Sant Antoni · Barcelona
Comprehensive renovations in Sant Antoni
We renovate Sant Antoni flats from end to end, and a good share of them are not to live in: they are to let or to sell. That kind of job is decided differently. Taste does not rule; what rules is whatever survives five years of people moving in and out. We strip the flat out, rebuild the services and fit the kitchen, bathroom, flooring and finishes, with detailed itemised quote.
- Site visit and measurementsbefore we quote
- Detailed quoteitemised, with no obligation
- Materials chosen for durabilitywhen the home is going to be let
- Extras approved beforethey are carried out, never after
This is Eixample, and the rundown on these buildings is here
Sant Antoni is part of the Eixample: the same block with its chamfered corner, the same buildings and, once you open up a wall, exactly the same thing inside. Plaster cornices and mouldings, double-leaf internal doors, full-height balcony doors onto the street, brick and stone under the plaster, exposed joists in the ceilings and soil stacks running where nobody expected them.
We are not going to tell it twice. The whole story is there, with photographs of one of our projects phase by phase, in comprehensive renovations in l’Eixample. If what you want is to understand what turns up when a building on this block is stripped back, that is the page. Here we talk about the other thing: the renovation you do when the flat is not for you.
Renovating to put a flat on the rental market
A renovation for letting is not a cheap renovation. It is a renovation with a different rule: you spend where things break and save where nobody notices.
Where a let flat breaks first
Always in the same places, and none of them is the one people expect. The silicone around the shower tray and the sink, which goes black and lifts if it was not sealed onto a dry surface. Kitchen drawer runners, the part that takes the most cycles and the first one to be bought cheap. Electrical accessories, which get replaced within two years if they are budget range. Door edges and skirting boards in the areas that get mopped. And the taps, where the cartridge decides the life of the whole thing.
All of that together is a small percentage of the quote and most of the tenant’s phone calls. When the renovation is for letting, that is not where you cut.
Where you can trim without it showing
On the finishes you look at but do not touch. A decent floor laid well performs just as well as an expensive one laid badly, and in a rental the laying matters more than the catalogue. Genuinely washable paint shows its worth two years in, not on day one.
And the units: fewer pieces done properly beats a kitchen full of clever solutions nobody will use. There is more thinking of this kind in express renovation for letting and return.
What you cannot see but decides the return
The services. A flat with a consumer unit that has no separate circuits and with old plumbing throws up a callout every few months, and every callout means a visit, a trade and an unhappy tenant.
If the renovation is meant to last, the electrics and the plumbing are redone in full, with accessible isolating valves so one area can be isolated without leaving the whole home without water. It is the line item least likely to appear in the listing photos and the one you feel most in the five-year sums.
What the works include
It is contracted as a whole because it is one single job. If all you need is to make the flat presentable between tenants, painting has its own page. And if what you want is to redo only the kitchen or just the bathroom, that too.
- Strip-out and rubble removal, with the entrance hall and lift protected and a defined route for taking waste out.
- New installations: consumer unit with separate circuits, plumbing with accessible isolating valves, drainage laid to fall and ventilation properly sorted, all designed not to generate callouts.
- Layout: partitions and dry lining, and the routes that have to be opened up for the new services.
- Kitchen and bathroom: waterproofing, wall tiling, sanitaryware, units and taps, chosen by duty cycle when the home is going to be let.
- Finishes: flooring laid with care, washable paint, joinery, lighting and finishing details.
- Coordination: the site manager runs the works and the follow-up; the office handles purchasing, invoicing and paperwork.
What it costs and what you get back
We publish five price bands per m² on comprehensive renovations in Barcelona. For a full renovation the one that applies is the standard band, from €750 to €1,050/m²; if the home is sound and only the finishes need updating, the partial update band, from €450 to €650/m². These are a guide only: the real figure comes out of the site visit.
We also publish reference totals, which on an investment deal are usually more useful than the €/m²: a 60 m² flat runs between €40,000 and €65,000, and one of 70 to 80 m², between €50,000 and €85,000. With those figures and the expected rent you can do serious sums before commissioning anything. If the deal is a sale, we have looked at it in when it pays to renovate before selling.
What almost nobody puts into the sums is the cost of the years that follow. A job that saves three thousand euros on electrical accessories, taps and drawer runners gives it all back in maintenance visits and in months with the flat empty. That is why the quote is itemised: so that you can decide where to trim, with the information in front of you, instead of accepting a total that does not say where the corners were cut.
On timing. We publish that a comprehensive renovation of 60 to 80 m² may need between 8 and 12 weeks. When the flat is empty and the decisions are closed before work starts, it tends towards the bottom of the range. That is a guide, not a scheduling commitment.
The street, the timings and the skip
In Sant Antoni site logistics have a quirk worth sorting out before you sign.
The area around the market and several of the neighbourhood’s main streets are laid out as plataforma única, a single surface with no kerb, with restricted traffic and set loading times. That means three practical things: the vehicle cannot always stop where you would like, there are slots when it can and slots when it cannot, and the skip needs its space and its paperwork.
We check it on the visit, with the address in front of us, and we set it out in the works plan. It is not a problem: it is half an hour of admin that saves a lost day. And on a renovation for letting, a lost day is a day of rent.
One of our projects in Sant Antoni
It is written up in full on the blog: what was checked on the substrate, what was repaired and how it was protected before the first coat went on.
The rest of our projects, by type of renovation, in Obrescat projects.
Before you hire
Six questions from people buying to let or to sell. If you have another one, write to us on WhatsApp or call 933 53 54 09.
Why does this page not say the same as the Eixample one?
Because it would be telling it twice and telling it worse. Sant Antoni is Eixample: the same buildings and the same surprises when you strip them back. All of that is explained, with photos of one of our projects phase by phase, on the page for comprehensive renovations in l’Eixample. Here we cover what that page does not: the renovation when the flat is to let or to sell.
I am going to let it. What is worth spending on and what is not?
It is worth it on what breaks: seals, drawer runners, electrical accessories, taps and door edges. And on the services, which are what generate the calls. You can trim on the finishes catalogue, as long as the workmanship is good. In an itemised quote you will see exactly where every euro sits, and you can decide for yourself.
How long does the flat have to be empty?
The whole time the works last, if it is a comprehensive renovation: it is left without water, without power and without a bathroom for much of the process. We publish a guide figure of 8 to 12 weeks for 60 to 80 m². When the flat is empty and the material decisions have been taken before starting, the job runs more continuously, because what stretches a schedule most is not the work: it is half-made decisions.
Can you leave it ready for the rental paperwork?
We carry out the works and hand over the documentation covering the work we have carried out. Which formalities each case needs depends on the scope and on the circumstances of the property, and it is the first thing we review on the site visit, before starting. What we do not do is promise to handle paperwork without having seen what your job actually requires.
The street is traffic-calmed. Is getting the material in going to be a headache?
It is admin, not a headache. We look at where the vehicle can stop, in which time slot and where the skip fits. It is sorted out before we start and written into the works plan. Finding out on day one would be a problem; asking on the visit is not.
And what if the flat is intended for short-term letting?
The priorities change: more turnover, more cleaning and more wear in the same places. What does not change is the spending rule, which is still durability. We have written up what we learnt in renovations of tourist flats in Barcelona. The rules that apply and the permits your case needs are reviewed beforehand, not halfway through the works.
Tell us what the flat is for
Tell us which flat it is, what condition it is in and what you want it for: to live in, to let or to sell. It changes the job quite a bit. We will come and see it, measure up and send you a detailed itemised quote, with no obligation.
Or call us: 933 53 54 09