Ealing house extension prices: what 2026 really costs

What does Ealing do with a 6m rear extension notification?

Ealing decided 891 larger-extension prior approval notifications in the three years to March 2026. In 594 it ruled prior approval was not required, so the work could proceed; 54 were granted and 243 refused. That is a 72.7% green light on the 6m route, against a householder approval rate of 86.6%.

Source: MHCLG District Planning Application Statistics (PS1 and PS2), decisions made in the twelve quarters to March 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0, retrieved 1 September 2026. The larger home extension route is Class A prior approval under the General Permitted Development Order — 6m on a terrace or semi, 8m detached — and a ‘not required’ ruling means the extension may be built. Build costs on this page are our own 2026 London range, not a published statistic.

Extension costs in Ealing

Everything above is a build cost. Scope, fixed fee and timeline for the drawing package itself sit on house extensions in Ealing.

Build costs for a house extension in Ealing sit in the £2,200 to £3,200 per square metre band we use across outer London. That is construction only: no professional fees, no planning fees, no VAT. Where a particular job lands inside the band is mostly a question of what the house is, and Ealing’s stock is younger than London’s. Of its 149,870 dwellings, 22.9% date from the 1930s against 16.0% across the capital, while only 12.7% predate 1900 against a London figure of 20.9% (VOA council tax stock at 31 March 2025, published via the London Datastore). Interwar cavity-wall construction with a side passage to work down is straightforward to extend. A solid-wall Victorian villa in the middle of a terrace, reached through the hallway, is not.

The spread here tracks the borough's split. A Northolt or Hanwell semi is a conventional job priced on span and glazing. In Bedford Park, where the suburb's value rests on repeated elevations, matching brick, tile and joinery to the original is not a specification choice but a condition of consent - and matched materials on Arts and Crafts stock are expensive to source and slow to lay.

Drawings sit on top of the build cost, and in Ealing they repay being done properly for a specific reason. The council determined 3,182 householder applications in the three years to March 2026 and approved 2,755 of them — 86.6%, against 83.0% across London (MHCLG planning application statistics, retrieved 1 September 2026). This is a borough that says yes to a scheme that is presented clearly and drawn to the point. Our fees are fixed in advance and run about 30% under typical London architect rates for the same scope.

What affects extension costs in Ealing

The variable that matters most in Ealing is which part of the borough you are in. Bedford Park is a listed Arts and Crafts suburb where the elevations are the subject of the assessment; Northolt and Hanwell are interwar semis where the national rules apply and side access is normal. The council itself is quick, deciding 98.6% of householder applications inside eight weeks (MHCLG planning statistics, retrieved 1 September 2026), so the timetable risk sits with you rather than with them.

Conservation areas

Designation changes the drawing rather more than it changes the builder’s day rate. A house inside a conservation area stands on article 2(3) land, and that removes three permitted development rights outright: any extension beyond a side elevation, any rear extension of more than one storey, and cladding or render applied to an external wall. A single-storey rear extension can still survive, but it needs the £548 householder application rather than a certificate. Ealing’s designations are large by London standards — the Cuckoo Estate covers 50.1 hectares, Ealing Common 47.8 and the Hanger Hill Haymills Estate 46.7 (planning.data.gov.uk conservation area register, retrieved 1 September 2026) — which is why so many ordinary suburban houses here turn out to sit inside one.

Article 4 Directions

Ealing’s Article 4 Direction is about houses in multiple occupation, not about extensions. It covers named streets in Acton, Ealing and Southall and withdraws the right to turn a family house into a small HMO without permission. If you are extending rather than converting, this is unlikely to be the instrument that catches you; the conservation area boundary is the one that will. Check both, because they are drawn on different maps and neither is visible from the pavement.

