What a European Kitchen Renovation Actually Costs, Country by Country

A full European kitchen renovation is not one price but a spread, and where you land inside it is decided mostly by labour rates and appliance spec, not by the cabinets themselves. As a rule of thumb, the same kitchen that reads as a mid-range budget in southern or eastern markets reads as an entry-level budget in the Nordics or Switzerland, where labour alone can double the bill. The honest answer to "what does it cost" is: get three itemised quotes against an identical, model-numbered specification, because the gap between the cheapest and dearest will tell you more than any national average ever could.

What actually drives the number

Most homeowners fixate on units and worktops because those are the parts you can see in a showroom. The money, though, hides in the work behind the walls. Moving a sink two metres means new plumbing runs; relocating the hob means a new electrical circuit or a gas line alteration; taking out a wall means structural sign-off. Each of those is a trade day you did not budget for.

The components that move the total the most, roughly in order of impact:

• Plumbing and electrical moves — relocating services is where budgets quietly detonate; keeping the sink and hob in place is the single biggest saving you can make.
• Appliances — an integrated column fridge, an induction hob with downdraft, and a branded oven can cost more than all your cabinetry combined.
• Worktops — laminate, quartz, sintered stone and natural stone span a huge range per square metre, and stone also carries templating and fitting costs.
• Cabinet carcasses and fronts — the visible spend, but often the most predictable and the easiest to compare like-for-like.
• Tiling and flooring — labour-heavy; intricate patterns and large-format tiles both push the fitting price up.

The labour-versus-materials split

In lower-cost markets, materials can be the larger half of the invoice; skilled hands are comparatively cheap, so you spend on the things themselves. In high-cost markets the ratio inverts hard — labour becomes the dominant line, and two identical kitchens fitted in Lisbon and Zurich diverge almost entirely on the cost of the people fitting them. This is why a quote that looks expensive is not automatically a rip-off, and a quote that looks cheap may simply have under-counted the trade days.

It also explains the classic trap: buying a flat-pack kitchen on a whim, then discovering the fitting, plumbing and electrical work costs more than the boxes did. The kitchen is the easy part to price. The install is the part that varies.

Why quotes vary so wildly

Two contractors can quote the same room and come back thousands apart, and usually it is not because one is dishonest. One assumed you would keep the existing layout; the other priced a re-plumb. One allowed for making good the plaster and repainting; the other left it out and will bill it later as an extra. One quoted mid-range appliances; the other quoted the models you actually pointed at. Vague scope is the enemy. A quote against "quality tiles and good appliances" is not a quote — it is a placeholder that will drift upward at every stage.

The fix is spec discipline. Write the specification in model numbers and product codes, not adjectives: the exact oven, the exact tap, the tile reference and format, the worktop material and thickness. When every contractor prices the identical list, the differences that remain are labour, timeline and margin — the things you actually want to compare.

VAT and the fine print

VAT is a real and often overlooked swing factor, because rates differ meaningfully across the countries we cover, and some markets apply a reduced rate to renovation labour on existing dwellings under certain conditions while others do not. A quote may be shown net or gross, and a "cheaper" net quote can end up dearer once tax is added. Always confirm whether the figure includes VAT, at what rate, and whether any reduced-rate scheme for home renovation applies to your job — and get that in writing, not as a verbal reassurance at signing.

Typical ranges by region, framed honestly

We avoid quoting precise national averages because they mislead more than they help — the same euro figure buys wildly different work depending on layout, spec and how much you move the services. What holds up across the projects we see is the relative picture:

• Southern and eastern markets (parts of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Central Europe) typically sit at the lower end, driven mainly by cheaper labour.
• Western and Central Europe — France, Germany, the Benelux — typically fall in the middle, with labour a larger share than materials.
• The Nordics and Switzerland typically sit at the top, where high labour rates mean even a modest kitchen carries a substantial fitting bill.
• Within any country, a city-centre flat with difficult access and a full re-plumb can cost more than a large suburban kitchen that keeps its existing layout.

Treat those as buckets, not price tags. Your real number comes from your spec meeting your room meeting three real quotes.

Getting a number you can trust

The single most useful thing you can do is make your three quotes comparable, then check that the people quoting are who they say they are. A confident price from an uninsured fitter is not a bargain; it is a liability you have agreed to underwrite. This is where a directory like Veted earns its keep — it checks the licence, the insurance in force today, and the review history before a contractor is listed, so the cheapest quote in your inbox is at least coming from someone you can hold to it.

A kitchen is judged daily, for years, at close range. Spend your energy on the specification and the people, not on chasing a national average that was never going to describe your room. Nail the spec, compare like-for-like, confirm the VAT, and the price stops being a mystery and becomes a decision.