Renovating an 80 m² flat: what can your budget actually cover?

Check the flat before setting the scope

Confirm whether 80 m² means usable internal area or built area. Record the kitchen, bathrooms, windows and rooms individually. Photographs help explain the current condition, but they cannot establish what lies behind a wall or whether existing services are suitable to retain.

Ask for an initial assessment of the relevant structure, electrical installation, plumbing, moisture and ventilation before committing the whole budget to finishes. Where something remains uncertain, the quote should identify the assumption and explain how further investigation will be handled. For each provisional allowance, ask what it covers, why it cannot yet be priced and how the final amount will be agreed.

Write down both the changes and the things you will keep

Describe the result room by room. 'New bathroom' could mean replacing fittings in their current positions or removing everything, renewing concealed services and changing the layout. Name the fixtures and finishes, say which services will be retained following assessment, and make responsibility for preparation clear.

Separate essential repairs from improvements you could defer. This is particularly useful when discussing a limited budget: you can ask for an optional door replacement or upgraded worktop without letting those items obscure necessary work. Retaining a layout can avoid some alterations, but retaining defective plumbing simply postpones a problem beneath new finishes.

Official source: CTE · Parte I: proyecto, mediciones y control de obra (junio de 2022)

Three illustrative spending limits

Imagine three owners setting aside different sums for an 80 m² flat. Each chooses a reserve before seeking prices. The amounts remaining below are for the agreed work and products, including applicable tax. These are entirely hypothetical budget caps: none establishes what a Spanish contractor would charge or guarantees that the whole flat can be completed.

The reserves happen to be one tenth of the available funds in this illustration. That is an arithmetic choice, not a recommended contingency percentage. What you set aside should reflect the surveys, unresolved work and your capacity to meet an unexpected bill.

Make room for everything around the finished rooms

Include protection of shared areas, strip-out, waste removal, substrate repairs and making good. Then account for the services, kitchen, bathroom, flooring, joinery and decoration actually involved. Check whether professional input, municipal procedures, appliances, moving and temporary accommodation sit inside the contractor's price or in your own budget.

Prevent double counting as well as omissions. Bathroom plumbing may appear in a general services allowance and again in a bathroom package. Ask for the tax treatment in writing: Spain does not apply a reduced renovation VAT rate automatically to every job. Any lower rate depends on the relevant conditions being met, so compare totals with the applicable tax included.

Official source: AEAT · IVA de las obras de renovación o reparación de viviendas

Give every contractor the same brief

A lower total can reflect fewer included items, different quantities or a cheaper specification. Put competing offers beside the same room list and resolve those differences before judging value. Clear answers now also make later changes easier to price.

• Ask for measured quantities and a description of the work behind each allowance.
• Record product ranges or exact models where they affect price and performance.
• Identify exclusions, provisional sums and work supplied by someone else.
• Confirm tax, payment stages and how proposed changes will be priced and approved.
• Check who repairs surfaces after electrical and plumbing work and who removes the waste.

Official source: CTE · Parte I: proyecto, mediciones y control de obra (junio de 2022)

Reduce the brief deliberately if the figures do not fit

When comparable quotes exceed the money available, ask the contractor to price a revised package. Deferring a non-essential room, keeping serviceable windows or choosing a different finish may create a workable plan. Check the consequences: doing a floor now and relocating a partition later can mean paying to disturb finished work twice.

Do not quietly spend the reserve to make the initial agreement look affordable. First establish why the gap exists and which decisions would close it. Approve a version of the brief with a matching price, then keep that version as the reference whenever someone suggests an addition.