Bathroom renovation
What a bathroom renovation costs in Nicosia in 2026
What sets the price of a bathroom refit in Nicosia, what quotes routinely leave out, and how to get three prices onto the same basis before you choose.
8 min read
Photo: MART PRODUCTION on Pexels
Stavros covers the rooms that carry the most cost per square metre and the finishes that go into them. He tracks the order trades have to arrive in, which moves a Cypriot renovation bill further than any hourly rate does.
Published
A bathroom in Nicosia is priced off three things: whether the drainage stays where it is, what has to come out before anything can go in, and the specification of the tiling and sanitaryware you pick. Floor area barely moves the number. A small shower room where the WC shifts to the opposite wall costs more than a larger family bathroom that keeps every pipe where the builder left it.
The short answer
Bathroom quotes in Cyprus arrive in three shapes and they are not interchangeable: a lump sum for the finished room, a labour-only price with you buying the sanitaryware, or a set of rates that becomes a total only once somebody measures. Below is what has been quoted in the Nicosia district, read from our records when the page loads rather than left to age in the text.
Before comparing any two of those figures, find out what each assumes about the drainage. A refit reusing the existing soil connection, waste positions and water feeds is a finishing job. Move the WC and you move a soil pipe, which in a flat usually means building the floor up, which changes the threshold, which changes the door. That one decision is normally worth more than every tile and tap choice put together.
The rest of the answer is behind the tiles. The standard wet-area specification is a bonded waterproof membrane behind and beneath the tiling in the shower area, over a screed that falls to the gully. It is invisible the day the job finishes, and it is why the ceiling below stays dry in year six.
What drives the range
Whether the layout stays put. Same positions is one price. Swapping bath for walk-in shower in the same footprint is a little more. Moving the WC or borrowing space from a hallway is a different category of work — and once a structural wall moves rather than a partition, you have left bathroom fitting and arrived at building work.
What comes out. In the older apartment stock around Strovolos, largely built between the 1970s and the 1990s, you routinely meet galvanised supply pipe that crumbles when disturbed, no isolating valves on the branch, sand-cement bedded tiles that take the render off with them, and no lift. That is why replumbing and rewiring dominate renovation work in that stock, and why an old-block bathroom and a new-build bathroom of the same size are not the same job.
The tiling specification. Format changes labour more than material cost does.
Large-format rectified tile needs a flatter substrate than a small one, so the preparation grows before a tile is cut. Mosaic in a shower recess is slow by the metre. Natural stone needs sealing before grouting and again after.
Sanitaryware and brassware. This is the part you choose, so it is the part you control. A quote should itemise it: pan, cistern, basin, mixer, shower valve, screen, waste and trap, each named. A "sanitaryware allowance" with no products is a placeholder, and the difference lands on your invoice.
Electrics and extraction. The room needs mechanical extract ducted to outside air, not a fan that stirs it. Any alteration to the circuits must be carried out and certified by a licensed electrician, because that certificate is what the supply authority relies on.
The Nicosia climate, indoors. Sitting inland, the capital takes the widest temperature range on the island. In January the cold concrete columns behind the plaster run below the rest of the room, so moisture condenses there first and mould returns in the same corner however often it is wiped. In August adhesive skins over faster, which is why good crews start early.
Cost by district
Nicosia usually produces the tidiest bathroom quotes in the Republic: contractors are close by, the stock is consistent, and there is no salt in the air to complicate the specification. Set against the other four districts under Republic of Cyprus control — Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and the free area of Famagusta — the pattern runs like this.
In Limassol the constraint is vertical. Rapid high-rise development has raised demand for balcony waterproofing and facade maintenance, and the same buildings slow bathroom work down: goods lifts booked by the hour, working times set by the management committee, and a flat below yours that makes any waterproofing shortcut expensive to discover later.
In Paphos it is the air and the road. Direct coastal exposure at Kato Paphos means salt-laden air, so galvanised and marine-grade fixings are standard and budget chrome pits early on brassware and screen hardware. Up the hill at Peyia, steep access roads limit delivery vehicle size, which is felt the day a pallet of tile and a bath have to reach the house.
In Larnaca, humidity is the variable. Near the salt lake at Oroklini the ambient moisture is high enough to affect damp-proofing specification, which in a bathroom means extraction sized properly and a membrane detailed rather than assumed. In the free area of Famagusta the calendar sets the price: Ayia Napa and Protaras are predominantly seasonal accommodation, so refurbishment concentrates between November and March, and crews are then scarce rather than cheap.
For a Nicosia homeowner the implication is narrow. A fitter based in Lakatamia quoting for a flat in Aglantzia has almost no travel cost to recover, so a quote far above the others is telling you about scope, not postcode. Our district pages record what changes in each area, and the bathroom renovation section lists firms by where they are actually based.
What is usually excluded
Most bathroom quotes in Cyprus are honest and narrow. The gap between the low one and the high one is nearly always these items:
- Strip-out, skip hire and disposal of rubble, old sanitaryware and packaging
- Making good the plaster where old tiles pulled the render away
- A new screed, or building the floor up to accommodate moved waste
- Tanking to the wet area, as opposed to a waterproof additive in the adhesive
- Isolating valves and replacement of pipework found to be beyond reuse
- Sanitaryware and brassware, where the quote is labour only
- Shower screen or enclosure, and its fixings
- Mechanical extraction and the duct run to an external wall
- Electrical alterations and the certificate that goes with them
- The door and threshold, and adjusting them after a floor build-up
- Painting the ceiling and any wall left untiled
- Silicone, sealing of natural stone, and final making good
Two deserve attention. In a flat, the cost of getting waterproofing wrong is not your bathroom but the ceiling below. And access — no lift, a narrow stair, a fourth-floor flat — adds labour to an otherwise unremarkable job.
