Short answer: rewiring a flat in London costs less than rewiring a house, but it is rarely as simple. In 2026 expect roughly £2,200–£3,200 labour for a studio or one-bed, £3,000–£4,500 for a two-bed and £4,200–£6,000 for a three-bed flat or maisonette, with materials supplied at cost on top. What moves the number is not the floor area — it is the building. Solid concrete floors, no loft, a shared riser you are not allowed to touch, and a freeholder whose consent you need before a single cable is pulled all cost time. F & A Electrical quotes a fixed labour price after a free survey, so you know the figure before we start. Call 07407 627542.
How much does it cost to rewire a flat in London?
These are our own labour-only prices, inc VAT, for flats across North and North East London. Cable, accessories, the consumer unit and any making-good materials are supplied at cost and itemised on the quote — we do not mark them up and we do not hide them inside a round number.
| Job | F & A price (labour only, inc VAT) |
|---|---|
| Studio or one-bed flat, full rewire | £2,200–£3,200 |
| Two-bed flat, full rewire | £3,000–£4,500 |
| Three-bed flat or maisonette, full rewire | £4,200–£6,000 |
| Partial rewire (kitchen and bathroom circuits plus new board) | £1,200–£2,500 |
| Consumer unit replacement only | From £550, board and devices at cost |
| Extra circuit added during the rewire (oven, shower, EV, garden) | £180–£350 each |
| Surface trunking or dado run where floors cannot be lifted | £150–£400 per room |
| EICR first, to prove whether a rewire is actually needed | From £140 — see our EICR cost guide |
| Attend and quote / one-off small works visit | £108 minimum charge, covers the first hour |
| Electrical Installation Certificate and Part P notification | Included with the work |
Our standard labour rate is £90 per hour plus VAT, and the minimum charge for any visit is £108 inc VAT. On a rewire we do not work by the hour — you get one fixed labour figure after the survey.
Why is rewiring a flat different from rewiring a house?
In a terraced house you have a loft above and floorboards below, so cables can be dropped and fed almost anywhere. A flat usually has neither. The ceiling above you is somebody’s floor, and the floor below you is somebody’s ceiling. That single fact is what makes a flat rewire a different job:
- Concrete or screeded floors. Common in purpose-built blocks from the 1950s onwards, including most of the Haringey and Hackney council-built stock. Cables cannot simply be clipped under boards, so they go in the walls, in the ceiling void where there is one, or in trunking.
- No loft and no under-floor access. Ground-floor flats in Victorian conversions sometimes have suspended timber floors, which helps enormously. Upper-floor conversions often do not.
- Party walls and neighbours. Chasing a party wall is noisy, and in a converted terrace it is shared with the flat next door. Work hours matter, and so does the lease.
- The intake is not yours alone. In a purpose-built block the meters, main fuses and rising busbar usually sit in a communal cupboard. Anything in there belongs to the freeholder or the network operator, not to you.
- Getting materials in. A fourth-floor flat with no lift adds real time to a job. So does a controlled parking bay outside.
The work inside your own four walls is the same 18th Edition job it would be in a house. It is the route the cables take that costs the money.
Do I need the freeholder’s permission to rewire a leasehold flat?
Almost certainly yes, if you are a leaseholder. Most London leases contain an alterations clause that says you must have the landlord’s written consent before carrying out structural or service alterations, and a rewire counts. Some leases ask for a formal licence to alter; many just want a letter and a copy of the electrician’s registration.
What managing agents typically ask for, in our experience:
- Proof the contractor is registered — NICEIC approval and Part P in our case
- A copy of the public liability insurance certificate
- Working hours, usually weekdays only, often 8am to 6pm
- Confirmation that nothing in the communal riser, landing or meter cupboard will be altered
- A copy of the Electrical Installation Certificate afterwards
We supply all of that as a matter of course. What we cannot do is speed up the consent itself — some agents turn it round in a week, some take two months. Start that conversation before you book the work, not after. If the freeholder also wants the communal parts tested, that is a separate job: see our guide to the EICR for leasehold flats and communal areas.
If you own the freehold of a converted house and live in one of the flats, you still need to think about the other leaseholders, because the supply arrangements and any shared circuits affect them too.
Does a flat rewire include a new fuse board?
Yes. Every full rewire we do ends with a new consumer unit, because there is no point running new circuits back into a board that cannot protect them. You get an RCBO board with surge protection, individual protection per circuit, and a proper schedule of what feeds what.
Fuse board replacement on its own starts at £550 labour with the board and devices at cost — more on that on our fuse board replacement page. Inside a rewire it is part of the fixed price, not an extra line.
One flat-specific point: the board in a flat is often in a hallway cupboard with the meter, or occasionally out on a communal landing. If yours is on the landing, the position may be fixed by the lease and moving it needs the freeholder’s agreement, which is worth raising at survey rather than on day three.
Where do the cables go if the floors are concrete?
Three honest options, and the one we recommend depends on your budget and how much mess you can live with.
Chasing the walls. The proper job. Cables run in the walls at the permitted zones, buried in capping and plastered over. Best finish, most dust, and it means redecoration afterwards. On a concrete-floored flat this is usually how we do it, dropping from the ceiling void or running vertically from a horizontal ceiling run.
