Ealing Development Finance: 4 Unit Scheme at 31 Craven Avenue Enters the Pipeline

Ealing development finance is back in focus after a new application landed at 31 Craven Avenue, Ealing, W5 2SY. Reference 262861FUL was received on 22 July 2026, according to the London Borough of Ealing planning register, and is now pending a decision.

The proposal is a conversion of an existing dwellinghouse into 4 self contained apartments. The plans include a single storey rear extension, a part first floor extension, a replacement rear roof extension, a dormer window to the front roofslope, two rear balconies with privacy screens, a revised front boundary treatment, and new refuse and cycle storage. It is a residential scheme, and one that fits a pattern we see across west London: a single dwelling split into smaller, more mortgageable units to make better use of a fixed plot.

We estimate the gross development value at £1,500,000 based on our own read of the planning register and comparable Ealing conversions, which puts the scheme at a scale that sits comfortably with the specialist lenders and challenger banks active in this part of west London. For context, on a scheme of this GDV, specialist development lenders in this bracket typically advance somewhere between 60 and 65 per cent of GDV against the completed value, with the balance made up of purchase price, build cost and a contingency reserve. That is the sort of gearing sponsors on 4 unit conversions in W5 should be modelling before they approach a lender, not after.

Craven Avenue sits close to Ealing Broadway, an area where conversion and small scale residential schemes have been a steady feature of the planning pipeline this year. Anyone tracking activity across the borough in more detail can see the wider pattern on our Ealing borough page, which tracks planning volumes and transaction data alongside applications like this one.

From a funding perspective, a scheme like this typically needs staged development finance rather than a single drawdown: an initial tranche against the acquisition and the extension works, followed by further tranches released against certified progress on the roof extension, balconies and internal conversion. Because the exit is likely to be either a sale of the four units individually or a refinance onto buy to let terms, sponsors should also have their development exit route mapped out before they submit a full finance application, not once they are on site.

Our desk would flag one practical point for anyone considering a similar scheme nearby: lenders looking at 4 unit conversions want to see a realistic build programme and a contractor with a track record on comparable extension and conversion work, since that reduces the risk of the kind of delay that erodes the GDV assumptions a facility was priced against. If 262861FUL is approved, we would expect a bridging specialist or a challenger bank to be the more likely source of the initial funding, with the loan sized off both the £1.5m GDV estimate and the eventual build cost once contractor quotes are in.