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Look up. Some of the most interesting new developments in London are being built in the airspace above existing structures.<\/p>\n
There are listings now popping up across sites like Rightmove for \u00a3320 000 ($437 000) for empty airspace in the residential neighbourhood of Muswell Hill, or \u00a3150 000 in Deptford. Airspace purchases in London largely involve buying the space above a property to create new residential units, like building penthouses above already existing blocks. Industry experts Apex Airspace estimate that this type of construction has the potential for 180 000 new homes in London, and comes at a time when homebuilding has been collapsing across the UK capital.<\/p>\n
However, airspace projects can often run into local opposition during the process, with residents saying they cause disruption and complaints about how the extra floors atop buildings change the look and feel of a neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
In cities like New York, buying up airspace to increase a building\u2019s square footage or to create new buildings entirely has been going on for a long time. Take 111 West 57th Street, completed in 2021. The supertall pencil tower rises 1 428 feet above a 16-story building from the 1920s. The new apartments are connected to the old building with the same lobby, though high-floor apartments have their own elevator banks. A so-called \u201cquadplex\u201d penthouse in that building was put on the market for $110 million in 2025.<\/p>\n
Buying up airspace hasn\u2019t\u00a0taken off in London for a multitude of reasons. Many old buildings\u00a0cannot take the extra load from new floors, and it\u2019s common for blocks to have multiple owners\u00a0which makes agreement on new construction difficult. There are\u00a0also complex planning constraints to protect skyline views and so-called conservation areas that make development tricky. But things\u00a0became easier during the last government, which caused a flurry of airspace rights to hit the market.<\/p>\n
In 2020, then housing minister Robert Jenrick introduced reforms that relaxed rules to allow airspace builds above existing buildings. Owners can now construct additional residential stories to either expand their own dwelling or create new units altogether without going through full planning permission, which is often a long and costly process. This was part of a broader set of reforms to boost housing supply, and the current Labour government has not shelved these changes.<\/p>\n
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The new rules make it easier for developers to create new apartments in desirable areas with less red tape. The airspace is now largely being sold or leased to outside owners, and in many cases, the people who live below the new flats have little say in the process.<\/p>\n
London has very old housing stock, the oldest in Europe, with around 60% being built before World War II, according to the Greater London Authority. Much of the housing stock is Victorian, Edwardian and even Georgian houses, which in many cases have been converted from homes into individual flats. There\u2019s little appetite or indeed permission from local councils to tear down 200-year-old buildings to build brand new ones. So, utilising airspace can help find pockets to develop that don\u2019t involve demolishing anything.<\/p>\n
United Kingdom Sotheby\u2019s International Realty executive partner Becky Fatemi says what was once dismissed as inaccessible air is now being seen as one of London\u2019s most valuable untapped resources.\u00a0\u201cAs London continues to grow within its existing footprint, building in the air isn\u2019t just an architectural trend, it\u2019s becoming a vital part of how our city sustains its future,\u201d says Fatemi.<\/p>\n
Architects and developers who work on these projects tout the economic benefits, saying that crucially, building up is cheaper than digging down in London\u2019s famously tricky clay terrain. \u201cIt\u2019s about half as expensive to do as a basement,\u201d says architect Robert Douge, director of boutique architecture firm Arya Douge, who has been advising on this type of airspace\u00a0<\/strong>projects in prime central London. The economics also make sense, he says. \u201cIf it costs, say, \u00a3800 a square foot to build these in central London, and you can sell it for over \u00a31 000 a square foot, it\u2019s just a no-brainer to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Douge says\u00a0that the space on top of buildings is also much more attractive than dark basements.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge is local objections.\u00a0\u201cOn the national level, the government\u2019s been trying to make it easier to extend without planning permission,\u201d says Douge. \u201cAt local levels, there\u2019s\u00a0always been some resistance to that.\u201d<\/p>\n In Camden\u2019s Primrose Hill neighbourhood, there is a plan to construct eight new penthouse apartments above a 1970s housing block called Darwin Court. There were around 100 local objections, including one from Labour councillor Patricia Callaghan, who says her concerns were focused on the disruption that locals would experience during construction and the possibility that the new apartments would change the character of the neighbourhood.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Local resident Ben Olins has been living in the building since 1999, and says, beyond the obvious disturbance aspect \u2014 no one enjoys their neighbours doing construction \u2014 he was worried about the uncertainty of the build. Like many residents who live in London apartments, he owns the leasehold, but not the freehold of the property outright.<\/p>\n \u201cWe as leaseholders have no control over this, no guarantee that the project would be done when the developers said, and no guarantee that it\u2019d match the plans we were shown,\u201d he says. He\u2019s also concerned about service charges \u2014 annual charges paid to maintain the building \u2014 rising as a result of the new airspace builds.<\/p>\n No committed decision has yet been made by Camden Council on the future of the airspace built on Darwin Court, and as a result, construction has not yet begun. Representatives for the London borough have declined to comment.<\/p>\n Across town, in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea, developer Echlin is now in the middle of creating four new luxury apartments atop a red brick apartment building on Sloane Court East. The apartments are connected, with elevators inside the lobby that will take residents up to the new penthouses.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have here is a relatively low-build building and there\u2019s a real opportunity to add new floors,\u201d says Sam McNally, co-founder\u00a0of Echlin. The building is particularly suitable for airspace development\u00a0since it is a more modern\u00a0structure with a flat roof\u00a0instead of a classical period townhouse\u00a0that tends to dominate prime central London areas.<\/p>\n Sloane Court East is Echlin\u2019s second airspace project after adding eight new apartments atop a modernist 1980s block in the Camden neighbourhood in 2024. Two-bed apartments sold for \u00a31.2 million, according to the Land Registry, more than the neighbourhood average and much higher than the older apartments below.<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not big pockets left of central London to develop,\u201d McNally adds, saying that airspace is just the latest iteration of how London is changing as a city.<\/p>\n Will Vaughan, director of estate agency House Collective, agrees. \u201cOne of the most striking shifts in London right now is the number of new homes being built on top of existing buildings. Planning changes have made this far easier, opening up opportunities to create new housing without using up scarce land.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, he warns that for some buyers, this type of new home might not be as desirable due to the contrast to the rest of the homes in a building, which are likely much older. \u201cNot everyone wants to buy a shiny new penthouse sitting above housing stock that is very different, no matter how beautifully finished it is,\u201d says Vaughan. \u201cLocation, context and perception matter just as much as design.\u201d<\/p>\n London won\u2019t turn into New York anytime soon, but if Londoners\u00a0look up, they\u2019ll likely be seeing a lot more cranes hovering above older apartments.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n Follow Moneyweb\u2019s in-depth finance and business news on WhatsApp here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n