Ceiling void routing. Many purpose-built flats have a shallow void or a plasterboard ceiling below the structural slab. Where it exists it is the cheapest, cleanest route — cables run overhead and drop down the walls to sockets and switches.
Surface trunking or dado. White PVC trunking at skirting or dado height. It is not pretty, but it is quick, cheap, fully compliant, and completely reversible. In rented flats and short-lease properties it is often the sensible call, at £150–£400 per room instead of chasing and replastering.
Most of the flats we rewire end up as a mix: chased where it matters, trunked in the utility cupboard or behind kitchen units where nobody looks.
Full or partial rewire — does your flat actually need the lot?
Plenty of flats do not. A 1990s flat with PVC cabling, a sound earth and a board that only lacks RCD protection needs a new consumer unit and some remedial work, not £4,000 of rewiring. A 1970s conversion with rubber or fabric-covered cable, no earth at the light switches and a rewireable fuse box needs everything.
The way to find out is an EICR, not a guess. An inspection costs from £140 and tells you which circuits are sound and which are not, in writing. If you go ahead with a rewire with us afterwards, we put the cost of the EICR towards the job. Our EICR cost guide explains what the codes mean.
Partial rewires we do most often in flats: kitchen and bathroom circuits brought up to standard with a new board (£1,200–£2,500), or lighting circuits replaced where the old ones have no circuit protective conductor and you want downlights.
How long does it take, and can you stay in the flat?
A one-bed flat is typically three to five working days. A two-bed is four to seven. A three-bed or a maisonette across two floors is usually seven to ten. Add a day if the plaster is lath and horsehair, and add time for making good, which is a plasterer’s job rather than ours.
You can stay, and many of our customers do — we work room by room and leave you with power and lights at the end of each day, other than the one day the board is changed and the supply is off for several hours. It is dusty, though. If you can be out for the week, the job runs faster and cheaper because we are not repeatedly setting up and packing down. The same logic we set out for houses in how long a house rewire takes applies here.
The obvious moment to do it is between tenancies, or before you move in. An empty flat can be rewired in a single clear run.
What is included in our flat rewire price
- Free survey and a fixed labour quote before anything starts
- New circuits throughout: sockets, lighting, cooker, shower where fitted
- New RCBO consumer unit with surge protection
- Earthing and main protective bonding to gas and water brought up to standard
- Smoke and heat alarms to current standards where the flat needs them
- Electrical Installation Certificate and Part P building control notification
- Rubbish taken away and first-fix making good — walls filled ready for a decorator
Not included: plastering and decorating beyond filling the chases, carpet lifting and relaying, and anything in the communal parts of the building. We will tell you at survey if we think you need a plasterer, and roughly what that adds.
How to keep the cost of a flat rewire down
- Get the EICR first. If half the flat is sound, you are paying for half a rewire.
- Do it empty. Between tenants or before you move in, every time.
- Accept trunking where it does not show. Cupboards, behind units, in the airing cupboard.
- Decide socket and light positions before we start. Moving a point after it is chased and plastered costs twice.
- Combine it with other work. If the kitchen is coming out anyway, rewiring at the same time saves a fortune in making good.
- Start the freeholder consent early. A booked crew waiting on a licence to alter is the most expensive delay there is.
Cost to rewire a flat in London — FAQs
Is it cheaper to rewire a flat than a house?
Usually, yes — fewer rooms and fewer circuits. But the gap is smaller than people expect, because the awkward parts of a flat rewire (concrete floors, no loft, access, consent) do not shrink with the square footage. A two-bed flat and a two-bed terrace are often within a few hundred pounds of each other.
Do I need building control for a flat rewire?
Yes. A rewire is notifiable work under Part P. As a registered contractor we self-certify and notify building control for you, and the certificate arrives in the post. There is no separate council fee for you to pay.
Will a rewire disturb my neighbours?
Chasing and drilling are noisy for the first couple of days. We keep to normal working hours, tell the neighbours what is happening if you would like us to, and avoid through-wall drilling into a neighbouring flat unless there is no alternative.
My flat is ex-council and the block was rewired by the landlord — do I still need this?
Often the block riser and the intake were done but the flat interiors were not, or were done decades ago. Check the date on the sticker inside your consumer unit and the label on the meter cupboard. If the board is a rewireable fuse box or an early plastic RCD unit, the flat side almost certainly has not been touched since.
Can you rewire just one room?
Yes, though a single room is usually a circuit alteration rather than a rewire. The minimum charge is £108 inc VAT, and most single-room jobs sit between £300 and £900 labour depending on how many points and how the cables have to run.
Do you cover my area?
We work across North and North East London from our Tottenham N15 base — Haringey, Hackney, Islington, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Camden, Barnet, Newham and Tower Hamlets. Check the areas we cover.
Get a fixed-price flat rewire quote
Send a photo of your consumer unit and a note of how many rooms you have to 07407 627542 and we will give you a realistic bracket before we visit. The survey itself is free and there is no obligation. F & A Electrical is an NICEIC Approved Contractor and Part P registered, rated 9.32/10 from 242 reviews on Checkatrade.
More reading: all our electrical guides · house rewire cost London 2026 · fuse board replacement · EICR cost London · HMO EICR · PAT testing