The Tool Desk
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A London office fit-out budget depends on what the landlord hands over and what the tenant needs to add. For an initial 2026 estimate, a standard Cat B fit-out is commonly benchmarked at £120–£200 per sq ft, while a premium scheme may be £220–£380+ per sq ft. Those contractor-published ranges exclude VAT and professional fees; they are indicative benchmarks, not quotes. A separate occupier framework from Knight Frank starts at £100 per sq ft and reaches £250+ per sq ft for its high-specification scope, including professional fees but excluding IT hardware. The figures are not directly interchangeable: compare the defined work, assumptions and exclusions before using any rate to set a project budget.
This guide explains what those rates cover, which costs to budget separately and how to compare proposals on a like-for-like basis.
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How much does an office fit-out cost in London?
For a tenant-side Cat B fit-out in London, use £120–£200 per sq ft as an indicative standard-specification benchmark and £220–£380+ per sq ft for a premium scheme. A London contractor’s October 2026 guide gives those ranges and says they exclude VAT and professional fees. Its example for 5,000 sq ft is £600,000–£1 million for standard Cat B and £1.1–£1.9 million for premium Cat B. These are illustrative totals, not tender prices; the scope, building condition and logistics affect the cost.
Knight Frank’s Spring 2026 occupier guide uses a different framework: £100 per sq ft for low, £175 for medium and £250+ for high specification, based on a landlord Cat A handover. Its framework includes professional fees and furniture allowances, but excludes IT hardware. Because the two sources define their rates differently, neither range should be treated as a universal London price list. Check the included work, fees, furniture, measurement basis and tax treatment before comparing them.
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For a quick scale check, multiplying the contractor’s standard Cat B rate by 5,000 sq ft gives £600,000–£1 million before VAT and professional fees. Do not add the separate Knight Frank line items or a landlord refurbishment benchmark to that sum without checking for overlap. A project budget should be built from a written scope, not from a headline rate alone.
What do Cat A and Cat B mean for a tenant budget?
Cat A describes the landlord’s base-building handover context; Cat B is the tenant’s workplace-specific fit-out. The practical question is not just which label appears in a brochure, but what is actually installed, retained or left unfinished when the tenant takes possession.
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Keep landlord refurbishment separate from tenant fit-out. Knight Frank publishes different guides for these scopes. Its Spring 2026 landlord framework illustrates a Central London office-floor benchmark of £110 per sq ft; common parts add £65 per sq ft, while the high-specification column includes £100 per sq ft for main plant. The guide also notes that buildings below 50,000 sq ft may incur a premium. These are landlord-side refurbishment figures, not a tenant Cat B quote, and should not be added to an occupier budget unless the work is confirmed as separate and relevant.
For scope and assumptions, see Knight Frank’s Spring 2026 occupier fit-out guide and its separate landlord refurbishment guide.
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What should a realistic fit-out budget include?
Break the budget into priced work packages and allowances. Knight Frank’s Spring 2026 occupier framework sets out the following low, medium and high amounts per sq ft. Its scenario totals are £100, £175 and £250+ per sq ft respectively; the high total is open-ended, so the listed £250 of components is a baseline rather than a cap.
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| Budget line | Low | Medium | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal walls | £7 | £13 | £20 |
| Internal doors | £3 | £6 | £10 |
| Floor finishes | £5 | £8 | £12 |
| Wall finishes | £4 | £12 | £20 |
| Ceiling finishes | £4 | £7 | £10 |
| Joinery | £7 | £18 | £30 |
| Mechanical services (air conditioning and ventilation) | £15 | £20 | £25 |
| Electrical services (fire alarm and power) | £10 | £20 | £25 |
| Data cabling | £3 | £4 | £5 |
| Security | £2 | £4 | £6 |
| Audio visual | £5 | £12 | £20 |
| Furniture | £25 | £30 | £35 |
| Professional fees | £10 | £21 | £32 |
| IT hardware (racks, servers and similar) | Excluded | Excluded | Excluded |
Prices checked November 2026.
Amounts are pounds per sq ft from Knight Frank’s Spring 2026 occupier guide. They reflect that guide’s scenarios, not a guaranteed price for a particular office. Verify the tender scope and whether each line is included.
