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Aerial view of 74 Allitsen Road, a white derelict former members' club on a corner plot in St John's Wood, NW8
Case study: feasibility & design study

74 Allitsen Road, St John's Wood Feasibility study for a derelict former members' club: 4 to 7 flats

Indicative development margin

£1.9M ~32% on GDV (GDV less
land and build)

The recommended scheme

  • £6.0Mgross development value (GDV)
  • ~32%margin on GDV, indicative
  • 7apartments within the existing envelope
  • 17months, Stage 4 design to handover

Bought as a question mark

A former private members' club: vacant, derelict inside, on the corner of two streets. It was bought at auction in 2026 without proper due diligence.

That is the red flag for every investor and developer: never buy before the checks are done. The expensive mistakes on schemes like this are made before anyone starts building. Start with our due diligence checklist for a development site, and remember that planning permission does not mean viable.

Our property development feasibility study turned it into a £6M scheme of flats: four options designed and priced, the planning-money strategy built, and a deliverable programme behind every number.

The Charlbert Street elevation of 74 Allitsen Road, white stucco facade with green bands

The building as bought

Auction guide
£2,750,000
Context
Conservation Area
Basement head height
1.8 m
Envelope
Fixed, no extension
Existing floor area (GIA)
5,038 sq ft

Bought or buying a building like this?

Want the checks run against your own building, with real numbers? That is exactly what our feasibility study does.

Two hundred yards from St John's Wood High Street

74 Allitsen Road site location plan, the corner of Allitsen Road and Charlbert Street marked in red

A corner plot on two streets

The corner of Allitsen Road and Charlbert Street: two active frontages.

Lord's, Regent's Park, the Jubilee line, 1½ miles from the West End. One of London's strongest rental villages, and a street that already proves the scheme: mansard roof storeys and basement lightwells exist along Allitsen Road itself, and two-bedroom apartments are the single most demanded rental product in St John's Wood. The location sets the value; the building just has to catch up. See also our work in St John's Wood.

From a derelict club to homes

Retain the shell, strip everything inside to structure, new steel frame, new floor levels: everything behind the two street facades is rebuilt.

74 Allitsen Road from the street corner: the vacant white former club with boarded ground-floor openings
As foundVacant since the club closed

Tap to enlarge

Proposed, Option 3Raised ground floor, habitable basement, new third floor

The building and the street, as found

Four schemes, every number real

From convert-as-is to seven apartments: designed, costed and appraised.

OptionSchemeUnitsBuild costGDV*£/sq ft build
Option 1Convert within the existing building4£1.90M£4.06M583
Option 2+ roof extension, additional storey6£2.25M£5.29M532
Option 3+ basement by raising the ground floor (recommended)6£2.51M£5.87M536
Option 4+ basement by excavation, maximum units7£2.75M£6.06M568

*GDV at £1,250/sq ft net saleable: new-converted, upper-midrange specification, St John's Wood comparables. Build costs are detailed unit-by-unit cost plans at worst-case basis incl. forward inflation, no hidden contingency required on top. How we read the numbers: development site for sale, the real numbers. Margin = GDV less land and build, on the acquisition assumption used in the study: indicative, before finance and fees.

Option 3 delivers 97% of the maximum GDV at 91% of the maximum cost, without a single cubic metre of excavation risk.

Get your site costed before you commit

On Allitsen Road: four options, real cost plans and a GDV appraisal, issued in four weeks.

Worked design, not concept sketches

Tap to enlarge

Four options, drawn and compared

Every option drawn to plan, section and schedule, unit by unit: from convert-as-is to seven apartments.

Tap to enlarge

Recommended scheme: upper floor plans

Six apartments arranged across five storeys, every unit tested against national space standards before anything reached a planner.

Tap to enlarge

Ground floor plan

Ground floor plan: the raised ground floor is the move that makes the basement habitable without digging.

Tap to enlarge

Schedule of accommodation

Schedule of accommodation with compliance margins shown against policy minimums.

We advised the client against our most expensive option

Inside the former club at 74 Allitsen Road, partly stripped rooms with old partitions

−£240k: don't dig the basement

Excavation adds ~£240k and ~3 months to buy one basement one-bed worth £260–350k. We recommended raising the ground floor instead: same habitable basement, a fraction of the cost and risk.

Tap to enlarge

10.8 m: 200 mm below the line

Floor levels engineered to keep the extended building below the 11 m sprinkler threshold, and far below the 18 m higher-risk building regime, where fire-safety requirements and cost step up sharply. No sprinklers, no enhanced regime: six figures saved by design.

Tap to enlarge

72 m²: units tuned to yield

Two-beds held at the space-standard minimum: extra square metres earn no extra rent. The basement works instead of selling: plant and M&E (mechanical and electrical services) for the whole building stacked centrally, so no apartment loses lettable space.

The biggest scheme is rarely the most profitable, and the cheapest is rarely the right one. Feasibility exists to find where the money actually is.

In Westminster, planning economics move more money than any construction decision

The workstream most contractors never show you.

