How much does it cost to renovate an apartment in Paris?

When it comes to Paris’ older properties, there is no need to break the bank to renovate: great looking results can be achieved at every budget. Here’s what to expect cost-wise when renovating property in Paris.

Construction

Construction prices vary with the complexity and the required amount of work. For more accurate and precise pricing, it is best to obtain a quote from a licensed constructor. However, based on experience and historical data from past projects, we can estimate a price range based on three various types of renovations: Complete, Medium or Light.

Complete Renovations: Demolition of the entire living area, removal of walls, flooring and most major systems (electricity, plumbing, heating and cooling), as well as reconfiguration and rethinking of the entire interior space.

Medium Renovations: Major updates to all existing surfaces, maintaining the same floor-plan configuration, minor updates to current systems (electricity, plumbing, heating and cooling).

Light Renovations: Painting existing surfaces, maintaining most fixtures, repairs to existing system and staging it for immediate use.

Furnishings

Similar to construction costs, furnishing costs can also vary greatly depending on a number of factors. We can estimate a cost range of furnishings based on three levels: Luxury, Mid-range and Budget.

Frequent Paris Property Group partner Monte Laster of MRL Design Studio estimates the cost breakdown based on tracking of historical project data:

Air Conditioning

The average cost of air conditioning usually comes down to approximately 7,000 € per room when there are at least two rooms involved. Multiple factors influence this cost however, including what type of system is used, the distance between rooms and the condenser unit, the number of rooms to be cooled, building regulations and other installation complexities. A property will need one condenser unit system for 2-3 rooms, and 2 condenser units for 4-6 rooms.

Other fees

Renovating an apartment often requires a project scope, a collection of important documents such as estimates from independent contractors and builders, drawings, furniture layouts, color palettes, fabric samples and more. These elements are intended to showcase ideas and facilitate the decision making process so as to reach a point of agreement with the interior designer to execute the work.

Project Fees and Commissions depend on whether the contract with the interior designer is exclusive (the company maintains the rights of ownership to all of their design ideas, concepts, plans and drawings, and you agree to work exclusively with them) or non-exclusive (you purchase the rights to use their designs and are not contractually bound to work with them). Costs can range from around 500 € for very general plans or ideas, to around 5,000 € for very detailed plans that specify all the project elements and can be used to closely estimate costs for the entire project.

Image: Hôtel Ritz Paris