Home Renovation Cost Per Square Foot: UK Prices for 2026

Ask a UK contractor for a rate per square foot and you will get a schedule of works, a figure in pounds per square metre, or a raised eyebrow. Refurbishment cost tracks kitchens, bathrooms and structural openings far more closely than floor area. A square foot of landing costs almost nothing; a square foot of shower room costs a fortune.

It is still a useful first filter. Below are the 2026 bands in both units, the unit costs beneath them, and three worked jobs. One square metre is 10.76 square feet; every figure includes VAT.

Take these as UK averages, assuming a VAT-registered main contractor pricing the whole job.

New floor area costs more per square foot than gutting existing floor area: an extension needs foundations, an envelope and a roof from scratch.

• •Cosmetic refresh, services untouched - decoration, flooring, internal doors, minor joinery: £33-£56/ft² (£350-£600/m²).
• •Standard full refurbishment - rewire, replumb, new boiler, plaster throughout, one kitchen, one bathroom, full decoration: £84-£139/ft² (£900-£1,500/m²).
• •Full gut with structural work - the above plus steels, layout changes, new roof covering, windows and insulation: £149-£223/ft² (£1,600-£2,400/m²).
• •Prime London, listed buildings and bespoke joinery: £232-£372/ft² (£2,500-£4,000/m²), with no ceiling worth printing.
• •New single-storey extension, for comparison: £195-£297/ft² (£2,100-£3,200/m²).
• •Dormer loft conversion to habitable standard: £130-£186/ft² (£1,400-£2,000/m²).

Any per-square-foot figure is forty prices averaged into one. These are the ones that move a total, at 2026 UK trade prices, supplied and fitted.

• •Full rewire, three-bed semi: £4,800-£7,500, about £50-£75 per m² of floor area.
• •Replumb with a new combi boiler and eight radiators: £6,000-£9,500.
• •Overboard and skim: £26-£38/m². Skim only over sound plaster: £13-£20/m².
• •Mid-range kitchen supplied and fitted, appliances excluded: £9,000-£18,000.
• •Full bathroom refit including tiling and a new soil connection: £6,500-£12,000.
• •Steel beam for a knock-through: £2,200-£4,500 per opening, including engineer's calculations and building control.
• •Painting and decorating a stripped house: £20-£32 per m² of floor area.
• •Scaffolding a semi for six weeks £900-£2,000; eight-yard skips £280-£380 each.

On a standard UK refurbishment labour is 50-60% and materials 40-50%. The split moves by trade: plastering and decorating near 70% labour, a kitchen 65% materials, a rewire about 60/40 in labour's favour.

Day rates outside London in 2026: labourer £130-£170, builder or carpenter £230-£330, plasterer £220-£300, tiler £230-£320, decorator £190-£280, electrician £260-£360, plumber or gas engineer £290-£420. A main contractor adds 15-25% overhead and profit on top of every one, plus 8-15% preliminaries for scaffold, skips, welfare and supervision. That buys one phone number instead of nine; if it is not shown, it is buried in the trade rates - our general contractor cost guide shows where it lands.

Floor area ranks about fifth, behind region, condition of the services, wet-room count and specification.

• •Region. Treat the bands as 1.0. The North East, Northern Ireland, Wales and most of Scotland run 0.85-0.92; Yorkshire, the North West and Midlands 0.92-1.00; the South West and East 1.00-1.10; outer London 1.15-1.30; prime London 1.35-1.60.
• •VAT. Standard rate is 20%, but a property empty two years qualifies for 5% on the builder's whole invoice, and insulation, heat pumps and solar are zero-rated until 31 March 2027 - worth £10,500 on a £70,000 job.
• •Condition, not age. A 1930s semi with sound timbers costs less than a 1990s house with a failing flat roof. Age only predicts cost through lath and plaster, solid walls, lead paint and asbestos artex.
• •Access and occupation. A mid-terrace with no side return, or working around a family still living there, each add 5-20% in labour that never gets its own line.
• •Specification. The same 20 m² kitchen can be £9,000 or £45,000. Spec sets the top of every band; structure and regulations set the bottom.

Each includes VAT, overhead and profit, and a 10% contingency, which on a refurbishment is not optional.

• •1930s three-bed semi, Leeds, 95 m² (1,020 ft²), standard refurbishment. Rewire £6,000; replumb and combi £6,500; skim throughout £9,500; kitchen £12,000; bathroom £8,500; flooring £5,500; decoration £5,000; joinery £2,800; skips and scaffold £2,600. Trade total £58,400; with 18% overhead and profit plus contingency it settles at £75,800 - £798/m², or £74/ft². Low in the band because layout, windows and roof were left alone.
• •Victorian mid-terrace, Bristol, 78 m² (840 ft²), full gut. Strip-out and asbestos survey £4,600; two openings with steels £11,000; new roof covering £9,500; rewire £6,500; heating and boiler £9,000; damp works and replaster £16,000; eight sash windows restored £9,600; kitchen £22,000; two bathrooms £18,000; flooring and decoration £14,000; scaffold, skips and prelims £11,000. With overhead and contingency: £158,000, or £2,025/m² (£188/ft²).
• •Two-bed flat, Glasgow, 42 m² (450 ft²), kitchen, bathroom, floors and decoration. Kitchen £9,500; bathroom £7,500; partial rewire £1,800; flooring £2,400; decoration £2,600; skips £700. Around £24,500, or £583/m² (£54/ft²). Put the same kitchen and bathroom into a 120 m² house and the identical works land near £264/m² (£25/ft²) - half the rate, for the same tap and tiles.

Three written quotes against one written schedule of works is the minimum. Then look for the following.

If a firm resists putting this in writing, that is your answer. Our guide to comparing contractor estimates explains how to normalise three prices onto one spreadsheet, and the contractor red flags piece covers what precedes a bad job.

• •A schedule, not a paragraph. A quote reading renovate property as discussed, £68,000 is an opening position, not a price.
• •Counted provisional sums. Two or three, for kitchen and tiles, is normal. Eight means almost nothing has been priced and the final account will float.
• •A split you can test. If materials reach 70% of a job that is mostly plastering and decorating, the arithmetic is wrong or a merchant mark-up is hiding in it.
• •VAT stated explicitly. A quote 20% under the rest is often simply not VAT registered, which caps that firm's turnover at £90,000 and tells you their usual size of job.
• •Sensible stage payments. Up to 20-30% up front for materials is fine on a small job; beyond that, or any request for cash to save the VAT, ends it.
• •Suspicion runs both ways. More than 20% below the median of three quotes means scope is missing; 25% above means they do not want the work.

The bands come from trade day rates and merchant list prices checked in the first half of 2026, cross-referenced against quotes shared with us over the previous eighteen months and weighted regionally as above. They assume a VAT-registered main contractor and a sound structure, and exclude planning fees, party wall awards (£1,000-£2,000 per adjoining owner) and furniture. We revise them annually.

A quote outside these ranges is not proof of a problem - it is a reason to ask why. Before committing, set the renovation budget you can finance, price the scope room by room with our renovation cost calculator, then be honest about return: our home improvements that add value analysis is blunt about how few pay for themselves.