What a Renovation Actually Costs in 2026

What a renovation actually costs in 2026

The most uncomfortable conversation in this job is the first one about money. Clients arrive with a number formed by property listings and television, and it is almost always half of what the work requires. Being direct early is kinder than being optimistic and revising upward for eighteen months.

Three numbers, not one

A renovation budget has three parts that behave very differently: construction, which is quoted and contracted; furniture, lighting and fittings, which is elastic and expands to fill whatever you allow it; and fees, which are fixed. Clients tend to plan for the first, underestimate the second, and forget the third entirely.

Where budgets break

Almost never in the finishes. Budgets break when something opens up — a floor structure that will not take the load, wiring from the 1960s, damp behind a lined wall. On a period property, assume you will find at least one of these, and hold money against it before you spend anything on a kitchen.

The contingency is not optional

We ask for ten per cent on new-build work and twenty on anything older than 1940. If it goes unspent, it becomes the joinery upgrade you wanted. If it is not there at all, the project stops while a difficult conversation happens.

What fees buy

Our fee is fixed after the first site visit and billed across five stages. It is not a percentage of the build cost, which we think is a poor incentive — a percentage fee rewards the designer for spending more of your money.

Decide the plan before the palette

The single most expensive mistake is choosing finishes before the plan is settled. Moving a wall on paper costs nothing; moving it after the tiles are ordered costs weeks.

Figures here are typical ranges from our own projects and are not a quotation. Every building and every brief is different.