Backland Development
0800 088 6248Free to call Free plot appraisal

Build a new home in your garden in Cardiff

For a garden in Cardiff to take a new house, three things have to line up: a safe way in, enough space to keep both homes private and light, and services that can reach the plot at sensible cost. Our free appraisal looks at all three before you spend anything.

If they line up, we move on to a measured survey, design and, where useful, pre-application advice from Cardiff Council. Planning permission is the council’s decision, so the design is shaped around the tests its officers apply rather than the largest house the plot could possibly hold.

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Timber-frame house under construction with scaffolding at the bottom of a back garden, seen from the patio
Planning authority
Cardiff Council
Postcodes
CF5, CF10, CF11, CF14, CF23
Noon sun, 21 March
About 39°
Shadow from a 5 m eaves line
About 6.3 m
Planning plan
LDP
County
South Glamorgan

How it plays out in Cardiff

Access is where a garden plot anywhere in CF5, CF10, CF11 and CF14 tends to succeed or fail. A new drive needs enough width for cars, clear visibility where it meets the road, and enough distance from neighbouring windows to keep noise and headlights in check.

Policies in the council’s Local Development Plan (LDP), along with any highways advice the council receives, decide the detail for your address. We measure the gap beside your house on the first visit, and if it’s too tight for a home that can be approved and built safely, we’ll tell you before any design fees are spent.

Section showing noon sun and shadows in Cardiff: about 39 degrees on 21 March and 15 degrees on 21 December21 m21 Mar, noon: sun 39°, shadow 6.3 m21 Dec, noon: sun 15°, shadow 18.6 mExistingNew home
This section is worked out for the latitude of Cardiff: around 39° of sun at midday in late March and about 15° at midwinter. It shows why the gap between your house and a new home behind it is about light as well as privacy. Garden assumed to face north.

The next steps, locally

Getting started in Cardiff takes one step from you: send your address and a few photos of the garden, or call us. We check the title plan, access and planning constraints from our desk, then talk the plot through. If it looks viable we arrange a visit, discuss whether you want to sell, let or keep the new home, and set out the survey and design stage in writing before you commit.

  1. Free plot appraisal

    We check the title plan, access, constraints and planning policy from our desk, talk the plot through with you, and visit if it looks viable. There’s no cost and no obligation.

  2. Survey and design

    A measured survey records levels, boundaries, trees and neighbouring windows. We then design a layout and house that suit the plot, the street and your budget, and decide whether pre-application advice is worth seeking.

  3. Planning and approvals

    We submit the planning application and manage it to a decision, then deal with conditions, Building Regulations approval, the structural warranty, any build-over agreement and the new utility connections.

  4. Handover

    You receive the completion certificate, warranty documents, Energy Performance Certificate, manuals and utility details, so the new home is ready to move into, let or put on the market.

Worth checking early

  • You fund the build and carry the cost risk; ground conditions, sewer diversions or supply upgrades found later can move the price.
  • Building and selling a new home can change your tax position compared with selling only your house; take advice from a tax adviser first.
  • A build next door means months of noise, deliveries and contractors near your home; good planning reduces the disruption but doesn’t remove it.

Your questions, answered for Cardiff

Who decides planning for a garden house in Cardiff?

Cardiff Council decides applications for addresses in Cardiff, using the council’s Local Development Plan (LDP), national policy and its own design guidance. Neighbours and consultees such as highways officers can comment, and the decision is made by the council’s planning officers or, where the rules allow, its planning committee. Pre-application advice from the council can help test a scheme before the formal application is submitted.

How close can a new house be to my own in Cardiff?

There’s no single national distance. Many councils use separation guides of around 21 metres between facing back windows and around 12 to 15 metres between a back window and a blank side wall, but the guidance used by Cardiff Council decides. Window positions, ground levels, roof shape and screening all affect what is acceptable, which is why we survey before we design.

Will I pay Community Infrastructure Levy on a new home in Cardiff?

Only if Cardiff Council has adopted a Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule; not every council has. Where it applies, it can be charged on a new home of any size. A self-build exemption exists for people building a home to live in, but it must be claimed before work starts, so we check the position at design stage.

Do new homes in Cardiff need a structural warranty?

If the house will ever be sold or mortgaged, in practice yes. Mortgage lenders usually expect a 10-year structural warranty on a new home, though some accept an architect’s or surveyor’s certificate, and a warranty provider inspects the work at stages during the build, so it has to be in place before construction starts. Building control approval is separate and also required; a buyer’s solicitor will ask for both.

Other options in Cardiff

Build in your garden near Cardiff

Find out what your garden could become

Free garden plot appraisal. No cost, no obligation, and a straight answer if it won’t work.

Get my free appraisal 0800 088 6248