The low scenario describes predominantly open-plan space with basic finishes. The medium scenario assumes meeting rooms and some service amendments. The high scenario allows for stronger acoustic performance, upgraded services, higher-quality furniture and AV, and bespoke elements. The table helps show why two fit-out proposals can have very different rates: partitioning, acoustic requirements, service changes and furniture can alter both the work and its specification.
For example, a 5,000 sq ft office priced using the Knight Frank medium framework comes to £875,000 at £175 per sq ft before any separately excluded IT hardware or other project-specific costs. That is a calculation from the guide’s benchmark, not a forecast or quote. Do not use it as a like-for-like replacement for the London contractor’s £600,000–£1 million standard Cat B example: the sources describe different scope and inclusions.
Which costs might sit outside the headline rate?
A construction or fit-out rate is not necessarily the total cash required to complete the move. Make each of these items explicit in the budget and ask who will procure or pay for it:
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- Professional services: design, cost consultancy and other professional fees may be excluded from contractor headline rates. Knight Frank’s occupier framework lists fees as £10, £21 and £32 per sq ft in its low, medium and high scenarios; the London contractor’s headline ranges exclude professional fees.
- IT hardware: the Knight Frank occupier guide excludes hardware such as racks and servers. Confirm whether the tender includes any IT equipment, installation, configuration or only cabling.
- Furniture and AV: confirm the quantity and specification included. A rate may cover furniture or AV only to the extent set out in the scope; compare those lines rather than assuming a furnished handover.
- VAT: the London contractor’s cost ranges exclude VAT. Knight Frank’s landlord guide also explicitly excludes VAT, as well as professional fees and development costs.
- Landlord consent and review: a Licence to Alter process and associated professional or review fees may apply. The amount depends on the building and requirements; the available sources do not establish a universal allowance.
- Building logistics and working hours: restricted access, loading and waste rules, or out-of-hours work can affect the project. Confirm these conditions before accepting a price that assumes ordinary access.
- Move-out and reinstatement: check the lease and landlord requirements for the departing premises. A London contractor’s separate guide gives an indicative reinstatement-to-Cat-A range of £160–£375 per m², but that is not a statement of what a particular tenant owes. Establish the actual obligation rather than treating the range as a standard charge.
These exclusions are discussed in the 2VP London fit-out cost guidance; treat contractor guidance as practical context, not a substitute for the project scope, lease terms or tender.
How do you compare London fit-out quotes fairly?
Ask every contractor to price the same written brief and make differences visible. A lower figure may reflect a narrower scope rather than a more efficient way of delivering equivalent work.
- Match the handover condition. State what the landlord is delivering and list retained, removed, replaced and new elements. Confirm who handles each item.
- Set a common specification. Define the intended headcount, room mix, meeting rooms, acoustic requirements, finishes, services, furniture, AV and any bespoke spaces. Ask bidders to identify assumptions where the brief leaves a choice.
- Describe the building and site constraints. Record the known condition of existing services, access and loading arrangements, waste rules, work-hour restrictions, and landlord requirements. These can affect both sequence and price.
- Use the same area measurement. Confirm whether each rate uses net internal area (NIA) or gross internal area (GIA), and use the same measured floor area for every comparison.
- Request an itemized price and exclusions list. Separate construction, furniture, AV, IT hardware, professional services, VAT, landlord fees, commissioning and reinstatement. Mark each as included, excluded or not applicable.
- Compare the same cost boundary. Do not compare a build-only tender with a furnished project total that includes fees. Record any separate allowances alongside the tender so the expected project spend is visible.
The London contractor guide describes NIA as the usable tenancy area and says it is usually the quoted basis; GIA is larger. A rate per sq ft can therefore appear different simply because its denominator differs. Confirm both the measurement basis and area rather than relying on a number copied from a property listing.
For an itemized framework, use the Knight Frank occupier guide as a reference, then ask bidders to price the project’s actual scope. It is a benchmark, not a tender document. The London contractor’s October 2026 cost guide also discusses local rates and area basis; its figures are contractor-published estimates.
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How should you build an initial project budget?
Start with a scope and a cost boundary, then add allowances for items that the benchmark excludes. No universal contingency percentage or dilapidations allowance is supported by the cited sources, so avoid applying an arbitrary percentage as if it were a London standard.
