For owners and buyers of a London house that needs work
House Renovation Cost in London: What a Full Renovation Costs per m² in 2026
Sviatoslav JerdetchiiCEO & Founder of Craftex. Updated , 10 min read
The short answer
At our 2026 rates, a house renovation in London costs £1,050 to £1,500 per m² for a light refresh, £1,500 to £2,000 per m² for a full refurbishment and £2,000 to £2,800 per m² for a structural renovation, construction only, ex VAT and fees.
- A 100 m² terraced house needing a full refurbishment comes to about £150,000 to £200,000 before VAT, fees and contingency.
- Structure, services and the kitchen and bathroom specification move the price more than the floor area does.
- Add 20% VAT, design fees and a contingency of 5% to 10% to get the real all-in budget.
- A fixed price only exists after a survey, drawings and a written scope. Anything earlier is an estimate.
A house renovation in London costs £1,050 to £2,800 per m² at our 2026 rates, depending on how deep the work goes. A full refurbishment that keeps the layout runs £1,500 to £2,000 per m². A structural, back-to-brick renovation runs £2,000 to £2,800 per m². All of that is construction only, before VAT, fees and contingency.
This guide gives you the house renovation cost per m² and per house type. It covers what moves the figure, the costs outside the builder's quote and how long the work takes. It is written by the team behind our home renovation and refurbishment service in London.
Still choosing the house? Our guide to buying a property to renovate covers where to find one and the checks to make before you offer.
Every rate here is ours, and your fixed figure comes after a survey. Want that figure? Get a fixed price and we will survey the house.
House renovation cost per m² at our 2026 rates
Here is the rule that stops most budgets going wrong. Price the renovation by what you are doing to the house, not by what the house is worth. A £3M house and a £900,000 house with the same scope cost about the same to renovate. The finish you choose is what separates them.
| Scope | What it covers | £ per m² |
|---|---|---|
| Light refresh | Decoration, new flooring, one new kitchen or bathroom, lighting, minor joinery; layout and services kept | 1,050 to 1,500 |
| Full refurbishment | Layout kept: new kitchen and bathrooms, rewire, replumb, new heating, flooring, decoration, standard joinery | 1,500 to 2,000 |
| Structural renovation | Back to brick: structural openings and steels, new services, underfloor heating, bespoke joinery, high-specification kitchen and bathrooms | 2,000 to 2,800 |
| Extension or new floor area | Priced as new build per m² of new floor, from 2,200; small extensions run higher per m² | 2,200 to 3,250 |
Want the figure for your own floor area? Our build cost calculator applies the same 2026 rates and adds fees, contingency and VAT line by line.
Three things to read into that table. The bands overlap on purpose: a full refurbishment with a prime kitchen sits at the top of its band, not the bottom. London prices towards the upper end of every band because of access, parking, party walls and labour. And prime finishes, listed fabric and basements take a house above the top band.
Our Knightsbridge house is the honest example. Herbert Crescent, 450 m², came to £1.5M, about £3,300 per m², with bespoke joinery made in-house and a prime finish throughout. A 400 sq m penthouse at Kensington Olympia, refurbished and redesigned in 12 weeks, came to £550K. Same team, different scope, very different rate.
Full house renovation cost by house type
Owners rarely think in square metres. They think in "a two-bed flat" or "a Victorian terrace". So here are the same rates applied to four typical London homes. The floor areas are assumptions for the illustration. Measure yours, or take the figure from the sales particulars, and multiply.
| Home (assumed area) | Light refresh | Full refurbishment | Structural renovation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-bed flat (70 m²) | £74,000 to £105,000 | £105,000 to £140,000 | £140,000 to £196,000 |
| Terraced house (100 m²) | £105,000 to £150,000 | £150,000 to £200,000 | £200,000 to £280,000 |
| Semi-detached house (120 m²) | £126,000 to £180,000 | £180,000 to £240,000 | £240,000 to £336,000 |
| Detached house (180 m²) | £189,000 to £270,000 | £270,000 to £360,000 | £360,000 to £504,000 |
Two honest notes on that table. First, the areas are the whole floor area, every storey. A loft or basement you add is new floor area, priced on the extension line. Second, we take on renovations from £100,000. A light refresh of a small flat usually sits below that, and a good local builder will serve you better.
