House Refurbishment Costs in Cambridge and Cambridgeshire
Refurbishing a house in Cambridgeshire generally costs from around £500 per square metre for a light refurbishment to £1,200 per square metre for a full one, before VAT, with a back-to-brick renovation of an older property running higher. For a typical 90m² three-bedroom semi that is roughly £45,000 to £108,000 before VAT, which matches the £43,500 to £110,000 published UK guides quote for a three-bedroom house.
This guide explains light, full and back-to-brick refurbishment, gives 2026 benchmark bands per square metre and room by room, sets out the allowances an older Cambridge property needs, covers landlord voids, and explains the VAT position, including the reduced rate that can apply to a long-empty house.
The figures are published guide ranges and budgeting illustrations, not offers. A written, itemised quotation against a defined specification supersedes any general rate.
On this page · about a 9-minute read · reviewed by Daryl Edwards, Company Director · last reviewed 20 September 2026
- Refurbishment costs at a glance
- Room-by-room and trade-by-trade benchmarks
- A simple way to form an early refurbishment budget
- Why the published figures disagree
- Light, full or back to brick: which is it?
- Allowances for an older Cambridge property
- Landlord void refurbishments
- The VAT position
- What affects the price
- Costs to allow for outside the builder's price
- How to get a useful refurbishment quotation
- House refurbishment cost questions
- How this guide was prepared
Refurbishment costs at a glance
| Level of refurbishment | What it usually means | Typical guide range per m² (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Decorate throughout, new floor coverings, minor repairs, perhaps a bathroom or kitchen refresh | £500–£700 |
| Full | New kitchen and bathroom, rewire, new heating, re-skim or replaster, new joinery, decorate, floors | £700–£1,200 |
| Back to brick | Strip to the structure, all new services, insulation, plaster, joinery, often structural changes | £1,200–£2,000 and above |
The bands are drawn from Checkatrade’s house refurbishment cost guide (£500 to £1,200 per m² for a full house refurbishment, September 2026) and MyBuilder’s house renovation price guide (£650 to £2,800 per m² from cosmetic updates to a full strip-out and high-end remodel, 21 August 2026). The boundaries between bands are ours; neither source draws them in exactly this way, and neither states a VAT position, so we treat both as excluding VAT.
Room-by-room and trade-by-trade benchmarks
| Item | Typical guide range (excluding VAT) |
|---|---|
| New kitchen, supplied and fitted | £7,000–£25,000 |
| New bathroom, supplied and fitted | £5,500–£8,000 standard; £14,000 and above high end |
| Full rewire, three-bedroom house | £4,450–£8,000 |
| New central heating system | £3,000–£8,500 |
| Re-skim walls and ceilings, whole house | £5,000–£12,500 |
| Hack off and replaster, whole house | £16,000–£32,000 |
| Plasterboard on dabs, per m² | £13 |
| Replacement windows, whole house | £2,500–£8,000 |
| New roof covering | £6,500–£18,000 |
| Damp-proof course injection | £60–£200 per metre; £500–£5,000 per house |
| Dry rot treatment | £1,000–£2,000 |
| Decorate walls and ceilings, whole house (Prestige allowance) | £5,000–£7,000 |
| Carpet or laminate, per m² fitted | around £30 |
| Structural wall removal | £500–£3,500 structural work only |
Sources: Checkatrade house renovation cost guide (table updated September 2026), rewiring cost guide (June 2026), new bathroom cost guide (March 2026) and damp proofing cost guide (June 2026); HomeOwners Alliance house renovation costs (updated September 2026) for the dry rot figure. Plaster rates and the whole-house decorating line are Prestige’s own estimating allowances. Checkatrade’s renovation, rewiring and damp proofing tables are headed “+VAT”, so those figures exclude VAT; the other sources do not state a position and are treated as excluding VAT.
A simple way to form an early refurbishment budget
Decide which band the house is in, multiply the floor area by the rate, then check the result against the room-by-room lines that matter most to you. If the kitchen and bathroom you want add up to £30,000 on their own, a light rate will not hold. Then add fees, VAT and contingency.
