Plans to expand a £1million house in multiple occupancy (HMO) have been submitted to a council already under pressure with conversions

If approved the home, in Loose Road, Maidstone, will go from having six bedrooms to 11.

The property is a large two-storey, detached house facing the busy road and is valued at more than £1million on one valuation website.

It is close to a parade of shops, including Sainsbury's, with transport links to the town centre.

There has been an increase recently in the number of landlords buying up larger family homes - or extending smaller ones - so they can fill them with several tenants.

The planning application details how the property would be turned into a large HMO – a property which is rented to five or more people – by adding a 4.4m extension at the back of the house at the ground and first-floor level, also using the roof space.

The property has been a six-bedroom HMO for nearly four years and is under the same landlords, from RND Estates in Yalding, who own a similar 10-bedroom HMO in London Road, Maidstone.

Planning documents for the proposed development said the house will provide "high standards of accommodation" and occupants will share a kitchen, lounge, laundry facilities, garden and shower rooms.

A design statement said: "The changes to the front of house, and thus the street scene, are minimal.

"It is considered the extension of the proposed size is proportionate to the existing building.

"Given the large size of the garden, no loss of amenity results from extending the building.

"Parking is available on-site without impacting the street scene.

"The house has successfully operated as an HMO for close to four years. The increase in the proposed number of rooms will not change this established use.

"Refurbishing and extending the house will offer a high standard of sustainable and affordable accommodation."

You can view the plans by clicking here, using reference 22/505529/FULL.

Last month, plans for a 90-bedroom HMO 'village' to replace former nurses' accommodation in Barming, near Maidstone, were approved.

It comes as debate boils around the increasing number of HMOs coming to the town, in particular the Fant ward, where in one street nearly every other home has been converted.

A group of Maidstone councillors previously called for new applications to have to go before a planning committee – something not currently required under planning law – after fears about the impact on neighbours and the stresses they place on parking and services such as bin collections.