Land by postcode · NW area · NW5

Land in Camden, London (NW5)

What the open records say about the NW5 postcode district in Greater London: recent sales, planning designations and controls, and the council that decides applications. District-level facts to read before you sell or develop a plot in Camden, London.

Draw your boundary, an architect replies within 48 hours. No cost, no obligation.

What homes sold for in NW5

Residential sales recorded by HM Land Registry between 2024-08 and 2026-07. This is market context for the district, not a land valuation: what a plot is worth depends on what can be built on it, which these figures do not show.

Sales in 24 months

495

Median sale price

£675,000

Median £ per m² of floor area

£10,833

Median, last 12m vs prior 12m

-7.4%

£680,250 → £630,136

Mix of sales: 1% detached, 5% semi-detached, 19% terraced, 76% flats.

New-build sales 2023–2024: 28 of 526 (5%). A rough proxy for recent building activity: these are homes sold by builders, not development sites.

Planning designations and controls in NW5

For each designation on the planning.data.gov.uk register, the share of the 895 live postcodes in NW5 whose centroid falls inside it. This measures postcodes, not land area, and says nothing about any individual plot.

Conservation Area

30%

268 of 895 postcodes

Dartmouth Park · Kentish Town · Bartholomew Estate · Inkerman · West Kentish Town and 2 more

Article 4 Direction area

99%

889 of 895 postcodes

3 separate directions recorded, each removing particular permitted development rights within a defined area.

No postcodes in NW5 fall inside: Green Belt, National Landscape (AONB), National Park.

Flood zones, tree preservation orders, local plan allocations, settlement boundaries and non-designated heritage are not included here and are checked in a full assessment.

What the figures mean for land in Camden, London

30% of postcodes fall within a conservation area. Inside one, demolition needs consent, some permitted development rights are reduced, and new work is assessed against the character and appearance of the area.

99% of postcodes are covered by an Article 4 direction, which removes specific permitted development rights in that area, so changes that are automatic elsewhere need a planning application there.

These are district-level facts. The free assessment checks your actual boundary against the same registers and the local plan and tells you plainly what they mean for your plot.

What landowners have been granted in NW5

Decided planning applications in NW5 since 2021, from the council registers, grouped by the kind of scheme a landowner might be weighing up. Extensions, conditions and tree works are left out. Counts, not estimates.

Applications creating one to nine new homes

Taken from the units table on the planning form itself, so this is homes actually created, not a reading of the description. 11 decided since 2021, 1 refused, typically 504 days to a decision.

6 of 11

approved, 55%

47% across London

17 homes approved of 31 applied for

Approved examples

  • 58 Malden Road London NW5 3HG (1 new home)

    Change of use from shop to one self contained 2 bedroom (3 person) flat

    Approved 2022-09-13, Camden ref 2021/0822/P

  • 18 Lady Somerset Road London Camden NW5 1UP (3 new homes)

    Reconfiguration to provide 3no. self-contained dwellings (Class C3) and associated external works including creation of rear roof terrace.

    Approved 2022-12-16, Camden ref 2022/3720/P

  • 1 Hampshire Street London NW5 2TE (5 new homes)

    Change of use from commercial (Class E) to residential (Class C3) at ground floor to provide five flats and associated external alterations ...

    Approved 2024-02-14, Camden ref 2022/3758/P

By the kind of plot, from the wording of each proposal:

New homes on other land

10 decided since 2021, 2 refused, typically 223 days to a decision

8 of 10

approved, 80%

43% across London

Approved examples

  • 23A Bartholomew Road London NW5 2AH

    Creation of lightwell to front garden of the lower ground floor flat and installation of metal grille cover (part retrospective)

    Approved 2021-08-03, Camden ref 2021/2544/P

  • 49 Lupton Street London Camden NW5 2HS

    Conversion of 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors to facilitate the creation of 1 x one-bedroom self contrained flat and 1 x two-bedroom self contained ...

    Approved 2023-07-28, Camden ref 2022/3779/P

  • 2B Falkland Road London NW5 2PT

    Erection of photovoltaic panels to flat topped mansard roof of dwellinghouse.

    Approved 2023-08-01, Camden ref 2023/2084/P

Also decided here: 25 applications for outbuildings, annexes or garden buildings, 21 approved, typically 119 days.

Decided planning applications (not extensions, conditions or tree works) in this postcode district from the councils' own registers, classified by the wording of each proposal. Counts, not estimates; where a class has fewer than three applications it is not shown.

Who decides planning here

Camden covers 99% of the sampled postcodes in NW5.

Check your own plot in Camden, London

Draw your boundary, tell us what you own, and an architect checks it against these registers and the local plan. Free, no obligation, and you get a straight written answer.

Questions landowners ask about Camden, London

Can I build on land I own in Camden, London?

It depends on where the plot sits, not on the district average. In NW5, 0% of postcodes are in the Green Belt, 30% in a conservation area. Outside those designations the questions that decide it are whether the plot is inside or adjoining the settlement boundary in the local plan, whether it has its own road access, and what is next to it. A plot on the edge of a village or town with access has the best chance; an open field outside the settlement boundary rarely gets consent for housing whatever the market is doing.

Do I need planning permission for an outbuilding, extension or change of use in NW5?

Often, yes. 99% of postcodes in NW5 are under an Article 4 direction (3 separate directions), which withdraws particular permitted development rights, so an outbuilding, extension or change of use that is automatic elsewhere needs an application there. Outside those areas, permitted development applies to houses and their gardens but not to agricultural land or paddocks, where a new building or a new use normally needs permission or prior approval.

Will a developer be interested in a plot in Camden, London?

Developers look at three things before they talk about price: whether the plot is outside the Green Belt and any National Landscape, whether it sits inside or beside the settlement boundary, and what finished homes sell for. In NW5 the median sale is £675,000, and only 5% of 2023–2024 sales were new-build homes, so builders have been quiet here. A single plot usually goes to a local builder or a self-builder; a site for five or more homes attracts regional housebuilders, normally through an option or a conditional contract rather than an outright purchase, so the price you see quoted is not the price you receive.

What is a plot of land worth in Camden, London?

There is no district figure for land, because a plot's value comes from what can be built on it, not from where it is. As a guide, a serviced plot with consent for one house commonly sells for around a third of the finished house value, which in NW5 would be measured against a £675,000 median sale. The same plot without consent, or inside the Green Belt, is worth a small fraction of that, and a paddock with no realistic route to consent is worth agricultural or amenity value only. The free check tells you which of those your plot is before you talk to anyone about a price.

How do I find out what applies to my own plot in Camden, London?

Three places: Camden's local plan and its policies map for the settlement boundary and allocations, the council's planning register for what has been approved or refused on neighbouring land, and planning.data.gov.uk for the national designations. That is an evening's work if you know what you are looking for. The alternative is to draw your boundary on this site: an architect checks it against the same records and writes back within 48 hours with a plain answer, free and without obligation.

Worth reading before you decide

Nearby districts

Computed from open-data records; district-level, not plot-level measurements. Sales: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (2024-08-01 to 2026-07-31), © Crown copyright, Open Government Licence. Designations: planning.data.gov.uk (OGL), retrieved 2026-09-05; conservation areas and Article 4 directions are made locally and published on that national register. Postcode centroids: OS Code-Point Open 2026.3.0, contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Place name is the most common post town in the sales records. Figures computed 2026-09-06.