Southampton Additional HMO Licensing Wards: The 9 Areas That Need a Licence

Nine Southampton wards are covered by the Additional HMO Licensing Scheme that came into force on 1 October 2025. If you rent a property to three or four unrelated people in any of these wards, you need a licence — even though mandatory licensing would not catch a property that small.

The Nine Designated Wards

The scheme was designated by Southampton City Council under Section 56 of the Housing Act 2004 and runs for five years, expiring on 30 September 2030.

The wards are:

1. Banister and Polygon
2. Bargate
3. Bassett
4. Bevois
5. Freemantle
6. Millbrook
7. Portswood
8. Shirley
9. Swaythling

These nine wards contain the highest concentrations of HMO properties in the city, particularly around the University of Southampton (Portswood, Swaythling, Bassett) and the Solent University corridor (Bevois, Bargate).

What the Scheme Captures

The additional scheme extends HMO licensing to two categories that mandatory licensing misses:

Smaller HMOs. Properties occupied by three or four people from two or more separate households who share facilities. Outside these nine wards, a three- or four-person shared house does not need a licence — the mandatory threshold is five. Inside them, it does.

Purpose-built flats. Nationally, purpose-built flats in blocks of three or more self-contained units are excluded from mandatory HMO licensing. Southampton's additional scheme deliberately captures these if they are occupied by sharers from two or more households in the nine wards.

Section 257 converted blocks — buildings where the conversion did not comply with the Building Regulations applicable to the conversion and fewer than two thirds of the flats are owner-occupied — are excluded from the additional scheme even within the nine wards.

Properties Outside the Nine Wards

If your property sits outside Banister and Polygon, Bargate, Bassett, Bevois, Freemantle, Millbrook, Portswood, Shirley and Swaythling, the additional licensing scheme does not apply. You only need a licence if the property meets the mandatory HMO threshold — five or more people from two or more households sharing facilities.

A three-person shared house in Coxford, Redbridge or Woolston, for example, does not need any property licence under the Housing Act 2004 as things stand.

The Fixed Expiry Problem

Every additional HMO licence issued under the 2025–2030 scheme expires on 30 September 2030, regardless of when it was granted. A licence issued in October 2025 runs for the full five years. A licence issued in January 2028 runs for less than three years. The fee is the same either way — there is no pro-rata reduction.

If the council renews the designation for another five years (as many authorities do), you will need to apply again. If it does not renew, the additional licensing obligation ends and only mandatory rules apply.

Checking Your Ward

The council does not publish a postcode-to-ward lookup tool for licensing purposes. To confirm which ward your property falls in, check the council's ward boundary maps on its electoral or planning pages. Boundary cases — properties on the edge of a designated ward — should be verified directly with the HMO licensing team on 023 8083 3006 (Option 5).

Getting this wrong is expensive. Operating an unlicensed HMO in a designated ward can expose you to civil penalties of up to £40,000 for offences committed on or after 1 May 2026 (£30,000 for earlier offences). Tenants can apply for a rent repayment order covering up to 24 months of rent for offences committed on or after that date, or up to 12 months for earlier offences.

For a ward-by-ward breakdown and a decision tree covering every property type, see our Southampton landlord licensing guide.

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