HMO Room Size Requirements: A Comprehensive Guide

Updated: September 2024

As an HMO landlord or investor, it’s important to find balance between your property giving you a high return while also providing high quality living conditions for your occupants. With this in mind, the government in the UK, as well as local planning authorities, offer guidelines on HMO minimum room sizes to ensure that living spaces are comfortable and suitable for your tenants.

If you let a large HMO, meaning that the property has five or more tenants, you will need a mandatory HMO licence. In this type of property, the occupants will share rooms and facilities such as bathrooms, kitchens and living spaces.

From October 2018, the mandatory licence was extended to cover restrictions on room sizing and overcrowding in these types of properties. Minimum room sizes were imposed by law, meaning that HMO landlords must abide by these restrictions or face potential fines or prosecution, under the conditions of their licence.

It’s important to note that on top of national rules for minimum sizes in HMOs, each local council will have their own expectations and recommendations that you will need to follow.

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room size requirements for hmos

HMO Minimum Room Sizes

Bedroom Room Size Requirements

As a landlord, you are responsible for ensuring that your HMO bedroom sizes are in line with the guidelines outlined in The Housing Act 2004. When measuring up your bedrooms, you must ensure they meet the following minimum sizes:

OccupancyMinimum Bedroom Size for HMO
One child under the age of 104.64 square metres
One occupant over 10 years of age6.52 square metres
Two occupants over 10 years of age10.22 square metres
Table of floor space bedroom size requirements in HMOs

In addition, when measuring up the room, you must include the full floor area only where the ceiling is higher than 1.5m. Any part of the room that has a ceiling height of under 1.5m, such as a loft bedroom, cannot be used in the overall floor space measurement.

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Bedroom Height Requirements

There is no minimum height for a room under building regulations. However, other legislation or local councils can have certain criteria set.

Some local authorities require room heights of around 2.3m over at least 75% of the usable room area as a minimum requirement. In addition, any floor area where the ceiling height is less than 1.9m will not count towards the habitable floor space. However, there can be some exceptions to this depending on the type of property. This includes HMO bedrooms such as:

  • Attic rooms: The minimum heigh for attic rooms is generally 2.14m over at least 75% of the room area, however this can go up to 2.3m depending on the planning authority.
  • Underground rooms: The minimum height for underground rooms is usually 2.14m, but again can vary depending on the local council. This however can go up to 2.3m depending on the planning authority.

It is best to check with your local planning authority the height requirements that will apply to your specific HMO. An HMO expert can help provide more clarity on this if needed.

Kitchen Size Requirements

Given the nature of HMO living, it’s important to have a spacious kitchen that can accommodate a large number of people all sharing the same space. To ensure that the kitchen is suitable for HMO tenants, there are rules on HMO kitchen size requirements.

As per the bedroom requirements, there can be some differences from council to council, but the smallest size for an HMO kitchen is 7m2. It must also be no smaller than 1.8 metres across the narrowest area of the room.

If you have more than 5 tenants, an additional square metre is required per tenant up to 10m2 and up to 10 tenants. If the number of occupants exceeds 10, another kitchen is required.

hmo kitchen size requirements

It’s worth noting that there should also be an additional living room or dining room with a minimum size of 11m2.

This means that general single HMO kitchen requirements are:

OccupancyMinimum Kitchen Size for HMO
Up to 5 tenants7m2
From 6-10 tenantsBetween 8m2 – 10m2
More than 10 tenantsSecond kitchen required
Table of floor space kitchen size requirements in HMOs

These restrictions outlined above as strictly related to the size of the kitchen, and you should be aware that there are other requirements on general facilities in the kitchen that you also need to be aware of including:

Cooking Facilities

OccpuancyCooking Facility Requirements
Up to 5 tenantsa 4 ring cooker, oven and grill
From 6-10 tenantsa 4+ ring cooker and oven with a grill or additional microwave
More than 10 tenants2 cookers with 4 rings
Table of cooking facility requirements for HMOs

Worktop Sizes

OccupancyWorktop Size Requirements
Up to 5 tenants2m x 0.6m
From 6-10 tenants3m x 0.6m
Table of worktop size requirements for HMOs

Food Cupboards & Storage

  • 70cm x 60cm x 50cm

Sink & Drainer

OccupancySink & Drainer Requirements
Up to 5 tenants1 single sink with a drainer
From 6-10 tenants1 double-bowled sink with a drainer or a 1 single sink and dishwasher
More than 10 tenants2 sinks
Table of sink and drainer requirements for HMOs

It’s worth noting that these regulations include absolute minimum sizes, so while they may be within the requirements of the law, you should still consider as a landlord whether the space is suitable and comfortable for the number of tenants you are responsible for.

A spacious and non-crowded HMO is less likely to suffer from damage or serious maintenance issues and great interior design is a core selling point for HMO investments, so it’s a win-win for tenants and landlords.

bathroom size requirements for hmos

Bathroom Size Requirements

The bathroom requirements for HMOs aim to ensure that tenants are comfortable and not running into issues when sharing their space. Too many tenants sharing the bathroom can lead to a higher risk of health and safety issues as well as general maintenance and upkeep problems.

While restrictions can vary from council to council, in general the ratio is 1 bathroom for every 4 tenants. However, for large HMOs over 5 tenants, you will need separate toilets from the main bathroom so that your occupants aren’t having trouble with showers or baths being occupied when they need to use the toilet, or vice versa. If you have ensuite bathrooms attached to some, but not all, of your bedrooms, subtract those occupiers and bathrooms before you calculate how many communal bathrooms you need.

OccupancyNumber of HMO Bathrooms Required
Up to 4 tenants1 toilet which can form part of a bathroom
5 tenants1 toilet with a wash basin in addition to a main bathroom or bathrooms
6-10 tenants2 toilets with 2 bathrooms, one of which can be within one of the main bathrooms
Bathroom requirements for HMOs

While these are the legal requirements, we recommend more bathrooms to make life more comfortable and easier for your tenants. Property Investments UK recommends using a one-bathroom-per-three-tenants ratio.

In terms of sizing, official UK legislation dictates that the rooms should be “adequate” for the number of occupants. However, your local planning authority may dictate a specific size under their licensing requirements. It is best to check with the council on specifics, but we recommend, of course, that the bathroom space is reasonable and comfortable for your tenants.

There are also often sizing requirements for facilities in the HMO bathroom. This includes things such as the wash basin or shower sizes. Sandwell Council, for example, has minimum dimensions for each facility, such as below:

ItemDimensions
Wash hand basin500m x 400m
Bath1700m x 700m
Splash back300m high
Shower800m x 800m
Shower room1600m x 900m
Bathroom (bath only)1400m x 1700m
Bathroom (bath/whb/WC) 1800m x 1600m
HMO bathroom size requirements from Sandwell Council

Again, local councils can have different requirements, especially in cities with high densities of HMOs.

For more information on HMO bathroom size requirements, take a read of our article:

HMO Bathroom Size Requirements >

hmo bathroom size restrictions

HMO Interior Design in line with Room Size Requirements

Now you can see that there are several considerations you need to make as an HMO investor or landlord when it comes to room sizes and choosing property or designing your space. This can feel a little like you are restricted in the amount of control you have over the design of the space when trying to bring it in line with all the requirements.

Here at HMO designers, we specialise in HMO architecture, design and project management and have a good understanding of both HMO room size requirements and creating amazing designs that are compliant and safe for tenants.

If you are interested in HMO interior design or just looking for some general advice on room sizing and restrictions, reach out to us and we can help provide more clarity on some of these often complex areas of legislation.

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