Worked example: full refurbishment of a 1930s semi
A 90m² three-bedroom semi with an original kitchen and bathroom, old wiring and a tired boiler. At the full band, 90m² at £700 to £1,200 gives £63,000 to £108,000 before VAT. Cross-checking line by line: kitchen £7,000 to £25,000, bathroom £5,500 to £8,000, rewire £4,450 to £8,000, heating £3,000 to £8,500, re-skim £5,000 to £12,500, decorate £5,000 to £7,000, flooring at £30 per m² around £2,700. Those lines alone are £32,650 to £71,700, with joinery, doors, skirting, repairs and preliminaries on top. Around £60,000 to £90,000 before VAT is a sensible planning band, or £72,000 to £108,000 with VAT.
Worked example: back to brick on a Victorian terrace
A 100m² terrace with lath-and-plaster ceilings, no damp-proof course, solid walls and a lean-to kitchen. Everything comes out. At £1,200 to £2,000 per m² that is £120,000 to £200,000 before VAT. The spread is wide because the top includes structural changes, a new roof, sash window repairs and high-end finishes. This kind of project belongs on developed drawings and a specification before anyone quotes.
Worked example: a landlord void refresh
A two-bedroom rental between tenants: decorate throughout, new carpets, a few repairs and a deep clean. Decorating a two-bedroom flat is published at around £800 and carpet at £30 per m² fitted, so £1,800 for 60m². With repairs and preliminaries, a straightforward void is often £3,000 to £5,000 before VAT. Add a kitchen or bathroom and it becomes a five-figure job.
Why the published figures disagree
Checkatrade’s three-bedroom total is £43,530 to £110,350; MyBuilder’s is £43,500 to £180,000 and above. The bottom is the same because a light refurbishment is a fairly defined thing. The top differs because “full renovation” may or may not include structural changes, extensions, loft conversions and bespoke finishes. The per-square-metre rate sizes the job early. It is not a price, and it cannot tell you whether the plaster will come off with the wallpaper.
Light, full or back to brick: which is it?
Most houses declare themselves once you look behind the surfaces. Rubber-insulated cables, rewirable fuses, a back boiler, hollow-sounding lath and plaster and salt-stained plaster at skirting level all push a house from light to full. Rot in the joists, a failed roof or walls that need moving push it towards back to brick. For many older Cambridge houses the realistic answer is full: the surface condition usually understates the work, and a survey before the quotation establishes the likely scope rather than leaving it to a long list of “we’ll see”. Our refurbishment page explains how we survey and scope this work.
Allowances for an older Cambridge property
Cambridge and the villages have a large stock of Victorian and Edwardian houses in gault or soft red brick, with solid walls, lime plaster and a century of well-meaning repairs. They refurbish beautifully, but they need budget lines a 1970s house does not.
Damp. Damp in a solid-walled house is often caused by raised ground levels, a cement repoint, a blocked gully or a bridged damp-proof course rather than the absence of one. Injection is published at £60 to £200 per metre, but the cure is often external and involves pointing and drainage as much as chemicals. Our repointing page covers the mortar side.
Rot. Dry rot treatment is published at £1,000 to £2,000, but the real cost is the joists, plates and skirting that come out with it. Allow for opening up floors near external walls before the budget is fixed.
Lime plaster. Solid walls need to breathe. Gypsum over a hard cement render traps moisture; lime render and plaster costs more per square metre and takes longer to dry, but it is the right repair. Ask for it as a separate line.
Everything else. Imperial bricks, sash windows, lath ceilings, floors out of level, no roof insulation, and services added in the wrong order over decades. Fifteen per cent contingency on a Victorian house is not pessimism; it is experience.
Landlord void refurbishments
A void costs rent every week it is empty, so the programme matters as much as the price. We quote voids with a start date and a handover date, keep the scope to what the property needs to let well, and report progress to the landlord or agent. Where a portfolio has several properties turning over, an agreed specification for kitchens, bathrooms and finishes makes each one quicker to price and to do. Compliance items such as electrical certificates are arranged as part of the job.
The VAT position
Most refurbishment work to an existing dwelling is standard-rated at 20 per cent. Quotations are priced excluding VAT with VAT added on top.
There is one relief worth knowing about. Under HMRC VAT Notice 708, section 8, the renovation or alteration of a dwelling that has been empty for two years or more can be charged at the reduced rate of 5 per cent. The property must have been unoccupied for the whole two years before work starts, the customer must provide evidence, and a letter from the local authority’s Empty Property Officer is the evidence HMRC prefers. Not everything qualifies and the rules have detail, so we would confirm the position with our accountant on the specific property before applying it. Do not build a budget on the reduced rate until it has been confirmed in writing.
