Citeste articolul in romana → Cat costa renovarea unui apartament de bloc vechi in 2026?
In 2026, published price indexes put a full renovation of an old Romanian apartment at roughly 1,400–2,400 lei/m² (about €280–480/m²) with standard finishes, and 2,400–3,500 lei/m² or more at the premium end. Bucharest sits at the top of those ranges. For a two-room flat of about 50 m², a full standard renovation comes to roughly 70,000–120,000 lei (€14,000–24,000) nationally. The two things that move the number most are the installations and the bathroom, not the tiles.
In short
Cosmetic (paint, small repairs, floors): roughly 400–900 lei/m².
Full standard (new installations, bathroom, floors, paint): roughly 1,400–2,400 lei/m².
Premium (top finishes, custom furniture, appliances): 2,400–3,500 lei/m² and up.
Bucharest and Cluj cost more. Labour alone runs about 500–550 lei/m² there, against 250–450 lei/m² elsewhere.
A real reference from 2024: two full bathrooms plus a light renovation and mid-range retail furniture for three rooms came to about €17,000.
You don't need a six-figure budget for a well-designed, full renovation with mid-range finishes. Most of what pushes prices that high is custom joinery, imported materials and showroom design.
What does a renovation cost per square metre in 2026?
It depends on the scope more than the size. Four levels, from paint to a full renovation with layout changes.
Cosmetic: painting, small repairs, new parquet or light fittings. Roughly 400–900 lei/m² (€80–180/m²).
Full standard: new electrical and plumbing installations, new bathroom tiles and fixtures, floors, paint. Roughly 1,400–2,400 lei/m² (€280–480/m²).
Complex or premium: top finishes, new windows and doors, custom furniture, appliances included. Roughly 2,400–3,500 lei/m² and up (€480–700+/m²).
Full plus layout changes: the full standard band, plus the structural engineer, the design, the approval and the structural work itself. Those depend on what you move, so they're priced per project.
Source: published renovation price indexes, August 2026. Bucharest figures from the same sources run higher: around 2,600–3,500 lei/m² all-in for a full renovation (June 2026), which matches owners' reports of offers at €500–700/m².
What does that mean for a studio, a two-room and a three-room flat?
Multiply the band by the floor area. These are national ranges; in Bucharest, expect the top of each.
Studio (about 35 m²)
Cosmetic: 14,000–31,000 lei (€2,800–6,300).
Full standard: 49,000–84,000 lei (€9,800–16,800).
Premium: 84,000–122,000 lei and up (€16,800–24,500+).
Two-room flat (about 50 m²)
Cosmetic: 20,000–45,000 lei (€4,000–9,000).
Full standard: 70,000–120,000 lei (€14,000–24,000).
Premium: 120,000–175,000 lei and up (€24,000–35,000+).
Three-room flat (about 65 m²)
Cosmetic: 26,000–58,000 lei (€5,200–11,700).
Full standard: 91,000–156,000 lei (€18,200–31,200).
Premium: 156,000–227,000 lei and up (€31,200–45,500+).
Outside the big cities, labour is roughly a third to a half cheaper per square metre than in Bucharest or Cluj. Materials cost about the same everywhere.
A real reference: what a mid-range renovation cost in 2024
About €17,000 for two complete bathrooms and a light renovation of three rooms, with mid-range finishes and furniture from the big retailers.
Two bathrooms: about €9,000 (about €4,500 each). Everything replaced except one shower and one washbasin, with a new bathtub, extra storage, floor tiles and paint.
Bedroom (14 m²) and office (12 m²): about €6,000. Walls and ceilings repainted, wooden floors refinished, IKEA storage units and desks.
Living area (20 m²): about €2,000. Walls and ceilings repainted, wooden floors refinished, a few light pieces of furniture.
What it shows:
Mid-range means good, not cheap. Finishes, fixtures and furniture came from the big DIY and furniture retailers. There was no custom joinery and nothing imported.
The bathrooms were more than half the budget, in a flat that otherwise needed only light work.
Prices have risen since 2024, so treat these figures as a floor for the same scope today.
Why this matters: much of what you'll read online prices a two-room renovation at the high end of the market: custom joinery, imported finishes, designer packages. That's a real market, but it isn't the only one. A full renovation with well-chosen mid-range finishes and a proper design costs a fraction of it.
What does each part of the work cost?
Twelve lines. The first four usually decide the budget.
Bathroom: roughly 10,000–25,000 lei (€2,000–5,000) for a full renovation of a standard 3–4 m² bloc bathroom with standard finishes, and more with premium ones.
Kitchen: a mid-range, IKEA-level kitchen for about 7 m² costs roughly 6,000–15,000 lei (€1,200–3,000), depending on the layout and the appliances. Assembly runs about 900–1,500 lei, depending on the number of units.
Electrical: a full rewire of a two-room flat costs roughly 3,500–9,000 lei in labour (about 100–140 lei/m² for a standard installation). A new panel costs about 800–1,500 lei.
Windows: new PVC windows for a two-room flat (three windows and a balcony door) cost roughly 4,900–8,500 lei fitted.
Strip-out: removing plaster costs about 20–35 lei/m², and removing tiles about 13–35 lei/m². Rubble removal is often billed separately, at roughly 500–3,000 lei.
Walls: skimming costs about 20–40 lei/m² for two coats and paint about 13–30 lei/m² per coat, labour only. Strip, replaster, skim and paint together come to roughly 90–145 lei/m² of labour.
Floors: laying parquet costs about 25–100 lei/m² in labour, plus the material.
Tiling: roughly 65–90 lei/m² for standard tile sizes and 100–150 lei/m² for large formats, labour only.
