Refurbishment Costs per Square Metre: 2026 UK & London Guide

Refurbishment costs in the UK sit between £1,200 and £2,500 per square metre. In London, that range shifts to £2,000 to £2,800 for standard spec and £3,000+ for high-end work.

I run All Well Property Services in South East London, and we've completed over 100 refurbishments across the boroughs. The numbers below come from real project quotes and final invoices, not industry averages.

This guide shows what you should expect to pay by property size, where the London uplift comes from, and the costs people forget to budget for.

Refurbishment cost per square metre at a glance

Three benchmarks worth holding in your head:

• UK average: £1,200 to £2,500 per square metre for standard residential refurbishment
• London standard: £2,000 to £2,800 per square metre
• London premium (Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster, Mayfair): £3,000 to £4,500 per square metre

Per square foot, £2,000/m² works out to roughly £186/ft². £2,800/m² is £260/ft². Most clients ask in square metres, but if your quotes come back in imperial, that's the conversion.

Structural work pushes the number up. A rear extension or loft conversion typically lands at £2,500 to £3,500 per square metre because you're paying for foundations, roof, glazing, and services on a smaller floor area. Loft conversion costs and extension costs sit on top of your refurb figure, not inside it.

Refurbishment cost by property size

Per-square-metre rates are useful but abstract. Here's what a full refurbishment actually costs by property type, using real London floor areas. These figures cover cosmetic-plus-mechanical work (new kitchen, new bathroom, rewire, replumb, decoration). Structural changes sit on top.

Property	Typical size	UK total (£1,400/m²)	London standard (£2,400/m²)	London premium (£3,200/m²)
1-bed flat	45 to 55 m²	£63,000 to £77,000	£108,000 to £132,000	£144,000 to £176,000
2-bed flat	65 to 75 m²	£91,000 to £105,000	£156,000 to £180,000	£208,000 to £240,000
2-bed terrace	75 to 90 m²	£105,000 to £126,000	£180,000 to £216,000	£240,000 to £288,000
3-bed terrace	95 to 115 m²	£133,000 to £161,000	£228,000 to £276,000	£304,000 to £368,000
4-bed semi	120 to 150 m²	£168,000 to £210,000	£288,000 to £360,000	£384,000 to £480,000
5-bed detached	180 to 250 m²	£252,000 to £350,000	£432,000 to £600,000	£576,000 to £800,000

Two notes on the table. First, "typical size" is the gross internal area for the average example of each property type in South East London. Your floor area might be 10 to 15% bigger or smaller. Multiply your real GIA by the £/m² rate to get a closer number.

Second, these totals assume you're refurbishing all the floor area. Some clients refurb only the ground floor or only the kitchen and bathrooms. In that case, use the same £/m² rate but apply it to the floor area you're actually touching.

Refurbishment cost per square foot

For clients used to imperial units, or property valuers working from agent particulars, here's the same data in £/ft².

Refurbishment level	£/m²	£/ft²
Cosmetic (UK)	£1,200	£112
Standard (UK)	£1,800	£167
Standard (London)	£2,400	£223
High-spec (London)	£3,000	£279
Luxury (London)	£4,000+	£372+

Conversion factor: 1 square metre equals 10.764 square feet. To convert £/m² to £/ft², divide by 10.764, or use the rough rule £/ft² ≈ £/m² × 0.093.

Cost by refurbishment level

Spec is the single biggest lever you control. Materials and finish account for 35 to 45% of the project total, so where you sit on this scale moves your budget by tens of thousands.

Cosmetic refurbishment: £1,000 to £1,400 per m²

Repaint, replace flooring, deep clean, reseal bathrooms and kitchens. Existing layout stays. Existing services stay. You're freshening the property, not changing it.

This level works for buy-to-let between tenancies, or owner-occupiers who like the property as it is but want it to feel new. A 3-bed terrace at this spec runs £95,000 to £130,000 in London, cheaper than the standard spec because you're not paying for new kitchens, bathrooms, or first-fix services.

Mid-spec refurbishment: £1,800 to £2,400 per m²

New kitchen (mid-range, semi-custom), new bathrooms (decent suites, porcelain tiles), full repaint, new flooring throughout, partial rewire and replumb where needed.

This is what most of our clients buy. Semi-custom kitchens from Howdens or Wren run £10,000 to £18,000 fitted. Mid-range bathrooms £8,000 to £14,000. Engineered oak flooring around £55 per square metre installed.

High-spec refurbishment: £2,800 to £3,500 per m²

Bespoke or semi-bespoke kitchen, designer bathrooms with quality sanitaryware, hardwood or stone flooring, full rewire, full replumb, underfloor heating downstairs, plastered ceilings, replaced skirting and architrave, smart home wiring.