What affects the price
Condition. What is behind the plaster, under the floor and in the roof.
Specification. A kitchen can be £7,000 or £40,000. Tiles, sanitaryware, doors and ironmongery move a full refurbishment by tens of thousands.
Layout changes. Moving a load-bearing wall is a structural alteration with an engineer, a beam and Building Regulations approval; a non-load-bearing partition can usually come out with far less, but it has to be checked first, because walls that look like partitions sometimes carry a floor.
Occupation and access. An empty house is quicker and cheaper to refurbish than one with a family in it, and a terrace with no side access and nowhere for a skip adds labour.
Listed status and conservation areas. Materials and details may be specified, and sash windows repaired rather than replaced.
Costs to allow for outside the builder's price
- Architect or designer where layouts change
- Structural engineer for any wall removal
- Building Control for structural, electrical, drainage and insulation work
- Party Wall matters on terraced and semi-detached houses
- Surveys, asbestos testing and damp investigation
- Kitchen, sanitaryware, tiles and fittings beyond the quoted allowances
- Furniture storage and temporary accommodation
- VAT at 20 per cent, or 5 per cent where the empty-property relief is confirmed
- Contingency of 10 per cent on a modern house, 15 per cent or more on an older one
How to get a useful refurbishment quotation
Send the address, photographs of every room, any drawings, a list of what you want done, and an honest budget. Ask for the quotation to be itemised room by room and trade by trade, with allowances for the kitchen, bathroom and finishes, exclusions named, VAT shown and a programme attached. The what a builder’s quotation should include guide has the full checklist.
The Eynesbury, St Neots project combined an extension with a complete-house refurbishment; Peter Blanchard’s review is on our reviews page. Clay Street and Thruffle Way show extension and refurbishment scoped together.
House refurbishment cost questions
How much does it cost to refurbish a three-bedroom house?
Published UK guides give £43,500 to £110,000 before VAT for a full refurbishment of a three-bedroom house, with high-end or structural projects going beyond that. On a per-square-metre basis, £500 to £1,200 covers light to full.
What is the difference between light, full and back-to-brick refurbishment?
Light is surfaces: decoration, floors, minor repairs. Full replaces the kitchen, bathroom, wiring, heating and plaster. Back to brick strips the house to its structure and rebuilds the inside, often with layout changes.
How much should I allow for an older property?
More than the per-square-metre rate suggests. Damp, rot, lime plaster, sash windows and out-of-level floors are the usual additions. Allow at least 15 per cent contingency.
Can I get 5 per cent VAT on a refurbishment?
Only where the dwelling has been empty for two years or more before the work starts and the evidence is in place, under VAT Notice 708 section 8. Otherwise refurbishment is 20 per cent. We confirm the position with our accountant before applying the reduced rate.
How long does a full refurbishment take?
It depends on scope, condition and whether the house is occupied. A programme is provided with the quotation rather than a general figure.
How this guide was prepared
Per-square-metre bands are from the Checkatrade house refurbishment cost guide (September 2026) and the MyBuilder house renovation price guide (21 August 2026); the three bands and their boundaries are our reading of those ranges. Room-by-room figures are from the Checkatrade house renovation cost guide (September 2026), rewiring cost guide (June 2026), new bathroom cost guide (March 2026) and damp proofing cost guide (June 2026), and the HomeOwners Alliance house renovation costs guide (September 2026). Plaster rates and the whole-house decorating allowance are Prestige’s own estimating rates. The VAT position is from HMRC VAT Notice 708, section 8 (last updated 26 August 2026). Worked figures are transparent multiplications of published benchmarks and are conversation starting points rather than quotations.
Get a clear next step for your refurbishment
Tell us what you want the house to be when it is finished, send photographs of each room and any drawings, and give us an honest budget. We aim to respond to every enquiry within one working day with the most useful next step, whether that is an early figure or a site visit.
Ready to price your project?
Send us the address, what you have in mind and any plans or photos you already have. A description and a postcode is enough to start; we will tell you whether we can give an early figure or whether a site visit would be more use.
Related guides and services
- Refurbishment
- Structural alterations
- Repointing
- House extension costs
- Loft conversion costs
- Structural alteration costs
- Repointing costs
- What should a builder’s quotation include?
- Building guides
- Building project finance
Last reviewed: 20 September 2026. This guide applies to England. Costs, VAT rules and building regulations change; check current official guidance and obtain appropriate professional advice for your property and project.