Cost to Build an Office Building in 2026: UK and London Prices per m²

Office building construction cost per m² in 2026

The rate depends mostly on height, air conditioning and who the building is for. The table uses Laxton's 2026 guide prices, the same basis as our own cost calculator. It measures the gross internal floor area: every storey, inside the external walls.

The London column and the sq ft column are our own conversions. Laxton's gives a London location factor of about 1.09. To turn any rate per m² into sq ft, divide by 10.764.

A guide price is a starting point for an appraisal. It assumes a typical site and a typical specification. Your own figure moves with the ground, the facade and the services, which the next sections cover.

What the build cost per m² includes and leaves out

Most budgets go wrong on the lines that sit outside the rate, not on the rate itself. Laxton's guide prices cover the building. They exclude contingencies, external works, furniture and equipment, professional fees and VAT.

Land, finance, planning costs and the tenant's fit-out are outside it too. The RICS order of cost estimate (NRM 1) sets the full list a cost plan should carry:

1. Building works. Substructure, frame, envelope, internal finishes and building services.
2. Preliminaries and overheads and profit. The contractor's site set-up, management and margin. Ask whether a quoted rate includes them: under NRM 1 a strict cost per m² does not.
3. Fees. Consultants, plus the contractor's pre-construction and design fees on a design and build route.
4. Other project costs. Facilitating works, external works, statutory fees and CIL and section 106.
5. Risk and inflation. Separate allowances for design development, construction risk and price rises to the start and through the build.
6. VAT. Building a new commercial office is normally standard-rated, at 20%. The zero rate is for new homes and certain residential and charitable buildings.

Whether you can recover the VAT depends on your own VAT position, so settle it with your adviser before the appraisal. Then compare quotes line by line, never on one rate per m².

Is your scheme still at appraisal stage? As a construction company in London, we check the drawings, the site and the cost plan together, before you are committed.

What moves the cost of an office building

Two offices of the same floor area can differ by a third or more in cost. Six things decide where yours lands in the band.

1. Height and frame. Taller buildings need a heavier frame, more lifts and longer crane time. Laxton's high-rise band starts at £2,900, above the top of the low-rise air-conditioned band.
2. Facade. A fully glazed curtain wall usually costs more than brick or precast panels with punched windows.
3. Services and energy. Air conditioning adds about £425 per m² between the midpoints of Laxton's two low-rise bands. New energy rules take effect on 24 March 2027.
4. Ground and basements. Contaminated ground, piling, party walls and basements are abnormal costs: price them from surveys, not from a rate.
5. London site logistics. A tight City or West End site needs a construction logistics plan, timed deliveries and more off-site work.
6. Procurement route. Design and build or traditional procurement changes who carries the design risk and how early the price is fixed.

Projects that give a building notice or apply for full plans approval before 24 March 2027 stay on today's energy rules. That holds only if work starts before 24 March 2028. Schemes at appraisal now should cost both cases.

Shell and core, Cat A and Cat B: where the build stops

An office build rate covers the building, not the workplace inside it. That is why a build budget and a fit-out budget never match. The stages below show where one ends and the next begins.

An owner-occupier pays for all three, so plan them as one budget. Our guide to Cat A fit-out cost prices the developer's floor. The office fit-out cost guide prices the tenant's interior.

Agree early where the shell stops. Every service, finish or riser left out of the base build comes back later as a fit-out cost, often at a higher rate.

Build new or refurbish an existing building

Refurbishing is usually the cheaper route to a working office. Laxton's puts a high-quality office refurbishment with air conditioning at £1,200 to £1,800 per m². A new low-rise office starts at £1,900.

The saving comes from what you keep: foundations, frame and often the cores. Keeping them also keeps the carbon already built into the structure. Works that affect only the interior, or barely change the outside, are not development under planning law. A new building always needs planning permission first.

At Portsoken House we turned an abandoned warehouse into 1,550 sq m of premium offices in seven months. The project value was £2.2M, design included, with a full mechanical and electrical package. Every other floor stayed let and at work throughout.

That lands at about £1,420 per m², inside Laxton's high-quality refurbishment band. Our guide to office refurbishment cost breaks that band down. Refurbishment stops paying when the floor-to-ceiling heights are too low, the column grid fights the layout or the frame needs major repair. Then a new building can be the cheaper way to the asset you want.

Budgeting an office scheme in six steps

A reliable budget starts with the area and the type, then adds every line that sits outside the rate. Work through it in this order.

1. Measure the area. Use the gross internal floor area of every storey, not the net lettable area.
2. Pick the band. Match the height, servicing and occupier to a row of the table above.
3. Add the London uplift. Multiply by about 1.09 for a London site.
4. Allow for abnormals. Ground, basements, party walls and access, priced from surveys.
5. Add the lines outside the rate. Fees, VAT, CIL and section 106, statutory fees and external works.
6. Hold a contingency. Size it to the risk left in the design; our guide explains how much contingency to carry.

Those six lines feed straight into a development appraisal, where the build cost sets what the land is worth. Joe Crawford, our Operations Director, brings 37 years in construction, on projects of up to £135M. Our free review checks the buildability and the cost plan before a price is fixed.

Ready for a figure for your own building? Discuss your project. Send us the drawings or the site address and we return a cost range and the main risks, free.

Use the list below before you ask any contractor for a figure.