How likely is my planning application to get approved in Merton?

It's a reasonable question. You want to extend, convert, or build something new — and before you spend time and money on an application, you want to know whether it'll actually go through. The problem is that in Merton, the answer is never straightforward, and most homeowners don't realise just how much variation there is from one street to the next. Tools like WhatCanIBuild exist precisely because the gap between "I think this should be fine" and what actually gets approved is wider than most people expect.

Merton isn't one place — it's dozens of different planning environments

Merton covers SW19, SW20, SM4, CR4, and KT3. That's Wimbledon, Mitcham, Morden, Colliers Wood, and New Malden — all under the same council, but with very different planning histories and constraints. Wimbledon Village sits within a conservation area. Merton Park has its own character protections. Parts of the south of the borough fall within Green Belt. Whether your application lands in one of these zones — or on the edge of one — changes everything.

And it's not just about which neighbourhood you're in. Two houses on the same road can have different designations, different permitted development rights, and a very different history of what's been approved and refused nearby. Most homeowners don't realise this until they've already submitted.

Article 4 directions and conservation areas — do you know if they apply to you?

Merton has multiple conservation areas, concentrated around Wimbledon Village and Merton Park, and Article 4 directions apply in several of them. What that means for your specific project — your extension, your outbuilding, your loft conversion — is not something you can answer just by knowing you live in a conservation area.

The detail that matters is whether similar projects on your street or in your immediate area have been approved or refused, and on what grounds. That's where most applications run into trouble. Not because the project is unreasonable, but because the applicant didn't know what had already been decided nearby.

The application fee is the easy part

At £258 for a householder application in Merton, the fee itself isn't the risk. The risk is the eight weeks of waiting — and the possibility of refusal — when the outcome could have been anticipated. A refusal isn't just a setback; it goes on public record and can affect future applications on the same property.

That's why the question isn't just "will this get approved in Merton?" — it's "what are the odds for my project, on my property, given what's been decided nearby?"

WhatCanIBuild shows you exactly that: what's been approved and refused near you, the approval patterns for your specific project type in your area, and how your property's combination of constraints affects your chances. Not a generic answer — a property-specific one.

If you're in Merton and you're weighing up whether to apply, the best way to go in with realistic expectations is to check your address first. WhatCanIBuild gives you the local intelligence that turns a guess into an informed decision.