Data, measured 5 September 2026
UK refurbishment costs by region
The median refurbishment across 2,545 UK properties analysed by PropDetect costs £11,795 including VAT, and half of all properties fall between £5,927 and £20,832. Where the property is matters as much as what it is: the median ranges from £6,734 in Dundee to £20,492 in Coventry, a threefold difference between areas with substantial samples.
Size moves the number the way you would expect, but not linearly: a typical one bed runs £8,160, a three bed £15,215, and five beds or more jumps to £35,509, because bigger properties in this dataset are disproportionately the heavy projects. Every figure on this page was queried from the production database on 5 September 2026; nothing is rounded to look tidy and nothing is invented.
Median refurbishment cost by postcode area
Areas with at least 25 analysed properties. P25 and P75 are the quartiles: half of each area's properties fall between them. All figures include VAT and exclude contingency.
| Area | Properties | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DD Dundee and Angus | 332 | £4,443 | £6,734 | £11,378 |
| GU Guildford and Surrey | 235 | £7,767 | £14,087 | £23,500 |
| RH Redhill, Crawley and mid Sussex | 235 | £9,958 | £18,377 | £26,520 |
| AB Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire | 214 | £4,726 | £7,114 | £12,490 |
| NE Newcastle and the North East | 210 | £6,655 | £13,980 | £22,103 |
| KY Fife | 202 | £4,363 | £6,908 | £13,965 |
| DH Durham | 115 | £6,030 | £10,929 | £16,335 |
| CV Coventry and Warwickshire | 111 | £12,558 | £20,492 | £29,157 |
| DL Darlington and the Dales | 111 | £6,484 | £11,180 | £17,982 |
| SR Sunderland | 69 | £5,782 | £10,457 | £20,176 |
| B Birmingham | 61 | £7,781 | £18,314 | £31,834 |
| TS Teesside | 59 | £7,100 | £10,212 | £16,118 |
| S Sheffield | 36 | £7,585 | £15,110 | £20,607 |
| LS Leeds | 35 | £5,406 | £8,061 | £22,360 |
| NG Nottingham | 32 | £5,602 | £18,058 | £29,203 |
| RG Reading and Berkshire | 30 | £7,110 | £12,892 | £19,326 |
| G Glasgow | 28 | £10,691 | £15,654 | £24,244 |
| L Liverpool | 28 | £4,703 | £10,253 | £12,863 |
| FK Falkirk and Stirling | 27 | £4,127 | £7,169 | £19,971 |
| HS Outer Hebrides | 27 | £10,907 | £13,284 | £18,840 |
Median refurbishment cost by bedroom count
| Size | Properties | Median cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bed | 248 | £8,160 |
| 2 bed | 1182 | £9,861 |
| 3 bed | 985 | £15,215 |
| 4 bed | 87 | £18,141 |
| 5 bed or more | 27 | £35,509 |
How these figures are produced
Every property analysed through PropDetect gets a room by room refurbishment estimate: the floor plan establishes the rooms, the listing photographs establish each room's condition, and every element is judged keep, refresh or replace, then priced at regional labour and material rates calibrated against real builder quotes collected across the country. The full method, including what the estimate can and cannot see, is written up in the refurbishment methodology, and real worked examples with their complete room schedules are public in the example analyses.
What this data does not say
- These are modelled estimates from listing evidence, not builder invoices. On the record so far, estimates have landed within a few hundred pounds to about a thousand pounds of real quotes, but a systematic accuracy study is still being assembled and this page will not claim one before it exists.
- Area medians mix local rates with the local condition of analysed stock. An area where investors chase heavy projects reads more expensive than its rates alone justify.
- Properties analysed by investors are not a random sample of the market; they skew toward stock that looked like a deal.
- Totals under £1,000 and over £150,000 are excluded as likely parse failures or extreme outliers. Figures include VAT and exclude the 15 percent contingency a full appraisal carries.
- Figures are as of 5 September 2026 and are recomputed when this page is updated.
Common questions
How much does a refurbishment cost in the UK in 2026?
Across 2,545 UK properties analysed by PropDetect, the median modelled refurbishment cost is £11,795 including VAT, with half of all properties falling between £5,927 and £20,832. The figure varies strongly by area, from a £6,734 median in Dundee to £20,492 in Coventry, and by size, from £8,160 for a typical one bed to £35,509 for five beds and larger. Figures as of 5 September 2026.
Why do refurbishment costs vary so much by region?
Two forces stack: labour and material rates genuinely differ by region, and the stock coming to market differs too. A Dundee flat needing carpets and paint is not the same starting point as a Midlands terrace needing a kitchen, bathroom and rewire, so an area median mixes both the local rates and the local condition of what investors actually analyse.
Do these figures include VAT and contingency?
They include VAT. They exclude the 15 percent contingency a full PropDetect appraisal always carries on top, so the appraisal figure for the same property reads higher than the raw cost shown here, deliberately.
Where does this data come from?
Every property analysed through PropDetect gets a room by room refurbishment estimate priced from the listing photographs at regional labour and material rates that are calibrated against real builder quotes. This page aggregates those modelled estimates across completed analyses. They are modelled costs, not invoices, and the limitations section says exactly what that means.
To see what a specific property would cost rather than a regional median, paste its listing into PropDetect and the estimate arrives room by room in about three minutes, or try the refurbishment cost calculator first.