Cost guide
How much does a house renovation cost in London?
Typical London prices per square metre and per property, compiled in September 2026 from published renovation cost guides, with what sits inside the ranges, what does not, and the costs that arrive on top.
Published London cost guides put a full house renovation at £1,800–£2,900 per square metre in 2026, which is roughly £105,000–£235,000 for a three-bedroom terrace of 100–115 m² and £55,000–£130,000 for a two-bedroom flat of 65–80 m². A lighter refresh of decoration, flooring and minor works runs £800–£1,400 per square metre. These are September 2026 market ranges from published sources, not MO Team quotes; some include VAT and some do not, and fees sit on top.
What a renovation costs, by scope and property
Where these figures come from: each range is the median of the lows and the highs published for London in 2026 by Buildaway, Mount St Projects, BH Studio, Kapeti, TB&D Construction, Chelsea and Fulham Builders, BVDS Architects, Plus Architects and All Well Property Services, with the 2025 guide from Hampstead Renovations in the full-refurbishment band, rounded to the nearest fifty pounds per square metre and the nearest thousand pounds per project. They are market figures, not our quotes. For a price on your own house, see house renovation in London and ask for a survey.
VAT: most renovation work on an existing house or flat is standard-rated at 20%, and the reduced 5% rate can apply to a home that has stood empty for two years or more. Only some of the sources behind these ranges say whether their figures include VAT, which is why the ranges are shown as brackets rather than exact prices. A quote should state its VAT position in writing; the rules are on gov.uk under VAT for builders.
Cost per square metre of floor area
What moves the price
What is and is not in these figures
The costs people forget to budget for
How the fees vary across London
Build prices are not published borough by borough, but the fees are. These are local-authority building control charges for the kind of work a renovation triggers, including VAT, from the London boroughs that publish a clear schedule, as an example of how the fixed costs move from one borough to the next.
Related
Services
Common questions
Straight answers.
Not answered here?
Tell us what you are planning. We read every enquiry ourselves and reply within one working day.
Ask us directly07424 445105It depends what you mean by renovate. At the published London refresh rate of £800–£1,400 per square metre, a 40k budget covers decoration, flooring and minor works across roughly 30–50 m², which is most of a small flat or the main rooms of a house, with the services left alone. It does not reach a full refurbishment of a whole house: on the £1,800–£2,900 per square metre range that starts at about £105,000 for a three-bedroom terrace. Spend it on the fabric problems first and the finishes second.
Not a whole house at 2026 London rates. Thirty thousand pounds buys a refresh of two or three rooms, or one bathroom done properly with the decoration around it: published London figures put a like-for-like bathroom refit at £5,000–£8,000 and a bathroom with a new layout at £8,000–£14,000. It is well spent on the things that stop a bigger bill later, such as damp repairs, a failing roof covering or an old consumer unit, and on one room finished well rather than four finished cheaply.
In a small flat, 50k reaches the bottom of the published London range for a full refurbishment: a two-bedroom flat of 65–80 m² is put at £55,000–£130,000, so at that budget the specification is basic and the layout stays where it is. In a house it funds a phase rather than the whole job, for example a mid-range kitchen at £20,000–£40,000 plus a bathroom, or the rewire, replumb and plastering with the finishes to follow. Sequence the phases so no trade has to undo another's work.
Structure and services, then the kitchen. Opening up the ground floor is priced in London at £2,500–£5,000 for a single opening with one steel and £5,000–£15,000 for a large open-plan arrangement with several beams, before the making good. A full rewire and replumb are invisible when finished but run through every room in the house. The kitchen is the single most expensive room, at £20,000–£40,000 for a mid-range London kitchen, with bathrooms at £5,000–£14,000 each.
The bathroom, closely followed by the kitchen. Both bring every trade into one small room in a fixed order: strip-out, first-fix plumbing and electrics, tanking, tiling, second fix, then the finishes, and a mistake in the order is torn out at the next stage. Bathrooms add waterproofing and drainage falls that cannot be fudged, and in a flat the soil stack decides where anything can go. Kitchens add appliances, extraction and worktop templating, so one supplier delay stalls the whole room.
The ones no guide can price until the house is opened: asbestos in pre-2000 textured ceilings and floor tiles, rotten joist ends behind sound plaster, undersized or leaking drains and a consumer unit that fails inspection. Then the fees: building control, a party wall surveyor at £700–£1,800 per neighbour where you cut into a shared wall, an engineer at £450–£800 per beam, skips at £300–£425 each plus a road permit, and somewhere to live while the water is off. Budget a 10–15% contingency and treat it as spent.
Published London guides put a full renovation of a three-bedroom terrace of 100–115 m² at £105,000–£235,000, with their worked examples in the middle of that range for a standard specification. Victorian and Edwardian houses sit towards the top because the problems are hidden: failed damp-proof courses, cloth-covered wiring, lead pipework, lath-and-plaster ceilings and undersized joists in the back addition. A conservation area or an Article 4 direction can also control window and door replacement even though the rest of the work is internal.
The published London range for a full renovation of a two-bedroom flat of 65–80 m² is £55,000–£130,000. The spread is about specification and services: a flat where the wiring, plumbing and heating are replaced and the kitchen and bathroom are re-planned sits at the top, one where they are kept and refreshed sits at the bottom. Flats add a freeholder's licence to alter, building-management rules on working hours, lifts and waste, and a soil stack that fixes where the bathroom can go.
Two bands are published for London in 2026: £800–£1,400 per square metre for a light refresh of decoration, flooring and minor works, and £1,800–£2,900 per square metre for a full refurbishment with new services, a new kitchen and bathrooms and no extension. Measure the internal floor area of every storey, multiply by the band that matches the scope, and you have a planning bracket rather than a quote. Per-square-foot figures are the same numbers divided by about 10.8.
Ask an estate agent about your street before you ask a builder, because value is local. Across most of London the dependable gains come from space and layout: an extra bedroom from the loft, an open-plan kitchen and dining space at the back, and a second bathroom. Fabric work such as rewiring, a new boiler or damp repair rarely adds more than it costs, but it removes the reasons a buyer knocks the price down. Finishes matter less than people expect and date fastest.
From London renovation cost guides published in 2026 by builders and architects: Buildaway, Mount St Projects, BH Studio, Kapeti, TB&D Construction, Chelsea and Fulham Builders, BVDS Architects, Plus Architects and All Well Property Services, plus the 2025 guide from Hampstead Renovations. For each row we took the median of the published lows and of the published highs and rounded to the nearest fifty pounds per square metre or thousand pounds per project. Fees are the boroughs' own published schedules. They are market ranges, not MO Team quotes.
Want a figure for your own house, not a market range?
Send the address, a rough floor area and a list of the rooms you want done. We will say honestly what the house is likely to need before the finishes, and what that means for the budget, before anyone visits.