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- Confirm the lease area and handover. Record the measured area, whether it is NIA or GIA, and the actual Cat A or other handover specification. Confirm responsibilities against the lease or agreement.
- Write the workplace brief. Set expected headcount, room and meeting-space needs, acoustic requirements, furniture level, AV and bespoke spaces. This makes it possible to choose a realistic low, medium or high scope rather than selecting a rate without context.
- Check existing services. Identify what can be retained and what needs amendment or replacement. Mechanical services, electrical services, data, security and AV are separate cost lines in the occupier framework.
- Obtain itemized proposals. Provide a common written scope and request a price that separates work packages, assumptions and exclusions. Resolve area basis and specification before comparing totals.
- Add project-specific excluded costs. Allow for professional services, IT hardware, VAT, landlord consent, logistics and move-out obligations where applicable. Get the relevant fees or obligations confirmed; do not assume the benchmark includes them.
- Keep annual occupancy costs on another schedule. Rent, business rates and service charge recur over time; they are not one-off fit-out costs. Track them separately when assessing the total cost of occupying the office.
How does fit-out cost differ from the cost of occupying an office?
A fit-out is a one-off project cost; rent, business rates and service charge are recurring occupancy costs. Mixing them into one per-square-foot figure can obscure both the project budget and the ongoing cost of the premises.
Knight Frank’s London Series reports £70 per sq ft for an average Cat A fit-out in 2026, compared with £40–£50 per sq ft five years earlier. That is market context for a Cat A fit-out, not a complete occupier budget or a substitute for the tenant-side Cat B estimate.
Carter Jonas Research gives a Q1 2026 City of London Prime example of £143 per sq ft per annum in total occupancy cost: rent £90, business rates £37 and service charge £16. The example is for new and refitted mid-rise Grade A offices over 5,000 sq ft, excludes VAT, and does not include insurance or tenant utilities. It is not a general rate for every London building or submarket. See the Knight Frank London Series and Carter Jonas Q1 2026 office occupation costs report for those separate market measures.
What most often makes a budget inaccurate?
The most common budgeting mistake is treating an indicative rate as a complete project price. The rate may exclude fees, VAT, IT hardware, consent costs or move-out work, or it may assume a different specification and area measurement from the one used in another proposal.
- Using the wrong work package: a landlord refurbishment benchmark is not automatically a tenant fit-out allowance. Establish the scope before using either.
- Assuming all Cat B schemes are alike: a mostly open-plan basic scheme and a high-acoustic, service-intensive, bespoke workplace do not represent the same work.
- Comparing rates calculated on different areas: NIA and GIA differ, so a per-square-foot rate without its denominator can mislead.
- Leaving services vague: state what is known about existing mechanical, electrical, data and security systems, and ask bidders to identify the consequences of any unverified assumptions.
- Forgetting the building’s operating rules: access, deliveries, waste and working-hour constraints should be part of the brief, not discovered after a price has been accepted.
- Mixing project and occupancy costs: annual rent, rates and service charge belong on a separate schedule from one-off construction costs.
Use the published benchmarks to frame early conversations, not to replace a site-specific scope and priced proposal. The final budget should show what is included, what remains uncertain and who is responsible for resolving it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I budget a contingency for a London office fit-out?
The cited benchmarks do not establish a universal contingency percentage. Ask the cost consultant or project team to identify project-specific risks—such as unverified existing services or access constraints—and show any allowance separately from the priced scope.
Does an office fit-out quote usually include VAT?
Do not assume that it does. The London contractor’s published rates exclude VAT, and Knight Frank’s landlord guide also excludes it; check the tax treatment in each proposal and confirm how it applies to your project.
Is Cat A+ the same as Cat B?
No; the London contractor guide lists Cat A+ as a separate cost category, at £95–£140 per sq ft in its October 2026 estimates. The label alone does not tell you what the landlord will deliver, so verify the actual handover specification and tenant responsibilities.
Are London office fit-out costs quoted per square metre or per square foot?
Published benchmarks may use either unit, so check the stated unit before comparing figures. Also verify whether the area is NIA or GIA; the same project can show a different rate when the measurement basis changes.