Property type

Three kinds of house dominate the borough and each has a natural extension. The Victorian and Edwardian villas around Ealing Broadway and Acton take a side-return infill, where the alley beside the back addition becomes the kitchen. The interwar semis of Northolt, Greenford and Hanwell take a two-storey rear projection, because the plot is wide enough to set the upper floor in from the flank boundary and still leave a usable room. Detached houses give the most freedom and the biggest bill, since the rate per square metre barely moves but the footprint does. Ealing’s detached stock is priced to match: a 2025 median of £1,458,750 across 98 sales, against £650,000 for a terraced house across 866 (HM Land Registry Price Paid data, 2025 completions).

Access and logistics

Northolt and Hanwell semis generally have a side passage, so plant and spoil move without entering the house. Ealing central's Victorian and Edwardian villas vary - some detached with clear access, some terraced without. In Bedford Park, access is often adequate but irrelevant, because the constraint on what can be built there is the conservation assessment rather than the logistics.

Our drawing fees for Ealing extensions

No hourly billing and no variations. The fee is fixed before we start and covers everything a valid submission to Ealing Council needs, plus the building regulations package if you take that as well. On timing, read the borough’s headline number carefully. Ealing decided 98.6% of its householder applications inside eight weeks, second highest of the 32 boroughs for which that can be calculated — but it also agreed an extension of time on 48.9% of everything it decided, against 34.5% across London (MHCLG planning application statistics, twelve quarters to March 2026, retrieved 1 September 2026). The speed figure is measured on the applications where no extension was agreed. Plan for the longer road and treat eight weeks as the good outcome rather than the expected one.

Each package opens with a measured survey of the house as it stands, and delivers existing and proposed plans and elevations, a site plan, and a design and access statement where the application needs one. Our MCIAT chartered technologists carry it from survey to submission and handle the correspondence afterwards, which in this borough means correspondence with one case officer rather than a committee: 99.2% of Ealing’s decisions are taken under delegated powers, the third-highest share in London (MHCLG planning application statistics, retrieved 1 September 2026).

We draw across every Ealing postcode: W3, W5, W7, W13, UB1, UB2, UB5, UB6, NW10. NW10 straddles the Brent boundary at Harlesden and Kensal Green, so we confirm which council validates the application before it is submitted.

Planning vs Permitted Development in Ealing

A great many Ealing extensions never need a planning application at all. Under permitted development a single-storey rear extension can project 3 metres from the original rear wall on a terrace or a semi, or 4 metres on a detached house, and up to 6 and 8 metres respectively if it goes through the neighbour consultation scheme. Ealing determined 891 of those larger notifications in the three years to March 2026: 594 were found not to need prior approval at all, 54 were granted and 243 were refused (MHCLG planning application statistics, PS1, retrieved 1 September 2026). At 27.3%, refusal runs a little above the London figure of 24.9%, so the deep extension is not a formality here even where the right exists on paper.

Ealing's 30 conservation areas carry an Article 4 Direction alongside them. On the Northolt and Hanwell semis the side-extension prohibition is the meaningful one. In Bedford Park it is neither that nor rear depth but the materials rule, because the suburb's designation rests on brick, tile and joinery repeating along the street, and a substitute material undermines exactly what is protected.

Two-storey extensions almost always require permission. Ealing splits sharply on them: the Northolt and Hanwell semis have the plot width to take a first floor, while in Bedford Park the elevations and roofline are the substance of the designation and a two-storey addition is very difficult to reconcile with it. Establish which regime applies before the design work starts rather than after.

Ealing recorded 2,048 certificate of lawful development applications in the three years to March 2026 — the third-highest count of any London borough, behind Barnet on 2,585 and Redbridge on 2,336 (MHCLG planning application statistics, PS1, retrieved 1 September 2026). In a borough split between a tightly controlled suburb and a permissive remainder that is the pattern you would expect: where the rights survive, people put them in writing rather than assume them. The statistical return records no granted-or-refused split for certificates, so the count measures how heavily the route is used and nothing more. Where one is refused, appealing is worth weighing — the Inspectorate decided 59 Ealing certificate appeals between 2016 and 2026 and allowed 26 of them.

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