Architects’ hourly rates

Hourly rates for architects from small residential practices range from £70-100 per hour depending on their experience, according to the most recent data published by The Fees Bureau (2022).

Extension pictured above by Will, architect from East Sussex. Click here to see more and shortlist Will’s practice for your home project.

Regional differences

Perhaps unsurprisingly, architects’ fees and their hourly rates vary across the country. You can expect architects’ fees in London to be around 20% higher than the average, for example.

Do architects charge by the hour?

It’s not common for an architect to charge a whole project by the hours. However, it may be the most straightforward if they undertake a short, easily defined task for you. For example, for one-off design consultation or if would like them to attend a house viewing with you.

Usually, architects will work on a fixed fee for domestic projects. However, the architect will normally calculate this based on their hourly rate and how much time they think it will take.

Architects’ fees

Here at Design for Me, we surveyed residential architects all over the UK. We found that architects fees for a ‘typical’ 10m² kitchen extension would be between £3,000 – £4,500. In London/SE, this average would be £5,500 – £8,250. This represents around 10-15% of the construction cost. See our full article on the cost of an architect for an extension.

The Fees Bureau (2022), for comparison, found that average architect’s fees for private housing, varied between 8.1% – 11.9% of the construction cost (between £25k – £250k) and depending on whether the project was new build or refurbishment.

• The higher the construction cost, the lower the percentage fee will be.
• Architects’ fees are generally lower for new builds than refurbishments (as a percentage of construction costs).

More detailed analytics and a fee calculator tool for architects are available from The Fees Bureau.

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