ItemWhy it decides the projectThe Craftex move
Change-of-use evidenceA sui generis club has no automatic route to residential: the council expects sustained evidence the old use is dead.Evidence strategy built from trading history, vacancy record and a correctly structured marketing exercise.
Affordable housingSince 2026, 20% of floorspace even on small schemes: a seven-figure exposure at St John's Wood payment-in-lieu (cash paid to the council instead of building affordable homes) rates.Exposure quantified per option; legal reduction route identified and sequenced before pre-application.
Vacancy creditVacant building credit (floorspace of a long-empty building offset against affordable housing): a national mechanism can cut that exposure by over £1M, if the building's vacancy history is protected.Standing instruction from day one: nothing happens to the empty building until the strategy is fixed.
CILCIL (Community Infrastructure Levy, the council's charge on new floorspace): a six-figure swing depending on lawful-use history at the date of permission.Liability modelled before submission, not discovered after it.
DisclosureShow a council four costed options and it will prefer the most expensive one.One scheme goes forward. The options stay on the client's side of the table.

Design review, approvals, structure, cost, programme and planning economics: one owner, one point of responsibility. That is what development management means at Craftex.

74 weeks standard, around 14 months on site

Issued with the feasibility: every client decision made against a real timeline, not a promise.

standard sequencing
74 weeks
target on site, one integrated team
~14 months
pre-construction
~3 months
direct labour
60–70%
  1. 01Temporary works & full scaffold
  2. 02Strip-out, top-down
  3. 03Ground-floor slab raised
  4. 04New structure, bottom-up
  5. 05Fit-out in parallel
  6. 06Commission & hand over

Tap to enlarge

The full programme issued to the client

Make every decision against a real timeline

Want a programme like this for your own building, issued with the feasibility?

Our team

  • in

Issued to the client in four weeks

From “should we buy it?” to the keys, one point of responsibility: acquisition advice, planning strategy, development economics, design coordination, construction (60–70% direct labour) and aftercare.

DeliverableOutput
Architectural feasibility: four options, plans, sections, schedules34-page study
Detailed cost plans: quantity × rate, every trade, all four options£1.90M–£2.75M
GDV appraisal anchored to local comparables£4.1M–£6.1M
Planning & development risk register incl. affordable, CIL & vacancy strategy18 risks owned
High-level construction programme, standard & accelerated74 wks / 14 mo

Free value: take this with you

Twelve checks before you commit to a conversion like this

  1. Before you buy

    • Confirm the use class and the evidence route out of it. Budget 12–18 months of marketing evidence into the deal, not after it.
    • Pull the planning history and the street's precedents first. A refusal next door tells you more than any brochure.
    • Check the vacancy history before you touch anything. It can be worth over £1M in affordable-housing relief.
    • Price the worst case before exchange. No building in this condition has ever got cheaper after it was opened up.
  2. Before you design

    • Measure the real heights early. 11 m triggers sprinklers; 18 m the higher-risk building regime.
    • Test every unit against space standards, including the stricter two-storey minimums for duplexes.
    • Decide the basement method on numbers, not ambition. Compare the dig cost with what the extra unit is worth.
    • Keep entrances and openings unless the move pays for its planning fight.
  3. Before you submit

    • Quantify affordable housing and CIL per option before pre-application, while the scheme can still move.
    • Take one scheme to the council. Show four costed options and they will prefer your most expensive one.
    • Leave the empty building alone until the strategy is fixed. An innocent interim letting can burn a seven-figure relief.
    • Give the project one owner. The money leaks in the gaps between architect, planner, QS and contractor.

Certified, insured, compliant

  • ISO 9001 Quality Management
  • ISO 14001 Environmental Management
  • ISO 45001 Health & Safety Management
  • SafeContractor Approved
  • SSIP Safety Schemes in Procurement
  • CDM 2015 Principal Contractor
  • CIS Gross
  • Public Liability £10,000,000
  • Employers' Liability £10,000,000
  • Professional Indemnity available on request
  • Defects liability standard 12 months, extendable
  • Warranty up to 10 years available
  • Collateral warranties from our consultants & design team

What our clients say

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Questions about this feasibility study

What is in a property development feasibility study?

Five outputs: architectural options with plans, sections and schedules; a cost plan for every option; a GDV appraisal against local sales; a planning and development risk register; and a construction programme. The deliverables table above shows what each one contained here. How we run it: our development feasibility study.

Can a sui generis members' club be converted to flats?

Not automatically. The council needs sustained proof that the club use has ended. We build that proof from the club's own trading and vacancy records plus a properly run marketing campaign, and plan for 12–18 months of it in the deal.

How long does a conversion like this take to build?

Around 14 months on site when one team runs design, surveys and procurement in parallel (74 weeks on standard sequencing), plus about 3 months of pre-construction. Digging the basement would add roughly 3 months. The target from technical design (Stage 4) to keys is 17 months.

What should I check before buying a building like this at auction?

First, what the building is allowed to become and what the street has already been granted. Then how long it has stood empty, and the price of the worst case before you exchange. Step by step: our pre-purchase checklist and the guide to buying with or without planning permission.

Is the biggest scheme always the most profitable?

No. Here the recommended scheme reached almost the full value of the largest one for less money and with none of the digging risk, which is why we advised against excavating. More on what a development site is really worth.

Are these figures still current?

This study was prepared in October 2026 and reflects planning policy, building regulations and market conditions at that date. Planning policy moves constantly, so thresholds, rates and policy positions should be re-verified at the time of your own project.

Planning a conversion, refurbishment or development in Central London?

Craftex delivers advisory, planning strategy, design and construction as one accountable team, from first appraisal to rental-ready handover.

Unit 5, 160 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9TR

info@craftex.co.uk

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