For everything above that line, the figure in the table is where the conversation starts. The survey is where it gets fixed. Buying a house that needs work? Our guide to renovating a house in London covers planning, neighbours and what hides in older buildings.
What moves a house renovation cost up or down
Floor area sets the band. These six things decide where in the band your house lands, and whether it leaves the band altogether.
Structure, services and heating
- Structure. Every wall you remove needs a steel, an engineer and building control. Opening the back of a terrace into one room is the single most common reason a refurbishment becomes a structural renovation.
- Electrics and plumbing. A house that needs a rewire and a replumb is a full refurbishment whatever else you do. Both go in before plaster, so they set the sequence and the programme.
- Heating. A new boiler is a line item. Underfloor heating across a ground floor, or a heat pump with new emitters, is a design decision that touches floors, walls and the electrical supply.
Specification, access and neighbours
- Kitchen and bathroom specification. The same room can cost three times more depending on the units, stone, brassware and tiling. This is the lever you control most, so decide it on samples before the price is fixed.
- London access and parking. Skips, deliveries, parking suspensions, scaffolding on the pavement and no side access all add labour hours. A mews house or a top-floor flat with a shared stair costs more to build in than a detached house with a drive.
- Party walls and neighbours. Work on a shared wall needs at least two months' notice; digging near a neighbour's foundations needs one month. If the neighbour does not reply within 14 days, a dispute is deemed to have arisen and surveyors are appointed. The building owner usually pays for drawing up the award.
The age of the house runs through all six. A Victorian terrace that has never been opened up will show you rotten joists, old lead pipes and a chimney breast somebody removed without support. That is why the survey comes before the price, and why the contingency exists.
VAT, fees and contingency: the costs outside the builder's quote
The rates above are construction only. Three more lines turn them into the real budget, and most owners forget at least one.
Design and professional fees. A full refurbishment needs drawings, a specification and someone to run the consents. Our design commissions start at £15,000. A structural renovation also needs an engineer, building control fees and, where a shared wall is touched, party wall surveyors. Our guide to architect fees in the UK shows how design fees are usually structured.
Contingency. We advise 5% to 10% of the construction cost, depending on complexity. Carry it from day one and do not spend it on upgrades. On an older house you have not opened up, carry more. An unused contingency is the best outcome of a renovation, not a wasted one.
Borrowing? Our guide on how to fund the works covers retentions, further advances and bridging loans.
Planning and building control. Planning rarely adds cost to an internal renovation. You should not normally need planning permission for internal alterations, including removing an internal wall. Building regulations still apply to the structure, electrics, plumbing, heating, new windows and the roof. Building control sign-off is part of the job.
A listed house needs listed building consent for significant internal work. Extensions, basements, roof changes and anything visible from the street in a conservation area need planning. A flat needs the freeholder's licence as well.
This was a full high-end renovation of my Victorian rental apartment in Westminster, just off Sloane Square and Belgravia. The scope included full fit-out: electrics, plumbing, a new bespoke kitchen, and a luxury bathroom refurbishment. Craftex took care of everything and made the process easy. They weren’t the cheapest, but you can tell they really know what they’re doing when it comes to prime London property renovations. The team was professional, organised, and genuinely seemed to care about getting everything right. I was especially impressed with the quality of the finish – the attention to detail really shows in every corner. I’m very happy with the results and would definitely recommend Craftex to anyone looking for reliable, high-quality renovation work in Central London.