Clients at this spec typically also want some structural work: knock-through to open up the kitchen-diner, side return extension, or a loft conversion. Budget those separately at £2,500 to £3,500 per square metre of new floor area.

Luxury refurbishment: £4,000+ per m²

Fully bespoke joinery (handmade kitchens £40,000 to £80,000), natural stone throughout, top-tier appliances (Sub-Zero, Miele, Wolf), Crittall doors, polished concrete or limestone floors, comfort cooling. Most projects at this spec also involve heritage compliance work, deep basement digs, or significant structural changes.

Why London costs 30 to 40% more

The London premium has three sources, and they stack.

Labour rates. Skilled tradespeople in London charge 25 to 30% more than in the Midlands or North. A senior carpenter on a London site is on £280 to £320 a day; the same person in Birmingham bills £200 to £240. Multiply that across an electrician, plumber, plasterer, decorator, and tiler running for 16 weeks and you've added £25,000 to £40,000 to the labour line.

Logistics. Material deliveries cost more. Restricted parking, congestion charge, ULEZ compliance, narrow streets, scaffold permits, skip permits. A skip on a single yellow line in Camden needs a council permit at £80 to £150 a week. The same skip on a driveway in Manchester costs nothing.

Property condition. London's housing stock is older. Pre-1919 properties make up around 40% of South East London terraces. Lath-and-plaster ceilings, lime mortar, single-skin rear additions, suspended floors with no insulation, lead supply pipes, original wiring in places. None of that is on the listing when you buy. All of it shows up in the first three weeks of stripping out.

Inner vs outer boroughs

Within London, the spread is wide. Inner London (Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets) sits at £2,400 to £3,200 per square metre for standard spec. Outer boroughs (Bromley, Croydon, Sutton, Bexley, Lewisham, Greenwich) sit at £1,800 to £2,400.

The premium-postcode uplift is partly material specification (clients in SW3 expect different finishes than clients in SE20), partly contractor overhead (firms working central London carry higher insurance, vetting, and parking costs), and partly genuine logistical pain.

Listed buildings and conservation areas

Grade II listed adds 20 to 35% to base costs. Grade II* or Grade I adds 30 to 50%. You need a conservation architect or specialist (£90 to £150 an hour) and craftspeople who can work in lime, traditional joinery, and heritage glazing.

Conservation area consent (no listing, but the area is protected) adds 15 to 25%. Window replacements have to be timber sash, not UPVC. External colours need approval. Rooflights need to match the period.

Examples from the last 18 months: a four-storey Grade II terrace in Dulwich Village ran £3,400/m² because every cornice, ceiling rose, and skirting profile had to be recast in lime. The same floor area in a 1970s house round the corner would have been £2,300/m².

What drives your final cost

If you split a typical £200,000 London refurb into its components, the rough percentages are:

• Materials and supplies: 40 to 45% (kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, fittings, paint, tiles)
• Labour: 35 to 40% (trades on site, plus supervision)
• Professional fees: 8 to 15% (architect, structural engineer, party wall surveyors, building control)
• Contingency: 10 to 15% (the bit clients always want to skip)

The two biggest line items, materials and labour, are also where you have the most control. Materials choices move the budget at the showroom. Labour cost is largely fixed by what the project is, but how the project is managed determines whether trades work efficiently or wait around getting paid for not much.

This is where having a single contractor running the whole project pays for itself. The day-rate of trades doesn't change. What changes is how many of those days they're productive.

Hidden costs you need to budget for

Five line items that catch people out:

1. Damp and structural surprises (£3,000 to £15,000)

Almost every Victorian or Edwardian project we open up has at least one surprise: damp behind a kitchen unit, rotten joist ends in a bathroom floor, a chimney breast resting on something it shouldn't be resting on. Pre-1919 properties need a £3,000 minimum reserve for this. Pre-1900 needs more.

2. Asbestos removal (£800 to £5,000)

Anything built or refurbished before 2000 might have asbestos in Artex ceilings, vinyl floor tiles, boiler flues, soffits, or pipe lagging. A pre-refurb asbestos survey costs £250 to £450. If it finds anything, licensed removal is £80 to £120 per square metre.

3. Party wall agreements (£1,000 to £3,000)

If you're working on a shared wall, digging foundations near a boundary, or cutting into a party structure, the Party Wall Act applies. You serve notice two months before starting. If neighbours dissent (most do, on advice), you each appoint a surveyor and the surveyors agree an award. You pay both surveyors. Budget £1,500 per affected neighbour and don't start the work without the award signed.

