How to estimate renovation costs
Be able to estimate simply, easily and, above all, quickly the amount of work required on an apartment you are about to buy for yourself or to rent outor simply in an apartment you already own and would like to renovate. refurbishments or much more extensive work to make it much more attractive in terms of design, for example, to put it up for seasonal rental, because for that to work, you need to be at the top end of the market. With quality materials and services.
That’s why you need to plan for a fairly high renovation budget, but one that will enable you to rent it more cheaply and easily. The rule I give you is the 1/3/5 rule, for €100 / €300 / €500 euros per square meter.
The €100 per square metre rule
At 100 euros per square meter for an apartment measuring 50 square meters, for example, you’d need to budget 5,000 euros to repaint the entire apartment and, for example, refinish the floor with floating parquet. This is a budget to take into account if you’ve had a tenant for a long time, say ten years, and you don’t need to redo the electricity or plumbing or change the windows. It’s an amount that’s easy to remember for a good clean and to be able to rent it out at market price. At this price, you don’t need to do any major electrical or plumbing work.
The €300 per square metre rule
For larger jobs, you need to go for the higher budget of 300 euros per square meter, which will enable you to renovate a kitchen, bring it up to date, paint it, install suspended ceilings with recessed spotlights and even replace single-glazed windows with double-glazing. So if you take a budget of 300 euros per square meter for an apartment of 50, you’ll need to plan for 15,000 euros of work.
The €500 per square metre rule
The budget of 500 euros per square metre for renovation work is if you want to replace windows with double glazing, redo the electricity and plumbing, change the floor, put in false ceilings, redo expensive paint and plasterwork, but also replace a boiler. It can also integrate the top-of-the-range furnishings that you will be integrating into the apartment for seasonal rental. Replacing windows with double glazing in an old building where the windows are not of a standard format can potentially be very expensive! In general, you can expect to pay around 3,000 euros per window, which should not be overlooked when you visit the property. So if you take a budget of 500 euros per square meter for an apartment of 50, you’ll need to plan for 25,000 euros of work.
The importance of this rule for your rental investment
You can really count on the 1-3-5 rule is easy to remember and predict to estimate a property before making a purchase proposalyou’ll be able to avoid having to call in a building professional who may take a long time because he or she won’t be immediately available, and the property you want may be out of your reach because someone else will make a proposal more quickly. It’s an opportunity you’re going to lose, so it’s a quick and easy tip to take into account, depending on the level of renovation you want to give your property.
