Greenwich Development Finance: One Unit Residential Conversion at The Coach House Enters the Pipeline

A small residential conversion has entered the borough pipeline and it is the kind of scheme our desk sees funded badly more often than it sees it funded well. According to the Royal Borough of Greenwich planning register (Idox), application 26/2067/F at The Coach House, to East of Number 18 West Grove, London, SE10 8QT is pending decision. The register records the proposal as a change of use from garage to single dwellinghouse (Use Class C3), together with replacement roof slates and roo... , and it lists the use class as residential.

The numbers are modest and that is the point. The Greenwich planning register (Idox) shows 1 unit(s) proposed and records the application as received on 13/07/2026. On our own estimate, drawn from the same Royal Borough of Greenwich planning register (Idox) entry, the finished scheme carries an estimated GDV of £450,000. One unit, one title, one exit.

Where this sits in the local pipeline

West Grove sits on the Blackheath side of the borough, close enough to the Greenwich town centre stock that comparable evidence is easy to assemble and hard to argue with. Conversions of ancillary buildings, garages, coach houses, outbuildings, form a steady share of what comes through the register here, and they behave differently to new build. Ground conditions are largely known, the envelope already exists, and the programme is usually measured in months rather than years. We keep a running view of activity across the borough on our Greenwich page, and single unit conversions like this one are a recurring feature of it rather than an outlier.

What the scheme will need funding for

Two questions decide the funding shape. First, does the sponsor already own the site, or is the purchase conditional on the 26/2067/F decision landing? Second, is the plan to sell on practical completion or to hold and refinance?

Where the site is being bought, bridging specialists will usually price acquisition against the existing garage value rather than the £450,000 estimated GDV, so the day one equity requirement is heavier than sponsors expect. Where the site is owned, a development facility can run against build cost with the land treated as equity, which is the cheaper route on a scheme of this size.

Because a replacement roof forms part of the works, the cost plan needs a proper allowance for what is found once slates come off. On conversions, lenders and monitoring surveyors look hard at that line.

Our read

Specialist commercial lenders and challenger banks will both look at a single unit at this value, but the smaller ticket size means arrangement fees and monitoring costs bite harder as a percentage. Sponsors should have three things ready before they approach anyone: a costed schedule of works with a contingency of at least ten per cent, comparable evidence supporting the £450,000 figure, and a written exit position.

On exit, a development exit facility is worth pricing at the outset rather than as a rescue. Moving off a development rate onto a cheaper exit product at practical completion typically buys twelve to eighteen months of sales runway at a materially lower cost, which matters when a single unit takes longer to sell than a block of five.

Our desk is watching the 26/2067/F decision and is happy to model both routes before it lands.