side garage most often turns up. |
| DA17 | Belvedere | 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats | Belvedere is DA17 and inside Bexley. It also sits low. Flood Zone 3 covers 18.4% of the borough's land, and where a site falls inside it the application needs a Flood Risk Assessment. |
How does a garage conversion differ street by street across Bexley?
An attached garage on an interwar Bexley semi was built to keep a car dry, not a person warm, and every difference follows from that. The slab has no insulation and often no damp-proof membrane. The side wall may be a single skin. The up-and-over opening has to be closed with a proper wall and a window on a foundation that was never designed to carry one. The floor level usually sits a step below the hall. None of that stops the conversion; all of it decides the price, and none of it is visible until somebody measures. The areas below differ mainly in which of those four you should expect.
- Welling (DA16) — 1930s semi-detached defines Welling, where 1930s semi-detached set what a garage conversion can do. The integral and attached garages on these 1930s semis are the classic conversion — usually internal work only across DA16. Any Welling garage conversion is validated by Bexley Council, with Welling High Street the usual Welling reference point on the site plan.
- Erith (DA8) — a garage conversion in Erith starts from victorian terraces, post-war estates, and Erith reads as Victorian terraces, post-war estates. Victorian terraces here rarely have an integral garage in DA8. Bexley Council assesses Erith garage conversions against its own Erith character guidance, and the location plan we draw for Erith references Erith Riverside.
- Crayford (DA1) — garage conversion work in Crayford means victorian terraces, 1930s semi-detached. Crayford is Victorian terraces, 1930s semi-detached. Victorian terraces here rarely have an integral garage throughout DA1. Bexley Council decides the Crayford application, and Crayford station anchors the Crayford location plan.
- Old Bexley (DA5) — Georgian and Victorian village conservation defines Old Bexley, where georgian villas, victorian cottages set what a garage conversion can do. Georgian houses here predate the garage across DA5. Any Old Bexley garage conversion is validated by Bexley Council, with Old Bexley Village the usual Old Bexley reference point on the site plan.
- Belvedere (DA17) — garage conversion work in Belvedere means 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats. Belvedere is 1930s semi-detached, post-war flats. The integral and attached garages on these 1930s semis are the classic conversion — usually internal work only throughout DA17. Bexley Council decides the Belvedere application, and Belvedere station anchors the Belvedere location plan.
- Barnehurst (DA7) — 1930s semi-detached defines Barnehurst, where 1930s semi-detached set what a garage conversion can do. The integral and attached garages on these 1930s semis are the classic conversion — usually internal work only across DA7. Any Barnehurst garage conversion is validated by Bexley Council, with Barnehurst station the usual Barnehurst reference point on the site plan.
- Bexleyheath (DA6, DA7) — garage conversion work in Bexleyheath means 1930s semi-detached. Bexleyheath is 1930s semi-detached. The integral and attached garages on these 1930s semis are the classic conversion — usually internal work only throughout DA6. Bexley Council decides the Bexleyheath application, and Bexleyheath Broadway anchors the Bexleyheath location plan.
What local planning policy applies to a garage conversion in Bexley?
The condition that catches people out: Bexley has made no borough-wide Article 4 direction, so on most addresses the permitted development route survives. The exception is not a policy but a piece of paper: many post-war and later estates were permitted on condition that the garage or its parking space be retained, and a condition on the original permission removes the right regardless of what the Order allows. It is worth reading the estate's planning history before assuming. Where the condition exists, converting the garage means an application to vary or remove it — not a householder application for the conversion itself.
Why the certificate is the standard companion here: Bexley recorded 882 lawful development certificates in the twelve quarters to March 2026 (MHCLG planning statistics, retrieved 1 September 2026). The national return carries no granted-or-refused split for certificates in any English authority, so that is a measure of how many owners here want their position written down rather than a pass rate. A garage conversion is the classic case for one, because it changes the number of parking spaces and the habitable floor area at the same time, and both are questions a buyer's surveyor asks. At £274 the certificate costs a fraction of arguing the point during a sale.
Where designation applies, and how quickly the council moves: the council publishes 16 conservation areas; the national register holds 31 Bexley rows covering about 174 hectares, though 8 of those carry no name and only 23 distinct names appear (planning.data.gov.uk, retrieved 1 September 2026). Welling, Bexley Village and Old Bexley are the ones most owners meet, and inside a designation the cladding and side-extension allowances go, so replacing a garage door with a rendered wall and a window becomes a £548 householder application rather than permitted development. If it comes to that, Bexley is one of the quicker authorities to deal with: 2,364 of its 2,415 householder decisions were made inside eight weeks — 97.9%, fourth highest in London against a capital figure of 92.5% — and it agreed an extension of time on only 23.8% of all its decisions, so the eight weeks is largely a real eight weeks.
Which neighbouring authorities border Bexley?
- Greenwich — the western boundary, running from Thamesmead down through Falconwood and Eltham. Similar interwar stock with attached garages on the Eltham side, so the construction questions are the same, but Greenwich refuses larger-householder prior approvals at 47.1% against Bexley's 14.9% (MHCLG planning statistics, retrieved 1 September 2026). That is a different regime for anything that does need permission, even where the garage conversion itself does not.
- Bromley — the southern edge past Sidcup and Chislehurst, and a markedly more designated borough: 69 conservation areas in the national register against Bexley's 31 rows (retrieved 1 September 2026). A garage conversion that is permitted development on the Sidcup side of that line can require a full application a few streets south of it, and the difference is not visible from the street.
Sources for this Bexley garage conversion page: borough policies maps and
conservation-area registers (2025–26), Royal Mail postcode district boundaries,
the Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications) (England) Regulations, the Town
and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 as amended,
and the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
