Romford files loft conversions at nearly 6 times the national rate. A town building upward from the inside.
Havering received 2,943 planning applications for the Romford area in 2025, up 3% on 2024. The application mix is unusually concentrated on roof work: loft conversions made up 15.1% of all applications, nearly six times the national share of 2.6%, and dormers another 17.4%, against 6.0% nationally. One application in seventeen was retrospective, lodged after the work was already done, 1.5 times the national rate.
The year in one line
Romford submitted nearly 3,000 applications to Havering in 2025, dominated by roof work at multiples far above the national norm, and 1 in 17 applications was lodged after the work had already been carried out.
What Romford Is Building
Extensions lead, but lofts and dormers define the town.
Home extensions were the most common application type submitted to Havering in 2025, at 40.8% of all applications, well above the 29.1% national share. The figures that set Romford apart are roof projects: loft conversions made up 15.1% of applications, against 2.6% nationally, and dormers another 17.4%, against 6.0%. This is the application mix of a town adding space inside the existing footprint rather than building out.
Applications submitted to Havering in 2025 within the Romford area, by project type.
The roof effect
Romford submits loft conversions at 5.9 times the national rate and dormers at 2.9 times. Garage conversions run at 2.2 times the national share. The build mix is dominated by reworking existing homes from the inside.
Build first, ask later
Retrospective applications run 1.5 times the national rate.
Of the 3,487 applications across 2024 and 2025, 201 were retrospective: the building work was carried out first and permission sought afterwards. That is 5.8% of the total, against a national share of 3.7%, making Romford 1.5 times more likely to see retrospective applications than the country as a whole.
Share of Romford applications filed after the work was done, against 3.7% nationally.
the national retrospective rate. At 5.8% of applications, Romford submits work-done-first cases at one and a half times the national rate of 3.7%.
Romford vs The National Norm
A town building upward, by the numbers.
Set Romford's application mix against the national average and the roof story stands out clearly. Loft conversions feature in 15.1% of applications submitted to Havering, 5.9 times the national share of 2.6%, and dormers in 17.4%, 2.9 times the norm. Home extensions, outbuildings and garage conversions all run well above the national average too.
Romford submits loft conversions at 5.9 times the national rate. Together with dormers at 2.9 times the norm, the build mix is defined by reworking roof space in existing homes.
Each bar is Romford's share of applications submitted to Havering in 2025; the marker is the national share. Loft conversions are the town's defining outlier.
Meanwhile, the market
Prices rose alongside the building work.
Permission may be hard to win here, but values have not waited: the average Romford home gained ground over the year as owners reworked the homes they already had.
Romford's planning data tells a clear story. With nearly 3,000 applications submitted to Havering in 2025, this is a high-activity borough where owners consistently choose to build upward into the roof rather than out. Loft conversions run at almost six times the national rate. Add a retrospective application rate 1.5 times above the national norm, and the picture is of a town that treats its existing homes as the primary resource.
Where the numbers come from
Planning Data
Applications submitted to Havering in 2025 within the Romford area, classified from each application's published description. Shares are each category as a percentage of all submitted applications.
Category Multiples
Shares are computed over the pooled 2024-2025 window for stability. National benchmarks are computed the same way across all applications in England and Wales in the same period.
Sales Data
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for the Romford 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 in the Romford area, from the loft conversions and dormers that define the town to extensions and retrospective cases. Open any one to see its full record.
10 Wheatsheaf Road RM1 2HJ
A certificate of lawfulness was sought for a loft conversion with a rear dormer and front roof lights, the roof work Romford submits most.
See this property's full record47 Primrose Avenue RM6 4PU
A loft conversion with a rear dormer, hip to gable roof alterations and front roof lights was granted with conditions.
See this property's full record15 Gresham Drive RM6 4TL
Prior approval for a single storey rear extension was refused, one of a small number of applications Havering declined.
See this property's full record53 Lexden Drive RM6 4TJ
A proposed upward extension adding a single storey was refused at the prior approval stage.
See this property's full recordLaurel Dene Stapleford Road, Stapleford Abbotts RM4 1EJ
Permission was granted with conditions to demolish a garage and add front and rear extensions plus a hip to gable loft conversion with a rear dormer.
See this property's full record216 Chadwell Heath Lane RM6 4YL
A single storey rear and side extension, the most common project type in the Romford area, was approved with conditions.
See this property's full recordCurious about a home in Romford?
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