Fareham council refuses about 1 in 47 home projects. The national rate is 1 in 8.
Fareham Borough Council received 1,175 planning applications in 2025. Of the applications decided across 2024 and 2025, 97.9% were approved and just 2.1% were refused, well above the national approval rate of 87.6%. A refusal here is roughly six times rarer than across England and Wales as a whole. This is one of the easiest places in the country to win planning permission.
The year in one line
Fareham approves nearly 98% of the applications it decides and refuses just 1 in 47, roughly six times less often than the national norm. Retrospective applications, where work was done before permission was sought, run at half the national rate.
What Fareham Is Building
Extensions dominate the workload.
Home extensions were by far the most common application submitted to Fareham Borough Council, at 31.9% of everything in the pooled 2024-2025 period, ahead of the national share of 29.1%. Demolition followed at 7.2%, dormers at 6.5% and outbuildings at 3.2%. Conservation-area works appear at 2.8%, above the national 1.9%. No single project type runs far enough above the national rate to count as a local speciality.
Applications submitted to Fareham Borough Council in the 2024-2025 period, by project type.
A close match to the national mix
No robust project category in Fareham clears the bar for a local speciality. The town's planning signature is not what gets built, but how readily it is approved.
The council verdict
A near-automatic yes.
The council approved 97.9% of the applications it decided and refused just 2.1%, about a sixth of the national refusal rate of 12.4%. Both figures rest on a large pooled sample of 2,323 decisions across 2024 and 2025. Fareham is firmly among the most permissive councils in England and Wales.
About 1 in 47 Fareham applications was turned down.
of applications were refused, against 12.4% nationally. Fareham turns down about 1 in 47 projects where the country as a whole turns down 1 in 8.
Fareham vs The National Norm
An exceptionally easy place to build, by the numbers.
Set against the national average, Fareham's project mix is broadly typical. Home extensions take a slightly larger share here, 31.9% against 29.1%, while demolition and change of use to residential both run below the national share. The sharpest gap is in retrospective applications: Fareham's 1.8% is less than half the national 3.7%, suggesting owners here largely seek consent before they build.
applications are refused in Fareham, against 1 in 8 across the country. On a pooled sample of 2,323 decisions, this is the town's defining planning figure.
Each bar is Fareham's share of applications; the marker is the national share. The distinctive number is the refusal rate: just 2.1% against 12.4% nationally.
Meanwhile, the market
Prices rose alongside the building work.
Permission is quick and easy to win here, and prices have kept climbing: the average Fareham home sold for more in the latest full year than the one before.
Fareham's planning data tells a simple story. This is one of the easiest councils in the country to get a yes from: nearly 98% of applications submitted to Fareham Borough Council in 2025 were approved, refusals ran at about a sixth of the national rate, and owners here are half as likely to build first and ask later as the national average. The project mix itself is ordinary, mostly extensions and demolition on existing homes. For anyone planning an alteration here, the odds are firmly in their favour.
Where the numbers come from
Planning Data
Applications submitted to Fareham Borough Council in 2025 (volume) and the pooled 2024-2025 window (rates and shares), classified from each application's published description. Shares are each category as a percentage of all applications in scope.
Decision Rates
Approval rate is approvals as a share of approvals plus refusals, computed over the pooled 2024-2025 decided applications. The national benchmarks are computed the same way across all decided applications in England and Wales.
Sales Data
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for the Fareham post town, the latest full year's completions, with growth measured against the previous year.
The Real Applications
Open the planning applications behind the numbers.
These are real applications submitted to Fareham Borough Council, mostly the extensions, loft conversions and outbuildings that make up the bulk of the workload. Open any one to see its full record.
14 Kennedy Avenue PO15 6BJ
A lawful development certificate confirmed a single-storey rear extension, the most common project type in Fareham, as permitted.
See this property's full record3 Lynton Gardens PO16 7NB
Permission was granted for a single-storey side extension and the conversion and extension of the garage into a habitable room.
See this property's full recordThe Bungalow Triangle Lane PO14 4HG
A rear extension, a loft conversion with two dormers and a larger garage replacing an old carport were all approved together.
See this property's full record18 Alton Grove PO16 9NJ
The council granted a rear extension, a detached garden building and a loft conversion with front and rear dormers at one property.
See this property's full record125 Oak Road PO15 5HR
Installing a log cabin annex in the garden was approved, one of the outbuilding projects that sit just above the national rate here.
See this property's full record26 Mendips Road PO14 1QD
A lawful development certificate confirmed a loft conversion with a rear flat-roof dormer as permitted development.
See this property's full recordCurious about a home in Fareham?
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