2026 fit-out ranges
On a unit delivered as a shell (structure, enclosure, utility connections awaiting):
| Activity | Indicative range 2026 |
|---|---|
| Simple retail (clothing, services) | €400 – 700/m² |
| Retail with technical requirements (food, pharmacy, optician) | €600 – 1,000/m² |
| Restaurant with full kitchen | €900 – 1,500/m² and above |
| Clinics and light healthcare activities | €900 – 1,400/m² |
These ranges include layout, finishes, interior installations and the activity's technical items, excluding specific operating furniture and business machinery. Operating equipment is budgeted separately, since its amount depends on the business rather than on the unit.
The three blocks of the budget
The base fit-out. Flooring, ceilings, partitions, electrical and lighting, climate systems and toilets. This is the block common to all activities, with predictable ranges sensitive above all to finish level and brand image.
The activity items. Restaurants add a kitchen, extraction with a code-compliant flue, cold rooms and gas installations; food retail adds commercial refrigeration; healthcare activities add climate systems with air renewal requirements and washable finishes. This block is what disperses the ranges, and also what concentrates the licence requirements.
The items budgets usually omit. The activity licence and the works it requires (accessibility, fire protection, ventilation), electrical supply upgrades when the unit's power is insufficient, the extraction flue when the building has none provided, and municipal charges. In old units, these invisible items can exceed 20 % of the fit-out budget.
The case of the extraction flue
It deserves its own mention as the most expensive discovery in restaurant retail: a unit without an extraction duct up to the roof can require works in the building's common areas, community agreements and costly technical solutions, or outright prevent the activity. Checking the duct's existence and capacity before signing the lease or purchase is the diligence with the best cost-to-risk ratio in the whole operation.
The essentials
A retail unit is budgeted as a fit-out on a shell, with 2026 ranges from €400 to over €1,500/m² governed by the activity. The correct framing method: base block according to finishes, activity block according to technical and licence requirements, and explicit verification of the invisible items (supply connections, extraction flue, accessibility) before committing the budget. For the building housing the units, the applicable ratios are the general commercial ones.
Note: indicative ranges for Spain in 2026, variable by region, project and market.