4. Building control and planning (£500 to £2,500)

Building Control approval for a structural refurb is £500 to £1,500. Planning permission for a householder application is £258 (2026 fee). Drawings, applications, and CIL forms add another £1,500 to £3,000 if your architect submits them for you.

5. VAT and CIL

VAT is 20% on most refurbishment work. Energy efficiency measures (insulation, heat pumps, solar) qualify for 0% VAT until April 2027 if installed by a VAT-registered contractor. Worth claiming if your scope includes them.

The Community Infrastructure Levy hits new build floor area over 100 m². Most boroughs charge £35 to £200 per m² of net additional floor area. If your refurb includes an extension over 100 m² total floor area, you'll be liable. The forms are mandatory even when the levy is zero, and missing them can invalidate planning.

How to keep refurbishment costs realistic

Get three itemised quotes, not three lump sums

Lump sums hide where the money is going. An itemised quote breaks out kitchen supply, kitchen fit, bathroom supply, bathroom fit, electrical first fix, electrical second fix, plumbing, plastering, decoration, flooring, and labour days. If contractor A's quote is £40,000 lower than contractor B's, the itemised line items show you whether they've underbid the same scope or excluded something important.

Be wary of any quote that comes in 20 to 25% below the others. It usually means missing scope, lower-spec materials, or a contractor who'll come back for variations.

Keep 15% contingency, in your account, untouched

Ring-fence it. Don't spend it on an upgrade to brass taps just because the build's running well at week eight. Week 12 is when the chimney breast turns out to be unsupported.

Pick mid-range as your baseline, splurge selectively

Going full premium on every line item is how budgets double. A better strategy: mid-range across the board, with two or three deliberate upgrades on items you'll see and use every day. A premium kitchen worktop sits in your eyeline three hours a day. A premium hallway radiator does not.

Decide who runs the project before you start

You have three options. Run it yourself (saves 8 to 12% but takes 20+ hours a week for the duration). Pay a project manager 5 to 10% of the build to run it (worth it on jobs over £150,000). Or sign a design-and-build contract with a single contractor who handles design, trades, materials, and programme (cleaner, slightly more expensive, far fewer 3am decisions).

The wrong answer is the one where nobody's actually in charge.

Frequently asked questions

What's the average cost to refurbish a 3-bed house in the UK?

For a standard-spec refurbishment of a typical 100 m² 3-bed terrace: £140,000 to £180,000 in the UK, £230,000 to £280,000 in London. That assumes new kitchen, new bathrooms, rewire, replumb, decoration throughout, and replacement flooring. Structural work (extensions, knock-throughs, loft conversions) is on top.

How much per square foot is a UK refurbishment?

Standard-spec UK refurbishment is £130 to £190 per square foot. London standard is £220 to £260 per square foot. High-spec London is £280 to £330 per square foot.

Is refurbishment cheaper per square metre on bigger projects?

Slightly. Fixed costs (mobilisation, skip hire, site setup, scaffold, supervision) spread over more floor area. The saving is real but smaller than people assume, maybe 5 to 10% per m² between a 60 m² and a 200 m² project at the same spec. The bigger driver of per-m² cost is spec, not scale.

How much should I add for contingency on an older London property?

15% for a property between 1919 and 1980. 20% for a Victorian or Edwardian property. 25% for anything pre-1900 or listed. Damp, asbestos, dodgy wiring, and structural surprises are not exceptions in older properties. They're the baseline expectation.

What does VAT do to my refurbishment total?

VAT is 20% on most refurbishment work. There's a 5% reduced rate for properties empty for two years or more, and 0% for some energy efficiency measures. Most contractors quote ex-VAT, so add 20% to the headline figure unless the contract specifies otherwise.

Are conservation area surcharges really 15 to 25%?

Yes, in our experience across South East London conservation areas (Dulwich Village, Brockley, Crystal Palace Triangle, parts of Lewisham). The surcharge comes from window replacement costs (timber sash £1,500+ vs UPVC £700), roofing material requirements (natural slate £180/m² vs concrete £90/m²), and longer consent timelines.

Do you provide fixed-price quotes for refurbishments?

Yes, for refurbishments under £150,000 with a defined scope. Above that, or where significant structural surprises are likely, we work cost-plus with an agreed contingency cap. Both approaches have trade-offs, which we explain in our guide to fixed-price vs cost-plus building contracts.

If you want a realistic figure for your specific project, the fastest route is a site visit. We work across South East London. Request a quote or check our property renovation page for what we cover.