Commercial Fit-Out Pricing Guide UK — Office, Retail and Hospitality Costs (2026)

What is commercial fit-out?

Commercial fit-out is the interior construction work that transforms a commercial building from a bare structure into a functioning workspace. It is distinct from structural or groundwork (which is the developer's job) and from ongoing maintenance contracts. The sector covers offices, retail units, restaurants and bars, hotels, healthcare facilities, and any other non-domestic space that needs fitting out for occupation.

The industry uses a well-established three-tier classification that every contractor needs to understand before pricing a project:

• Shell & Core — the developer finishes the building structure only: concrete frame or steel, external envelope, stairs and lifts in the core, and main incoming services to the floor plate. The floor plate itself is left completely bare.
• Category A (Cat A) — the landlord completes the basic interior infrastructure: raised access floors, suspended ceilings, basic mechanical and electrical (M&E) grid, perimeter heating and cooling, fire detection and sprinklers, WC and kitchen cores. The space is lettable but still completely open-plan and generic.
• Category B (Cat B) — the tenant's fit-out. This is where most commercial fit-out contractors operate: demountable partitioning, specialist flooring, decoration, joinery, IT infrastructure, furniture (FF&E — furniture, fixtures and equipment), branding and signage. Cat B turns Cat A vanilla space into the actual working environment.

On some projects — particularly in the current occupier market where tenants want fully fitted space — the landlord will complete Cat A and then offer a “Cat A+” or “plug-and-play” package, which is essentially a basic Cat B fit-out funded by the landlord as an incentive to sign a lease. Understanding which category you are being asked to price is the very first step.

Cat A fit-out costs per m² (2026)

Cat A costs are driven by M&E, raised access flooring and suspended ceiling systems. Prices below reflect typical UK costs in 2026; London and South East projects sit toward the upper end of each range.

The wide range reflects how much M&E specification varies. A basic Cat A with grid lighting and simple ventilation sits around £60–£80/m². A premium Cat A with full VRF air conditioning, addressable fire alarm and LED feature lighting will push to £120–£150/m².

Cat B fit-out costs per m² (2026)

Cat B is where specification — and therefore cost — varies most dramatically. A basic open-plan office refresh sits at a completely different price point to a bespoke headquarters fit-out with bespoke joinery, feature lighting and a full AV and IT infrastructure package.

• Office fit-out (London): £500–£1,500/m² for a full Cat B including all trades. A mid-spec agile workspace typically runs £700–£900/m².
• Office fit-out (outside London): £300–£700/m² for comparable scope. Regional cities like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham sit at £350–£600/m².
• Hospitality (restaurants and bars): £800–£2,500/m² due to commercial kitchen fit-out (£800–£1,500 per kitchen position in equipment alone), bar construction, bespoke joinery and high-spec floor and wall finishes.
• Demountable office partitioning: £80–£180/m² of wall run length. Double-glazed frameless systems sit toward £150–£180/m²; basic single-glazed aluminium around £80–£100/m².

FF&E (furniture, fixtures and equipment) is often procured separately by the client but may form part of a design-and-build package. When included in your scope, budget £1,500–£5,000 per workstation for a full fit-out including task seating, desking, storage and AV equipment.

Cost breakdown by trade

Understanding how the contract sum splits across trades is critical for both pricing and subcontract procurement. These percentages are broadly consistent across medium-to-large Cat B office projects:

M&E dominates the cost plan on almost every commercial fit-out project, which is why building an in-house M&E capability — or a reliable preferred M&E subcontractor relationship — is one of the most important strategic decisions a fit-out contractor makes.

Retail fit-out costs

Retail fit-out costs are highly variable and driven by brand standard more than anything else. A national retailer rolling out a new format to 40 stores has tight cost targets and a design standard that leaves little room for value engineering. An independent operator fitting out a single shop has more flexibility but often less buying power with suppliers.

The key cost drivers in retail are different from offices. Shopfront and glazing can be £15,000–£50,000 for a single shop frontage depending on width and specification. Lighting design is often disproportionately expensive — luxury retail may spend £80–£150/m² on lighting alone. Bespoke joinery (shelving, display units, till area, fitting rooms) is typically 25–40% of a retail fit-out budget. Signage and branding elements are usually client-direct but may be coordinated through the main contractor.

Food retail costs more because of refrigeration plant, food hygiene-compliant surfaces, extraction and more complex M&E. Food-to-go units (sandwich bars, coffee shops) typically run £700–£1,000/m² for a basic fit-out excluding equipment, which can add another £40,000–£120,000 depending on the kitchen model.

How to tender for commercial fit-out work

The vast majority of commercial fit-out work comes through competitive tender. Direct negotiation exists, but it is reserved for contractors with an established relationship and a strong track record. To access tender opportunities, you need to be on a developer's or main contractor's approved contractor list — which means going through a pre-qualification process.

Accreditations you'll need:

• ISO 9001 — quality management system. Required by virtually all commercial clients.
• ISO 14001 — environmental management. Increasingly required, particularly on ESG-focused schemes.
• Constructionline or SafeContractor — third-party verified health & safety and financial standing. Most developers and main contractors require one or both.
• Public liability insurance: £5–£10m minimum for most commercial projects; some require £10m+ for larger schemes or occupied buildings.

