Mixed-Use Commercial

Keep The Shop. Build Homes Above It.

High-street buildings where the ground floor has to stay commercial and the value sits in the floors above.

How it works →

The Opportunity

Plenty of high-street buildings are worth more as a mixed-use scheme than as either pure commercial or pure residential. Retaining an active ground-floor unit is often what makes the residential above acceptable in policy terms, and it keeps an income stream while the rest is converted.

Typical arrangementRetail below, homes above
Planning routeFull or prior approval
Common blockerGround-floor policy

What Is Hard

The Risks Unique To
Mixed-Use Commercial.

  • Policy protects the ground floor

    Many local and neighbourhood plans resist losing commercial frontage in a centre. Overturning that needs evidence: a documented marketing exercise, sustained vacancy, and ideally a viability appraisal.

  • Separating the uses

    Independent access, fire separation, acoustics between commercial and residential, and separate services all have to be designed in from the start, not retrofitted onto a layout that ignored them.

  • Servicing and refuse

    Two uses in one envelope means two sets of bins, deliveries, and cycle storage, all of which officers scrutinise closely on constrained high-street sites.

How We Solve It

Built For
Mixed-Use Commercial.

Sketch Schemes

One to two layout options, drawn over your estate agent or measured plans.

Layouts that keep the commercial unit working while the floors above become homes, with genuinely independent access.

Planning Policy Analysis

Planning policy, flood risk, Article 4, conservation, and heritage assessment.

The ground-floor retention policy read properly, including whether a change is arguable and what evidence it would take.

Risk Register

Structural, environmental, and commercial risks, quantified with cost implications.

The risks of running two uses in one building named and costed, from acoustics to refuse strategy.

Full Feasibility Document

Planning context and risk, development potential, Building Regs, and commercial position, with a clear Go or No-Go.

The commercial case for the mixed scheme against the pure-residential fallback, so you can see which is actually worth more.

A Real Project

We Have Done This Before.

Former Bank To Eleven-Bed HMO And Shop
Mixed Use

Former Bank To Eleven-Bed HMO And Shop

Cheddar, Somerset

A closed high-street bank going to auction, tested for a mixed-use scheme that keeps the shopfront working and puts eleven en-suite rooms above it.

Read the full case study

Test This Building.

Submit your property and get a clear Go or No-Go in five days, for a fixed fee.

FAQs

Answering Your Questions.

Got more questions? Send us your enquiry and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Fixed-fee pricing based on building size and complexity, no hourly rates, no scope creep. You know exactly what you're paying before we start. Most feasibilities range from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, depending on scheme complexity.