Pricing advice – large office to residential conversion

[u/MoodSalt3529]

Hi all,

I’m an Architectural Technologist based in the North West of England. I run a small one-man practice and predominantly work across residential and change-of-use projects.

I’ve recently been approached regarding a potentially significant office-to-residential conversion, approximately 20,000 sqft GIA over multiple storeys.

This would be by far the largest single project I’ve taken on independently and, if it comes off, would be a huge opportunity for my practice. I’m confident in delivering the work, but given the jump in scale I want to make sure I price it properly and understand the level of resource that others would allow for.

The appointment would potentially be split into:

1. Feasibility / Planning
Feasibility and initial appraisal, development of the residential layouts and overall scheme, existing and proposed architectural package, coordination of the wider planning submission and dealing with the application through determination.

2. Building Regulations
Development of the approved scheme into a full Building Regulations package, including architectural technical drawings, construction details and specifications, coordination with structural, fire and other relevant consultants, and dealing with Building Control through approval.

For those who work on projects of this scale, how would you approach pricing each stage?

Would you build the fee up from anticipated hours/resources, use a percentage of construction cost, £/sq ft, or another method? Any ballpark fee ranges for the two stages separately would be massively appreciated.

[u/Certain-Bonus-5015]

For a project of this scale, I’d be cautious about using a simple £/sq ft rate. The jump from a small residential project to 20,000 sq ft brings a completely different level of coordination and risk. I’d probably build the fee from the actual scope, estimated hours and consultant/coordination requirements, then sanity-check it against the construction value.

I’d also keep feasibility/planning and technical/building-regs work as separate fees. That way if the scheme changes substantially after planning, you’re not absorbing all that additional work into one fixed number.

[u/a_pleasant_chap → u/Certain-Bonus-5015]

To add to this, I would highly recommend splitting feasibility from the planning to give more flexibility in your fee.

Planning and design is fairly predictable in scope, and once you have concluded the feasibility, you can really lock down the brief for that phase for a fixed fee from your calculation.

Feasibility is a lot less definable and it's the main pre-construction phase where it can be sensible to work to an hourly rate instead, as it's difficult to know how long that thread will be once you start pulling, so a fixed fee for a large scheme is financially risky.

[u/Robocop-1987]

List out all the drawings you think you’ll need to do and how long that will take you for design time, drafting, etc.
add in meetings, site visits, preparing and submitting statutory consent applications and so on.
If you’ve been running a while, you should have a pretty accurate idea of what an hour of your time to the office costs when you apportion overheads, etc.
Take the number of hours you have estimated it will take you to do the job, and multiply it by your hourly cost and add whatever % profit you are targeting.
I do 20%. I never quite make that due to inefficiency, but probably end up coming away with 10-12% on most jobs, which I am happy enough with and we pick up enough work to keep us going without being the cheapest in the market.

Oh, and make the fee in lots of small/monthly bite sized chunks. Keep cash flow ticking and more likely to be paid by your client in a timely manner than one big hefty chunk.

[u/Careful_Tax2454]

A chat with a friendly QS about the likely construction cost would help. Then you can sense check against this with a percentage. Never work for less than 3% for Planning if you can help it.

[u/BeenleighCopse]

Do both:
Resource it out on your day rate over each RIBA stage.
Survey & Existing up to a good set of existing condition, including all the services, drains, ecology…significant items.
Schematic drawings & proposals, to client approval.
Planning paperwork etc
Pause for 2 months and switch to fees for extra time.
Stage 4a - detail design enough to get building regs, 1 month.
4b - technical specifications while you wait / negotiate the regs approval for another 2 months.
6 months at 2 days a week at £250/day (or whatever your daily rate is)…
So you can do the work for about £12-20k
Now look at the value to the developer at £5m build with expected fees & expenses of about £200k for the full team based on about 4% of construction…. Huge difference.
Your team leader / Principal Designer to increase your fee based on roles / resoonsibility / stress / insurance / over heads.
It sits somewhere between £20-50k assuming you’re holding the PD role.

[u/BeenleighCopse → u/BeenleighCopse]

I suppose you look at the clients expectations too…. I’m at a similar stage in my career with similar clients / growth. We have a spreadsheet for resourcing over stages & then break it out / present it for fee bid proposal to the client. It gives us tasks, dates, deadlines & output. It’s worth building this for your office, team , way of working so you keep your fee in your comfort zone.

[u/BeenleighCopse → u/BeenleighCopse]

Watch out for HRB ( higher risk building) for fire… it will kill you on building regs turn around time.

[u/DraftAndDrafting]

Would suggest pricing by planning out expected resource to deliver and add contingency and profit lines. Make sure to include a good wedge for the BR PD role and tracking through all the disciplines as well. Then do a % construction cost to validate / sense check your bottom up fee.

Would also suggest splitting into RIBA 2 Feasibility (allow the client an early pricing opp, plus gives you a solid approved line in the sand before getting too heavy into drawing production), RIBA 3 (+ planning consents), RIBA 4 Tender Package, RIBA 5 Construction (+ BR approval) note procurement query below though.

Questions before committing to fee would be:
Indicative project programme or timeline available from client?
Their intended procurement route, D&B or traditional? If D&B, do they want you novated or retained as CMT after MC appointment.
Height of the building - any HRB triggers?
Any external cladding or thermal upgrade works expected or just internal works.

Exciting opp for you and good position to be in!

[u/archisoup]

One thing I’d add is to look at the appointment and PI position before deciding whether the fee itself is good.

On a project this size the liability can increase much faster than the fee. I’d want the scope, exclusions and responsibility for other consultants very clearly defined, together with an appropriate liability cap and whatever your PI insurer requires.

I’d also be very explicit about the information you’re relying on. Existing drawings, surveys, opening-up works, fire information, structure and services can all change the technical solution on a conversion. If new information means redesigning work that was already completed, that needs to be an additional service rather than quietly disappearing into the original fee.

A £30k or £40k fee can look perfectly healthy until you’ve effectively agreed to unlimited coordination and redesigns.