Choose the report for the Eltham decision
Choose according to construction, alterations, condition and the purpose of your instruction.
- RICS Level 2 Home Survey — a conventional home in reasonable condition, without significant complexity.
- RICS Level 3 Building Survey — an older, altered, unusual or complex home needing a fuller investigation of condition.
- Specific defect investigation — a defined concern such as damp, cracking or water ingress.
- Pre-acquisition commercial building survey — condition and technical risk for a commercial purchase or lease.
Send the address, plans and your concerns so the proposed service, inspection limits and fee can be confirmed before instruction.
Progress Estate evidence: cottage groups and varied roof forms
Greenwich’s Progress Estate appraisal describes individually arranged cottage groups with two-floor scale, winding layouts and variations in gables and swept roofs. Its architectural account records low-eaves windows, dormers, expressed chimney stacks, roughcast finishes, porch canopies and hanging slate or clay tiles. These are features of the named estate’s historic design, with deliberate variation between groups.
For a purchase there, show the particular roof slopes, entrances and present room arrangement. Ask for the house’s own alteration papers. A design relationship with another cottage does not establish the condition or complete repair history of this one.
Eltham building stock and property types
Eltham’s stock runs from the 1915 Arts-and-Crafts cottages of the Progress Estate, through extensive inter-war suburban semis and Edwardian houses, to period houses around the historic High Street — a mix of older, solid-walled and cavity-era fabric a Level 3 survey reads carefully.
The garden-suburb estate of about 1,300 houses and flats, built rapidly in 1915 to designs by Sir Frank Baines for Royal Arsenal munitions workers — varied Arts-and-Crafts cottage styles in a conservation area with an Article 4 direction.
The extensive inter-war semi-detached and detached houses that make up much of Eltham, including the Page, Middle Park and Horn Park council estates — cavity-era and rendered construction we survey differently to the older solid-walled stock.
The well-built Edwardian suburban houses of the Eltham Park streets, developed in the early 1900s, with bays, sashes and rear additions.
Period houses around the historic Eltham High Street and toward Eltham Palace — the medieval royal palace with its 1930s Art Deco house — and period houses converted to flats.
Conservation areas, listed buildings and alteration risk
Eltham has several Greenwich conservation areas, including the Progress Estate Conservation Area, which covers the 1915 garden-suburb estate and carries an Article 4 direction — the direction removes permitted-development rights so that external alterations to elevations visible from the street, such as windows, doors, roofs and boundary treatments, need planning permission, which is central to protecting the estate’s consistent character. The Eltham Palace, Eltham Green and Well Hall Pleasaunce conservation areas cover the palace, the green and the historic pleasure grounds. For a Progress Estate cottage, give changed dormers, doors and rear rooms separate entries in the purchase file, with their drawings and decisions.
Establish the Eltham address’s actual controls and work-specific requirements with Greenwich, alongside the solicitor’s title or lease checks.
For an Eltham house on the Progress Estate, identify the purchased cottage group and its own roof and entrance details. Include any later rear rooms or changed layout. Related estate designs still differ in gables, slopes and porches, so a neighbouring house’s repair schedule should not replace the address-specific brief.
Identify the low eaves beside the upper rooms
For a Progress Estate cottage with low roof edges, show the upstairs rooms, eaves void and dormer positions on the available section. Identify which slope and outlet a repair account names. Put a reported ceiling stain beneath its actual junction.
Request drawings for an enlarged dormer or altered stair separately from decoration papers. Identify the voids accessible from this house and any place that cannot be entered. A roof-covering schedule should distinguish slate or tile work from the support and connections it may leave outside its description.
Give the porch canopy and doorway their own record
Where an Eltham seller describes restored entrance details, ask for the earlier photograph, work specification and date for that doorway. Mark the canopy, supports and window beside it on the drawing. Identify whether the project repaired an existing element or introduced a changed arrangement.
Put the relevant decision papers with that work where applicable. A door design elsewhere in the cottage group should not be substituted for the purchased house’s records. If an entrance leak has been reported, locate the affected surface and the covering or joint discussed in the investigation.
Locate a later rear room within the cottage plot
For a Progress Estate purchase with an added kitchen or enlarged rear opening, outline the original range and addition on the plan. Label its separate covering and the connection to the older wall. Ask for the drawings and construction date for that project.
Match drainage changes and any reported movement to the addition’s footprint. Identify the side passage or garden route available for an external view. Keep the estate’s historic layout as context while the enquiry identifies the altered component and the missing evidence specific to this cottage.
Eltham building survey questions
Does the Progress Estate account give every cottage identical details?
It describes deliberate variation in roof, gable and entrance arrangements within related groups. Identify the bought house’s own slopes, layout and project history.
Which information helps with low-eaves accommodation?
Locate upper rooms, dormers and remaining voids on a section. Match repair records to the relevant covering, outlet and accessible roof space.
Can a neighbour’s doorway design establish this house’s restoration?
Request the purchased doorway’s earlier photograph, work description and project papers. Keep nearby designs separate from evidence for the actual alteration.
What should a later cottage extension show?
Mark its footprint, enlarged opening and roof junction, then date construction and drainage documents against those elements. Identify available side and rear access.
Eltham Building Survey Quote & Fee Estimator (From £550 plus VAT)
Content updated: October 2026.
Other Eltham surveying services
Need a RICS survey quote in Eltham? We confirm a fixed fee after scoping. Call 020 7101 4590, email enquiries@hampsteadcharteredsurveyors.co.uk, or inspect our redacted RICS Level 3 sample reports. Sample reports.