Most UK property CGI prices generally range from a few hundred pounds per image for straightforward marketing views, up to a few thousand pounds for verified planning photomontages and short animations, varying with complexity and project scope. Complexity, turnaround and whether a view needs planning sign off all push these numbers higher. Before you request quotes, work through the briefing checklist below so every studio prices the same job.

TL;DR:

  • Virtual staging costs £250 to £600 per image; verified planning photomontages cost £800 to £2,500 because they require survey work and camera matching.
  • Most studios add 20% VAT unless the quote includes it; measured surveys and revisions beyond the included one or two rounds usually cost extra.
  • A three image exterior package often costs £1,200 to £2,200, while commissioning views together can reduce per image costs through reuse of the building model.
  • Send every studio the same brief, including intended use, exact viewpoints, drawings, deadline, resolution, and revision allowance, so quotes cover comparable work.
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Table of Contents

Typical price bands: per-image, per-view and package pricing in the UK

Pricing in this industry rarely follows one neat formula, but UK studios tend to quote in a handful of recognisable bands depending on the deliverable.

  • Virtual staging (furnishing an empty room in an existing photo) typically runs from around £250 to £600 per image, among the cheapest CGI services because no modelling of the structure itself is needed.
  • Interior CGI for a new-build or refurbished space, built from scratch rather than staged over a photo, usually sits between £400 and £900 per image.
  • Exterior marketing renders of a building or development typically cost £500 to £1,200 per image, depending on landscaping, materials and how many viewpoints you need.
  • Verified photomontage for planning generally costs more, often £800 to £2,500 per image, because of the extra survey work and quality checks involved.
  • Short animations or flythroughs usually carry a minimum project fee from around £1,500, then scale with duration and complexity.

Some smaller UK studios advertise entry-level exterior or staging views from around £250, though pricing at that level tends to assume minimal revisions and a simple brief.

Most studios price per image or per view rather than per hour, which makes comparing quotes more straightforward once you know exactly how many views you need. A second common model is the staged package: a fixed fee for an agreed set of views (say, three exterior shots and two interiors) delivered together, which usually works out cheaper per image than commissioning the same views separately. Animation is often priced differently again, either as a day rate for the studio’s time or as a fee per second of finished footage, with a minimum project charge to cover the setup time regardless of length.

Comparison of property CGI pricing models

Quantity discounts are common. A studio building a model of a development for one hero image will often reuse that model for five or six marketing angles at a lower marginal cost per additional view, since the geometry work is already done. If you know you will need multiple views across a campaign, say so upfront. It changes the pricing conversation.

VAT is the other variable that catches people out. Most established CGI studios are VAT-registered, so a quoted fee commonly has 20% added at invoice stage unless the quote states that VAT is already included. Regional variation also exists, though it is less pronounced than in traditional professional services: a studio based in London may price slightly higher than one in the provinces, similar to the regional spread seen in UK architect fee structures, but because most CGI work is delivered remotely, location matters less here than the complexity of the brief itself.

What drives the price: the factors studios quote on

Two quotes for what sounds like “the same image” can differ by several hundred pounds, and the gap almost always comes down to a specific set of project attributes rather than one studio simply charging more.

  • Source material: pricing a view from a full measured survey or detailed photos is quicker and cheaper than building from incomplete architectural drawings, which forces the studio to make assumptions or request clarification.
  • Level of finish: furniture, planting, people, cars and other dressing all add modelling and placement time, and a bare render with none of these will always be cheaper than a fully dressed scene.
  • Geometry and materials: complex rooflines, bespoke cladding, custom landscaping or intricate interior detailing take longer to model and texture accurately than a simple rectangular building.
  • Deliverable type and format: a single flattened JPEG for a brochure costs less to produce than a layered file set (PSD or EXR) that leaves the image editable for future marketing use, and animation always carries a different cost structure to a still.
  • Turnaround and revisions: a tight deadline or an unusually high number of revision rounds both add cost, since they force the studio to reprioritise or absorb extra hours.
  • Planning requirements: verified views needed for a planning application require precise camera matching, metadata and extra quality checks that marketing-only images do not need.

Pro Tip: Ask early whether your project needs planning-verified views or purely marketing imagery, since conflating the two in a brief is the single most common cause of quote confusion.

What a typical quote includes (and what to confirm it excludes)

A fair quote should set out exactly what you are paying for, not just a single total figure. Most UK studios structure their pricing around a core set of inclusions, with a shorter list of items that commonly get pushed to an extra line.

  1. Briefing and setup time is usually built into the base fee, covering the initial call or email exchange to confirm views, scope and deadline.
  2. Modelling of the agreed views is included as standard, meaning the specific camera angles and scenes you have signed off, not unlimited alternative angles.
  3. One or two rounds of revisions are typically included, covering reasonable adjustments to materials, lighting or minor layout tweaks rather than a full re-brief.
  4. Standard export sizes and colour-corrected final images come as part of the base price, ready for use in brochures, listings or planning documents.
  5. Measured surveys, where a studio has to visit site and take dimensions rather than work from drawings you supply, are usually quoted separately.
  6. Extra revision rounds beyond the agreed allowance, bespoke vegetation modelling for unusual planting schemes, and licensed people or vehicle assets for a specific brand or model typically carry additional fees.
  7. Drone or aerial photography, where a project needs an elevated reference shot that does not already exist, is almost always a separate disbursement rather than part of the CGI fee itself.

