Full Home Renovation in Karachi

A full home renovation is the biggest cheque most Karachi families write outside the purchase of the house itself. It is also the job where the old way of working — one lump-sum quote, a fat advance, no paperwork — does the most damage. Our answer is structure: a room-by-room BOQ, a stage plan, and payments that follow proof.

Planning ranges first, so you can budget before you ever call us. A complete finishing renovation in Karachi — paint, tiles, ceilings, kitchen and bathroom upgrades — runs at roughly Rs 2,500–4,500 per square foot at standard specification, and Rs 5,000–8,000 per square foot for luxury interiors with imported finishes and wardrobes. Grey-structure repair alone (masonry, plaster, roof repair, demolition) sits lower, around Rs 800–1,200 per square foot. These are planning ranges drawn from published Pakistani contractor rate guides (October 2026). Your real number comes from the BOQ we write after surveying your house — and that number is the one we are held to.

What a full renovation actually covers

A full renovation is not a paint job with new curtains. Done properly it touches every system in the house. We start with the bones: cracks and seepage repaired, roof waterproofing checked, plumbing lines pressure-tested and wiring inspected, because fresh paint over dying pipes is money thrown away.

Then comes the finishing everyone sees — floor tiles or marble, wall paint or texture, false ceilings with lighting, kitchen and bathroom remodels, wardrobes and doors. On a typical DHA or PECHS house the sequence runs demolition and civil repairs first, plumbing and electrical rough-in second, tiling third, then joinery, paint and fittings at the end. Each stage is photographed and reported before the next begins.

• Civil repairs: plaster, crack repair, seepage and damp treatment
• Roof and bathroom waterproofing before any finishing work
• Plumbing and electrical renewal where the survey shows age or damage
• Flooring: local porcelain tile typically Rs 410–650 per sq ft installed; local marble Rs 290–510 per sq ft installed
• False ceilings, lighting and wall textures
• Kitchen and bathroom remodels (see their own pages for detailed rates)
• Wardrobes, doors, polish and final snag fixing before handover

What whole houses cost in Karachi — real planning numbers

Per-square-foot rates help, but families think in house sizes, so here is the same math in marlas. A basic full renovation of a 5 Marla house (about 1,125 sq ft) typically lands between Rs 15–25 lakh. A 10 Marla house runs Rs 25–45 lakh at standard specification, and a 1 Kanal house Rs 45–65 lakh. Luxury specifications — imported tiles and stone, custom wardrobes, designer lighting — push a 1 Kanal project to Rs 1.2–1.8 crore. These ranges come from published contractor rate cards; two houses of the same size can sit at opposite ends of a range depending on how much plumbing, wiring and civil repair the survey finds.

The honest way to read these numbers: they are for budgeting, not for signing. Anyone who gives you a final price without opening a single switchboard or checking under a single tile is guessing with your money. Our survey is free, and the BOQ that follows it is itemised down to the brand of fitting — so when a rate changes, you can see exactly which line moved and why.

The stages your money follows

We split every full renovation into payment stages tied to visible results. A typical split runs: demolition and civil repair, plumbing and electrical, tiling and flooring, joinery and kitchen/bath fitting, paint and polish, and final snag-and-handover. You release a stage payment when the stage report — photos, a short video walk-through and the BOQ lines it covers — lands in your WhatsApp.

This protects you in both directions. Your money is never more than one stage ahead of the work, and the contractor is never out of pocket begging for the next instalment, which is when corner-cutting usually starts. Our supervision fee of 10–15% of project value is declared in the same document, so you can see precisely what our oversight costs.

Old Karachi houses: what the survey usually finds

Houses in DHA's older phases, Clifton and PECHS were mostly built between the 1970s and the early 2000s. The pattern repeats: galvanised plumbing at the end of its life, wiring that predates modern loads, seepage from bathrooms into the rooms below, and paint hiding hairline structural cracks. None of this is a reason not to renovate — these are solid houses in irreplaceable locations — but it is why the finishing budget must leave room for the invisible work.

Our survey report lists these findings openly, with photos, before you commit to anything. If the bones need more than your budget allows, we will tell you to shrink the finishing scope rather than skip the plumbing. A house renovated that way stays renovated; the other kind starts peeling within two monsoons.

Renovation or rebuild? The honest comparison

Owners of old houses in DHA and PECHS often ask whether they should simply demolish and rebuild. The published numbers frame the answer: a complete new standard house in Karachi costs roughly Rs 4,300–5,500 per sq ft to construct, against Rs 2,500–4,500 per sq ft for a standard full renovation — and construction guides that price turnkey premium builds put new-build higher still. Renovation also keeps your existing approvals, your boundary walls, your trees and your address, and it finishes in months rather than the year-plus a rebuild demands.

Rebuilding wins in exactly two situations: when the structure itself is compromised beyond economic repair, or when the layout is so wrong for modern life that no internal rework fixes it. Both are survey questions, not sales questions. Our condition report answers them in writing — and if the honest answer for your house is 'rebuild', the report says that too, even though it costs us the project. A supervision business that survives on referrals cannot afford a single house renovated on a lie.

Where the money earns most: room priorities

If the full scope does not fit the budget, cut in the right order. Bathrooms and plumbing first — they protect the house and decide daily comfort. Kitchen second — it is the hardest-working room and the second thing buyers and tenants judge. Electrical safety and roof waterproofing alongside them, always, because they protect everything else. Paint and finishes next, since they transform how the house feels at the lowest cost per square foot. Decorative upgrades — textures, feature ceilings, premium wardrobes — last, and only with what is left.

This ordering is also how we phase projects: a master BOQ for the whole house, contracted in the order above. Families commonly run bathrooms and systems in phase one, kitchen in phase two, and finishes in phase three across a year. Each phase ends as a complete, paid-for, documented result — never as a half-open house waiting for the next budget.