The Freedom singer's home has lain dormant since he died in 2016 but will now be renovated by his sister
George Michael died in 2016 and his home has been empty ever since(Image credit: Getty Images)
George Michael’s former home in North London’s Hampstead will undergo an extensive renovation after planning officers greenlit plans to change a garage into living quarters.
The Wham star, who died on Christmas Day in 2016, left the property to his sisters Melanie, who died in 2019, and Yioda, who now handles the singer’s estate.
Yioda has now been approved plans to renovate the house, which also include replacing the doors and windows to the property in order to bring the home back to its former glories.
All the doors and windows set to be replaced
The works include a new front door and lobby arrangement to replace the current garage door, metal balustrades, changes to the front steps, the lowering of the front patio area, and the raising of the upper ground floor rear window head heights to allow a better view of the garden.
Patio doors will be added to the terrace and rear decking will surround the bedroom and the existing cement board cladding will be swapped for a more “modern” white aesthetic laminate board.
The documents add that a more traditional house frontage will “reinstate the character of the house”.
Planning permission was granted because “given the nature of the works, the proposal is not considered to impact the residential amenity of occupiers to any greater extent than the existing arrangement, including in terms of loss of privacy or outlook”.
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Planning permission was needed for the garage conversion, patio works and solar panels(Image credit: Google Earth)
Two garages to be converted into new outbuilding
Planning documents state that two of the garages would be merged into one large outbuilding.
The garages are next to the two-storey home and include four parking spaces and are constructed in brick with white metal tilt-up and over garage doors, timber facias painted white, and a single-ply timber roof.
The garage conversion, it was stated, was aimed to provide more living space to the property.
Eco-friendly upgrades to be installed
The installation of new solar panels was welcomed by planning officers as it “would provide low carbon and renewable energy and aid the borough's decentralised energy network”.
The PV panels would be installed on the main rear roof slope and on the roof of the ground floor dormer window on the southern side elevation where a roof mounted water tank will be removed.
Double glazed windows will also be installed to the property.
Sam is based in Coventry and has been a news reporter for nearly 20 years. His work has featured in the Mirror, The Sun, MailOnline, the Independent, and news outlets throughout the world. As a copywriter, he has written for clients as diverse as Saint-Gobain, Michelin, Halfords Autocentre, Great British Heating, and Irwin Industrial Tools. During the pandemic, he converted a van into a mini-camper and is currently planning to convert his shed into an office and Star Wars shrine.