Disbursements like these are generally itemised on the invoice rather than folded into the headline price, which is worth checking for before you compare two quotes side by side.

How to brief a CGI studio and get comparable quotes

The accuracy of a quote depends entirely on the quality of the brief behind it, and a vague request almost always comes back with a vague, inflated price to cover the studio’s uncertainty.

  • State the intended use clearly: portal listing, brochure, investor pitch or planning submission, since each has different quality and format expectations.
  • Specify resolution and aspect ratio for every deliverable, matching the platform it will appear on (a property portal has different requirements to a print brochure).
  • Provide exact viewpoints, ideally marked on a site plan or matched to reference photos, rather than a general description like “a few exterior shots”.
  • Share drawings or a measured survey if you have them, since missing source material is the single biggest cause of quote delay and price creep.
  • Confirm your deadline and expected revision allowance upfront, as both directly affect price.

When you ask for quotes, also ask whether the studio is VAT-registered, how many revision rounds are included, what their typical lead time is for a brief like yours, and whether they can show recent work in the same use case. Our guidance on briefing and specifying property CGI covers formats and vetting in more detail if you want a fuller checklist to paste into an enquiry.

Pro Tip: Send the same brief, word for word, to every studio you approach. Even small wording differences can lead to quotes for subtly different jobs.

Ballpark worked examples: budgets for common UK use cases

Applying the bands above to real jobs makes the numbers easier to plan around.

  • Virtual staging for an online listing: dressing a single empty room for a portal photo typically costs £250 to £400 per view, with turnaround of a few working days since no structural modelling is required.
  • Exterior marketing render: a single hero image of a new-build front elevation usually falls in the £500 to £900 range, while a three-image package (front, rear and a street-level angle) often prices closer to £1,200 to £2,200 in total, reflecting the model reuse discount across views.
  • Planning-ready verified photomontage: a single verified view for a planning application typically runs £800 to £2,500, higher than an equivalent marketing image because of the metadata, camera matching and QA that planning teams require, as explained in guidance on planning applications.
  • Short animation or flythrough: a basic 30 to 60 second flythrough often starts from around £1,500 as a minimum project fee, scaling upward with duration, number of scenes and level of detail requested.

These figures are indicative bands rather than fixed prices. An exact number always depends on the specific brief, which is why the checklist above matters more than any single ballpark figure.

How Visual Trick works and when our approach affects cost and result

We produce custom CGI, 3D rendering and architectural visualisation for property developers, planners, planning consultants, estate agents, interior and garden designers, and care home developers across the UK. Our work covers exterior and interior CGI, verified photomontage for planning, virtual staging and 3D animation, used in marketing, listings, brochures, investor pitches and planning submissions.

  • We produce every image in-house with a single, experienced operator rather than outsourcing, which keeps communication direct and deadlines predictable.
  • Our workflows are adapted to the purpose of the output, so planning-verified views go through different checks than those for marketing renders.
  • Planning-ready and portal-ready exports typically carry a higher fee than a standard marketing image because they require extra accuracy and formatting work to meet planning or portal requirements.
  • We prioritise reliability on tight schedules, which matters most when a planning deadline or launch date cannot move.

If you are weighing up CGI against hiring an architect for drawings and feasibility work, our overview of property CGI services sets out what each deliverable covers.

Short perspective: when spending more up front saves time and money

Choosing the cheapest render often costs more later. Planning officers who query a weak photomontage can delay a decision by weeks, and investors who are unconvinced by flat marketing images can stall a sign off. A sharper, more accurate visual at the outset tends to shorten negotiation rather than lengthen the budget, which is the real trade-off between speed and fidelity when choosing a studio.

— Paride

How we can help: request a quote and what to send

Whether you need exterior or interior CGI, planning-ready photomontage, virtual staging or a short animation, we price each project against your specific brief rather than a generic rate card. Send us your intended use, viewpoints, drawings or site photos, deadline and required formats, and we will return a quote built on that detail.

Visual Trick - CGIs and animations

Get started on our services page to request a tailored quote for your project.

FAQ

How much does a feasibility study cost in the UK?

A feasibility study in the UK commonly costs between 0.75% and 1.5% of total project cost, which for many small domestic schemes works out at roughly £2,000 to £4,000. This is separate from CGI costs, though planning visuals are often commissioned once feasibility work confirms a scheme is viable.

Who is cheaper than an architect?

For pure visualisation needs rather than design and compliance work, a dedicated CGI studio is typically more cost-effective than commissioning an architect, since architects’ fees cover design, planning management and contract administration that a visualisation-only project does not need. Architects remain the right choice when you need drawings, structural coordination or formal planning applications drafted, not just images.

How much does it cost for an architect to draw up an extension?

Extension drawings plus planning submission in the UK are often quoted at £1,800 to £5,000, depending on scope and region. This figure covers the architectural drawings themselves, not any CGI or visualisation work commissioned alongside them.

What should I check before choosing a CGI studio?

Confirm how many revision rounds are included, whether VAT is added to the quote, typical lead time for your type of brief, and whether the studio has delivered work for the same use case before, whether that is marketing, listings or planning. Comparing these points across quotes, alongside guidance on comparing architectural and visualisation services, makes it far easier to judge value rather than just the headline price.

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