SWANSEA: Plans to convert iconic Sandfields restaurant into 12-bedroom HMO complex submitted to council
Plans have been submitted to convert one of Sandfields’ best-known buildings – the late-Victorian Pantygwydr – into two Houses in Multiple Occupation totalling 12 bedrooms.
The pre-application planning notice has been lodged with Swansea Council, proposing the conversion of the historic corner property at the junction of Oxford Street and Richardson Street.
Under the proposals, the ground floor restaurant would become a 5-bedroom HMO, while the upper floors – currently used as four-bedroom owner’s accommodation – would be converted into a separate 7-bedroom HMO.
That would create 12 bedrooms in total across two HMOs at the building.
The building is currently home to the Pantygwydr restaurant, an independent French restaurant that has traded at the site since 2008 – nearly two decades.
It is currently still trading and taking bookings for 2026.
But the freehold of the property has now been listed for sale at £325,000 by Astleys Chartered Surveyors and is currently marked as Sold Subject to Contract.
The planning statement submitted to the council notes that the property has been marketed for several years without any demand for the existing restaurant use.
The Pantygwydr is a substantial late-Victorian building measuring 4,646 sq ft over three floors plus a basement.
Originally operated as the Pantygwydr Hotel, the building features classic Victorian architecture, strong corner frontage and period interior details including wood panelling and decorative cornices.
The basement is currently used as a beer cellar – a reminder of the building’s former life as a hotel and bar.
Under the proposals, no external alterations would be made to the property. A shared bike and refuse store would be created at ground floor level in the existing courtyard.
The application is significant in the context of HMO concentration in the Sandfields area – which has long been a focus of debate over the impact of high HMO numbers on community character and housing supply.
The site sits just outside Swansea Council’s HMO Management Area, where stricter rules apply. Outside that zone, planning policy permits HMO conversions provided they would not result in more than 10% of properties within a 50-metre radius being HMOs.
The applicant’s planning agents have calculated that there are currently three HMOs within 50 metres of the site, out of 59 properties in total. Approval of the application would create five HMOs in that radius – 8.47% of the local property stock, just below the 10% threshold.
The statement also argues that the property would generate significantly less parking demand as HMOs than as a restaurant – with the existing use estimated to require around 16 parking spaces, compared to seven for the proposed HMO use.
The application is currently at the pre-application stage, with reference number 2026/0329/PRE on the council’s planning portal. A formal planning application is yet to be submitted.
If submitted and approved, the conversion would mark the end of nearly 20 years of independent restaurant trade at the site – and the loss of one of Sandfields’ most distinctive hospitality venues.
The Pantygwydr restaurant remains open for bookings as planning discussions continue.
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