Ventilation and damp: a bathroom extractor fan costs from about 150 lei to install, plus the fan. Mould removal is covered under the walls line once the cause is fixed. Have damp checked on site before you price it.
Plumbing and heating: usually priced per point (each tap, radiator or drain). Get them quoted against the plan.
Design: interior design projects typically cost €30–60/m², from about €15/m² for basic packages up to €100/m² and more with site supervision (published price pages, October 2026).
Approvals: only if you move a wet room, touch the riser, close the balcony or open a wall. That means a signed simplified project, the engineer and the notification fees.
What do layout changes add to the cost?
More than the wall itself. Moving a wall brings an engineer, paperwork and knock-on work on the floor, the ceiling and the installations.
Removing or moving a non-structural wall:
Demolition: roughly 30–125 lei/m² of wall for a brick partition, depending on thickness. Rubble removal is extra, often 80–350 lei/m³ depending on the floor and the company.
A new plasterboard wall: roughly 90–150 lei/m² of labour, finished.
Paperwork: a notification to the city hall, with a simplified project signed by an architect and the engineers, plus the fees.
Our advice: have a structural engineer confirm the wall really is non-structural before anyone touches it. In a panel bloc, many interior walls carry load.
Opening a structural wall:
A technical assessment (expertiza tehnica) by a certified expert: roughly 1,500–5,000 lei for an apartment intervention, and 30–50% more in buildings designed before 1977.
A structural project, a building permit, and the agreement of two thirds of the association plus every directly affected owner.
The works: cutting the concrete and fitting the reinforcement the engineer designs, usually a steel frame. Priced per project, once the engineer's solution is known.
Often the answer is a smaller opening than you hoped for, not an open plan.
Moving the bathroom or kitchen:
A notification, and a drain that needs a fall all the way to the riser. That usually means a raised floor, a step, or a shorter move than planned.
Priced on top of the room itself: new routes for water and drains, waterproofing over a larger area, and sometimes the neighbour below to think about.
The knock-on costs people forget:
new flooring where the wall stood, and ceiling and wall repairs around it;
electrical and heating lines that ran through the old wall;
extra days on site, which add to every trade's bill.
What does an architect add to the cost, and what does it save?
Design typically costs €30–60/m². For a 50 m² flat, that's about €1,500–3,000 (7,500–15,000 lei), against a full standard renovation of 70,000–120,000 lei.
What it costs:
Interior design projects: typically €30–60/m², from about €15/m² for basic packages to €100/m² and more with site supervision (published price pages, October 2026).
Approval documents, when you change walls or move a wet room: usually quoted per project, with the engineers.
What it saves:
Comparable quotes. Every contractor prices the same drawings and quantities, so you compare prices, not guesses.
Changes on paper, not on site. Moving a socket on a drawing costs nothing. Moving it after the walls are plastered costs a crew day and a repair.
Materials bought once. A bill of quantities means fewer second trips, less waste and no half-empty boxes of the wrong tile.
Money spent where it shows. Design decides where a better finish is worth paying for and where a mid-range one does the same job.
Mistakes that cost more than the fee: a wall that turns out to be structural, a drain without enough fall, a kitchen that doesn't fit its appliances.
Design is what makes mid-range look considered. The 2024 reference above used finishes and furniture from the big retailers. What makes a flat like that work is the plan: storage built in, one floor finish, light where you spend time. A good design costs the same whether the tiles come from a showroom or a DIY store.
When you don't need it: for cosmetic work (paint, floors, new fixtures in the same places), a good crew and a clear list are enough.
Want a number for your flat rather than an average? Book a free 45-minute Office Hours session, send us your floor plan, photos and what you want to change, and we'll help you turn it into a realistic budget range and a list of what to ask every contractor to price.
Is it cheaper to hire tradesmen or a renovation company?
Yes, independent tradesmen usually cost less. The difference is who answers when something goes wrong.
Independent tradesmen: the lowest price. In June 2026 a market index put a two-room flat at about €11,000–18,500 this way. You coordinate the trades, you check the work, and there's usually no invoice and no real warranty.
An invoiced firm: about €18,000–26,000 for the same flat (same index). You get one contract, an invoice with VAT, a warranty and one party responsible for the execution.
Design-and-build: one team designs and executes. Design is included in the price or quoted alongside it, never free. The benefit is a scope fixed before work starts, so fewer changes get priced on site.
Whichever you choose, get every quote against the same written scope. Otherwise you're comparing guesses.
What do renovation quotes usually leave out?
Ten things that turn a good-looking quote into a bigger invoice.
Materials, when the quote is labour only.
Strip-out and rubble removal.
Chasing and patching the walls after the new wiring and pipes.
The new electrical panel and the earthing.
The extra coats (primer, a third coat of paint, skimming).
Appliances and their assembly.
Transport and protection of the stairwell and the lift.
Design, the engineer and approvals, where they're needed.
VAT.
Final cleaning.
How much contingency should you keep?
Keep 10–15% on top of a defined scope, and 20% if nobody has drawn the scope or opened the walls.
In a flat decades old, what's behind the old finishes only shows once they come off. A design and a written scope shrink that uncertainty but don't remove it. Keep the reserve separate from the working budget, and don't tell the crew how big it is.
Get a realistic number for your flat
In a free, 45-minute Office Hours call, an architect looks at your flat and what you want to change, and helps you turn it into a realistic budget range: where the money goes, what each contractor should price, and where you can save without regretting it.
Bring: the cadastral plan or any floor plan, photos of every room, the bathroom and the electrical panel, a list of what you want to change, the finish level you have in mind and your budget range.
No pitch, no obligation. Pick a time below; it shows in your local time.
Renovating in Romania: all articles
Start here
Before you buy
Rules and approvals
Planning the renovation
Room by room
Houses and land
