How PropDetect estimates refurbishment costs

The analysis reads the listing photographs, the floor plan and the EPC document together. The floor plan establishes which rooms exist and how big they are; the photographs establish what state each of them is in; the EPC establishes the energy fabric: heating, glazing, insulation and the works needed to reach a lettable standard.

Nothing is priced from a description. Agent copy says "scope to modernise" about everything from a dated kitchen to a shell, so the estimate is built from what is visible, not from what is written.

Each room is judged element by element: walls, ceilings, flooring, fixtures, electrics, and the room-specific items, units and worktops in a kitchen, sanitaryware in a bathroom. Each element is judged as keep, refresh or replace based on what the photographs show, and only the work that is actually indicated gets priced.

This is the discipline that separates a costing from a guess. A clean, recently fitted kitchen is costed at zero. A dated but functional bathroom is a refresh, not a rip-out. A wreck is a wreck and gets priced like one. Flat-rate-per-square-metre tools cannot make these distinctions, which is why they price a tired but sound three-bed the same as a gutted one.

The same bathroom does not cost the same in Bolton and in Brighton. Every line is priced at regional labour and material rates, and those rates are continuously calibrated against real builder quotes from real projects, which is why the estimates track what builders actually charge rather than a national average. The rate base was originally built from builder quotes collected over a six month effort across the country, and on top of the continuous loops the rates are reviewed monthly against RICS cost data and a market view of material and labour costs. The calibration process and its data are proprietary; the effect of it is checkable on any report.

On the record so far: one customer's builder quoted 14,500 pounds against our 14,800 pound estimate on the same property. Another customer who prices work with builders on every deal reports our estimates landing within 500 to 1,000 pounds of actual quotes. Early evidence from real projects, stated as exactly that, and a systematic study will be published when enough actual project costs have been collected to compute one.

Energy works are costed on their own line, from the EPC: what it takes to reach a lettable rating, separate from the cosmetic works, so a landlord can see the compliance spend and an investor can see the condition spend without the two blurring.

Overheads are added only when the evidence indicates them. Scaffolding appears when there is visible work at height. A damp and timber survey appears when the photographs suggest moisture. A rewire or replumb appears when the visible installations look end-of-life. And a 15 percent contingency is always carried on top, because photographs cannot see behind walls, and pretending they can is how refurb budgets fail.

Every line is editable, and edits recalculate the whole appraisal. If you know your builder does bathrooms for less, change the line and the deal updates. Those corrections also feed the calibration, so the estimates improve with use across the base.

Most tools in this market either apply a flat rate per square metre, quote wide ranges like 15,000 to 25,000 pounds, or leave refurbishment out entirely and let you guess. A photo-driven, element-level, regionally calibrated estimate with the reasoning attached is the thing customers consistently name as the reason they use PropDetect, including evaluators who did not buy for other reasons. It also spares a working relationship: you stop asking builders for quotes on properties you will never own.