The typical process runs: pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) → invitation to tender (ITT) → tender submission → clarification meetings → negotiation → contract award. The PQQ stage is where many smaller contractors fall out — clients want to see relevant project experience (comparable value and type of project), financial stability (minimum two years of accounts, usually a minimum turnover threshold), and the accreditations above.

For contractors breaking into the sector, a practical route is to start as a specialist subcontractor to an established fit-out main contractor, building a project track record before making the move to principal contractor.

Pricing a commercial fit-out tender

Commercial fit-out tenders require a structured cost build-up. Guessing at a rate per m² and hoping it covers everything is how contractors lose money. The standard build-up works from the bottom up:

1. Trade costs — labour (direct and subcontracted) and materials broken down by trade package. M&E, joinery, flooring, decoration and ceilings should each have their own cost breakdown.
2. Plant and equipment — scissor lifts, scaffolding, specialist tools. On occupied building projects, out-of-hours working often requires extra plant to compress the programme into evening and weekend shifts.
3. Preliminaries (prelims) — site management, site manager salary, welfare (toilets, drying room, canteen), temporary hoarding and access, waste management, site insurance. Prelims typically run 10–15% of trade costs. Do not underestimate this — prelims on a six-month site will include six months of a site manager's salary, six months of skip hire, and potentially six months of out-of-hours security.
4. Overheads — head office costs, estimating, design and project management that sits above site level. Typically 10–15% applied to trade costs and plant.
5. Profit — 5–15% on total cost depending on the project, your capacity at the time, and how competitive the tender is. On a negotiated project you can hold 10–12%; on a six-way competition you may need to sharpen to 5–7%.

Programme is critical on commercial fit-out in a way it rarely is on domestic work. Most commercial contracts contain liquidated damages (LDs) for late delivery — commonly £5,000–£20,000 per week on a mid-size office project. When building your programme into the tender, be realistic: factor in lead times for bespoke joinery (8–14 weeks is typical), M&E equipment supply, and the likelihood of variations and instructions from the client's design team.

Present your tender in the format the client requests — usually a priced bill of quantities or schedule of rates. Clients evaluate commercial fit-out tenders not just on the bottom line but on the transparency of the build-up. A clearly structured, well-presented price shows professional competence before you've put a single tool on site.

Key risks on commercial fit-out projects

Commercial fit-out carries specific risks that domestic work does not. Price these in — or have a clear contract mechanism for recovering costs if they materialise.

• Existing M&E surveys are often incomplete. What is above the ceiling? Old drawings may not reflect the as-built position. Budget a contingency for discovering additional services runs, redundant equipment or services crossing your working area that need to be diverted.
• Asbestos in older buildings. Commercial buildings from the 1960s–1990s frequently contain asbestos in artex, floor tiles, pipe lagging and ceiling tiles. Always require an asbestos management survey (or refurbishment survey if the space is pre-Cat A stripped-out) before pricing. Removal costs are highly variable but a contaminated ceiling void can add £20,000–£100,000 to a project.
• Building regulations on change of use. If the fit-out involves a change of use — for example, converting offices to a restaurant — this triggers a full building regulations application and potentially significant structural and fire strategy changes. Make sure the design team has addressed this before you price.
• Landlord's approval for alterations. The licence for alterations from the landlord may impose conditions on how work is done, what materials are used, and whether the tenant must reinstate at lease end. Reinstatement obligations can be a significant cost that the client needs to be aware of.
• Working in occupied buildings. Phased occupation — where one part of the floor is being fitted out while another is still in use — drives up cost through additional hoarding, noise restrictions, out-of-hours working (typically a 15–25% labour premium) and more complex logistics.
• Supply chain lead times. Bespoke joinery, specialist M&E plant, feature lighting and lifts all have long lead times. Order late and the programme slips; programme slips and LDs kick in. Get subcontractor programmes agreed at tender stage and build them into your construction programme before signing contracts.

Growing a commercial fit-out business

Commercial fit-out is a relationship business. The most consistent route to a full pipeline is trusted relationships with commercial agents (who advise tenants on space and often have early intelligence on upcoming projects), architects and interior designers (who specify the contractor on design-and-build projects), and developers (who need fit-out contractors on their approved lists for multiple schemes).

The choice between design-and-build and traditional contract has significant implications for your business model. Design-and-build gives you more control, typically better margin, and a stronger client relationship — but requires you to carry design risk and invest in your own in-house or consultant design team. Traditional (contractor-only) is lower risk but more competitive on price and more dependent on the quality of information you receive from the design team.

On projects above £1m, a dedicated project manager on site — separate from the site manager doing day-to-day supervision — is essential for client management, programme reporting, variation tracking and subcontractor coordination. Many fit-out contractors underestimate the cost of project management when scaling from sub-£500k to £1m+ projects.

Finally, M&E is the strategic choice that defines your growth ceiling. Sub-contracting M&E means you are dependent on the availability and pricing of a specialist subcontractor for your largest cost head. Bringing M&E in-house — through acquisition, joint venture or direct employment of M&E engineers — gives you better margin, more programme certainty, and a genuinely differentiated proposition when pitching to clients who want a single point of responsibility.