A worked example: 100 m² terraced house, full refurbishment
Here is how the lines add up on a typical brief. This is an illustration with stated assumptions, not a quote. Your house will differ, and the fixed figure comes after the survey.
The brief: a 100 m² Victorian terraced house, layout kept. New kitchen and two bathrooms, full rewire and replumb, new heating, flooring and decoration throughout, standard joinery. That is a full refurbishment. We take the middle of the band, £1,750 per m².
| Line | Basis | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | 100 m² × £1,750 per m² | £175,000 |
| Contingency | 10% of construction, held in reserve | £17,500 |
| Design and consents | Our design commissions from £15,000 | £15,000 |
| Subtotal before VAT | £207,500 | |
| VAT | 20% on the lines above | £41,500 |
| All-in budget | £249,000 |
Read it as a shape, not a quote. The construction line is seven tenths of the total. VAT is the biggest line most people forget. The contingency should come back to you if the survey did its job. The design line is small against the cost of changing your mind on site.
Two things would move this example. Opening the ground floor into one room with a steel puts the house into the structural band, from £2,000 per m². A prime kitchen and marble bathrooms do the same without a single wall moving. For the top end of that spectrum, see how much luxury home design costs.
How long a house renovation takes
Time is money on a renovation, because you are paying rent or a mortgage on a house you cannot live in. These are three of our London homes, each run by one team from design to keys.
The pattern behind those numbers is simple. A refurbishment that keeps the layout runs in weeks because the sequence is known: strip out, first fix, plaster, second fix, finishes. A structural renovation runs in months because steels, new services and bespoke joinery each have their own lead time.
Before any of that, allow for design, consents and ordering. Drawings, building control, party wall notices and the kitchen and joinery orders usually take several months. A renovation that starts on site before the design is fixed is the one that overruns.
Living in during the work is often possible on a light refresh or a phased refurbishment. On a back-to-brick renovation most clients move out for the structural and first-fix stages.
How to turn an estimate into a fixed price
Every figure in this guide is an estimate, including ours. A fixed price needs three things that do not exist on day one: a survey, drawings and a written scope. Here is how we get there.
- Survey. We walk the house, open up what we can and read the structure, the services and the borough. This is where the lead pipe and the unsupported chimney breast are found, not on site in week three.
- Drawings and specification. Layouts, joinery, the kitchen and the bathrooms are agreed on drawings and samples. Long-lead items are identified here, so they can be ordered before the strip-out.
- Fixed price for the written scope. One figure for everything on the drawings and in the specification. Changes after that are agreed in writing and priced before the work is done, so the figure only moves when you decide it should.
- Programme written into the contract. The date is set after the survey, not guessed at the first meeting.
Want a quick range before the survey? The renovation cost calculator on our service page uses the same 2026 rates. Enter the floor area, pick a tier and you get a range straight away.
What we take on, and what we do not
We renovate houses and flats across London from £100,000 to £10M and above, as one team that designs, gets the consents, builds and certifies. Around 60% of our labour is in-house, which keeps the joinery and the finishes under our own control. Every project we have delivered has finished ahead of programme and on budget, with nothing outstanding at handover.
We are not the right fit for a light refresh of a small flat, a loft conversion on its own or a single new bathroom. A good local builder will serve you better there, and we say so on the first call. For a full refurbishment or a structural renovation, get a fixed price and we start with the survey.
Before you fix your renovation budget
- Measure the whole floor area, every storey, and pick the scope band honestly.
- Decide the kitchen and bathroom specification on samples before the price is fixed.
- Add 20% VAT to every construction and fee line, unless the home has been empty for two years or more.
- Hold a contingency of 5% to 10%, more on an older house you have not opened up.
- Serve party wall notices early: two months for a shared wall, one month for excavation.
- Check the planning position: listed, conservation area, flat or freehold, extension or internal only.
- Allow months for design, consents and ordering before the first day on site.
- Get the price fixed against drawings and a written scope, with changes agreed in writing.
