Renovation costs by city
Twenty of the biggest UK cities, each mapped to the official region whose cost band the calculator applies. What changes between Leeds and London is the region, not a city number I made up.
| City | Official region | Band applied | Mid-range bathroom | Mid-range kitchen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland (−20%) | £4,400 to £6,800 | £8,000 to £14,400 |
| Birmingham | West Midlands | Midlands (0%) | £5,500 to £8,500 | £10,000 to £18,000 |
| Brighton and Hove | South East | South East (+15%) | £6,300 to £9,800 | £11,500 to £20,700 |
| Bristol | South West | South West (+8%) | £5,900 to £9,200 | £10,800 to £19,400 |
| Cardiff | Wales | Wales (0%) | £5,500 to £8,500 | £10,000 to £18,000 |
| Edinburgh | Scotland | Scotland (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Glasgow | Scotland | Scotland (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Leeds | Yorkshire and The Humber | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Leicester | East Midlands | Midlands (0%) | £5,500 to £8,500 | £10,000 to £18,000 |
| Liverpool | North West | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Londonkitchen, bathroom, extension | London | London (+25%) | £6,900 to £10,600 | £12,500 to £22,500 |
| Manchester | North West | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | North East | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Norwich | East of England | East of England (+8%) | £5,900 to £9,200 | £10,800 to £19,400 |
| Nottingham | East Midlands | Midlands (0%) | £5,500 to £8,500 | £10,000 to £18,000 |
| Plymouth | South West | South West (+8%) | £5,900 to £9,200 | £10,800 to £19,400 |
| Portsmouth | South East | South East (+15%) | £6,300 to £9,800 | £11,500 to £20,700 |
| Sheffield | Yorkshire and The Humber | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
| Southampton | South East | South East (+15%) | £6,300 to £9,800 | £11,500 to £20,700 |
| York | Yorkshire and The Humber | North of England (−15%) | £4,700 to £7,200 | £8,500 to £15,300 |
Where you sit inside a band is real, and the table cannot show it: a tight city centre with permit parking, no room for a skip and a long carry to the front door pushes a job towards the top of its band, a quiet suburb towards the bottom. Both anchor projects above are mid-range; budget and premium finishes, and every other project type, sit in the calculator, which reads the same band from your postcode.
Which cities share a band
ONS splits the UK into twelve areas at ITL level 1. The calculator works with nine cost bands, because the national cost guides report a northern spread and a Midlands spread rather than one per region. Here is exactly how that grouping falls, so nothing in the table above is a surprise.
- London (+25%): London.
- South East (+15%): Brighton and Hove, Portsmouth and Southampton.
- South West (+8%): Bristol and Plymouth.
- East of England (+8%): Norwich.
- Midlands (0%): Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham. One band across East Midlands and West Midlands.
- Wales (0%): Cardiff.
- North of England (−15%): Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheffield and York. One band across North East, North West and Yorkshire and The Humber.
- Scotland (−15%): Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- Northern Ireland (−20%): Belfast.
How to use this
Take your city's band, then get quotes: the band tells you what to expect before they arrive, the quotes are the real number. The region page carries all nine factors with a worked example, and the cost index converts a quote from an earlier year to today. Renovating in London? The London guides apply the same London factor (+25%) as the table above, per project type, and add the price drivers for that job plus a calculator already set to London: start with the kitchen, bathroom or rear extension.
Region division and city mapping, 13 August 2026: ONS, International geographies: the twelve ITL level 1 areas of the UK, checked 13 August 2026; ONS Open Geography Portal, the lookup files that place each local authority in its region, checked 13 August 2026. The cost bands themselves come from the regional spreads in the national 2026 cost guides behind the calculator, price data checked August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What does a renovation cost in my city?
Find your city in the table and read across: a mid-range bathroom runs £6,900 to £10,600 in London and £4,400 to £6,800 in Belfast, for example. That figure is the band of the region your city sits in, because I have found no public UK source that prices renovations at city level with a method I can check. For your own project, put your postcode into the calculator: it picks the same band and applies it to your project and finish level.
Why do Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle show the same numbers?
Because they sit in three different official regions (North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, North East) that share one cost band in the calculator. The nine bands are a grouping of the twelve ITL level 1 areas ONS uses. Grouping them is honest about how precise the underlying cost guides are: they report a northern spread, not a Manchester spread.
Is a city centre more expensive than the rest of its region?
In practice a dense centre pushes a job towards the top of its band: permit parking, no room for a skip, a long carry to the front door, restricted delivery hours. I have no 2026 source that puts a number on that gap for each city, so the table does not pretend to know it. Treat the top of the band as your city-centre planning figure.
Do you have a separate page for every city?
No, and that is deliberate. Twenty city pages built on one regional figure would repeat the same number twenty times under twenty headings. London has its own guides, but not because I hold London-only price data: they apply the same London factor (+25%) as this table, per project type, and add what a table row cannot carry, the price drivers for that job and a calculator already set to London.