How to compare quotes
Payment stages. A deposit against sanitaryware and tile is normal, because the contractor is buying goods for you. Paying most of the money before the tanking is done is not. Stage the balance against completed points — after first fix, after tiling, on completion.
VAT, and which rate applies. Renovation and repair of a private residence in use for more than three years can be invoiced at the reduced VAT rate of 5% instead of the standard 19%, provided the value of the materials does not exceed 50% of the value of the services. That condition matters more in a bathroom than in most rooms, because a specification heavy on imported sanitaryware and stone can tip the balance while a labour-heavy refit sits comfortably inside it. Ask which rate each contractor has quoted at and on what basis, and confirm the current conditions with the Tax Department before you rely on the difference.
Variations, and what you get at the end. Agree a named rate for extra work before anyone opens a wall; it is worth more than a discount on the headline figure. Ask too what handover includes — the electrical certificate and the warranty position on the waterproofing system.
Permits. Replacing fittings and finishes inside an existing bathroom, with no change to structure, layout or external appearance, sits outside planning control. Move a structural wall, add a window or alter the drainage arrangement of the building and that is a different question, belonging with the planning and permits guidance rather than with the fitter.
Common questions
Do I need a permit to renovate a bathroom?
Not for a like-for-like refit that leaves structure, layout and external appearance alone. It changes if you take down a wall to enlarge the room, put in a new window or alter the building's drainage. In a block there is a separate question from the planning one: your management committee's rules on working hours, lift use and common pipework.
How long will I be without the bathroom?
Longer than the hours of work involved, because the room stands empty between trades. The sequence is strip-out, plumbing first fix, electrical first fix, tanking, screed and falls, tiling, plumbing second fix, electrical second fix, glazing and decorating, and several of those steps have to cure before the next starts. What decides the calendar is whether the drainage moves, whether the tiling needs extra substrate preparation, and how many other jobs the contractor is running.
Can I tile over the existing tiles?
Sometimes on walls, rarely in a shower area, never if the tiles sound drummy when tapped. It saves a strip-out and loses your one chance to put a membrane behind the wet zone, and it builds the wall out past the architrave and window reveal. In an old Nicosia block where tiles are sand-cement bedded, taking them off usually takes the render with them.
Why is one of my three quotes so much lower?
Almost always because it is a smaller job. Read for the waterproofing system, the strip-out and disposal, the extraction, the electrical certificate, and whether sanitaryware is included or merely allowed for. A tiled room with no membrane, a recirculating fan and a labour-only price is genuinely cheaper to build.
Should I buy the sanitaryware myself?
Some fitters prefer it, because it removes any argument about markup. The trade-off is that you own the consequences: if the shower valve does not suit your water pressure, or the pan waste sits at the wrong centre for the existing soil connection, that is your cost and your delay. Buy everything before the strip-out starts.
Bathroom renovation firms in the Nicosia district
8 companies covering this area.
Polart Construction
Strovolos Iii, Nicosia
Polart Construction is an architecture practice in Strovolos Iii, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Ο υδραλικός στο σπίτι σας Μάριος Κασινιδης & υιοί ltd
Kalograes, Nicosia
Ο υδραλικός στο σπίτι σας Μάριος Κασινιδης & υιοί ltd is a plumbing business in Kalograes, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
Charalambos Thoma & Sons
Archangelos, Nicosia
Charalambos Thoma & Sons is a plumbing business in Archangelos, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
Thermodynamics Quality Heating
Acropolis, Nicosia
Thermodynamics Quality Heating is a fireplace business in Acropolis, in the Nicosia district.
P. A. Constructions Ltd.
Engomi, Nicosia
P. A. Constructions Ltd. is an architecture practice in Engomi, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Moudouros
Nicosia
Moudouros is a plumbing business in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include leak detection, bathroom installation, water tanks.
- Leak detection
- Bathroom installation
- Water tanks
- Pipe replacement
SB Pazzleco
Acropolis, Nicosia
SB Pazzleco is a construction company in Acropolis, in the Nicosia district.
Fabretti Construction
Agioi Omologites, Nicosia
Fabretti Construction is an architecture practice in Agioi Omologites, in the Nicosia district. Recorded services include planning submissions, drawings, site supervision.
- Planning submissions
- Drawings
- Site supervision
Sources
- Tax Department — VAT rates and reduced-rate conditions — retrieved 2026-07-28
- Department of Town Planning and Housing — scope of planning control — retrieved 2026-07-28
- Electricity Authority of Cyprus — installation and connection requirements — retrieved 2026-07-28
- Cyprus Statistical Service — construction cost indices — retrieved 2026-07-28
01More on this topic
Same cluster.Different question.
8 min readWhy Bathroom Renovation Prices Vary So Much in Cyprus
Real bathroom renovation ranges for Nicosia, Cyprus, what moves them, and what to check before accepting a quote.
8 min readBathroom Renovation Quotes: What Should Be in Writing
The eleven items a Nicosia bathroom quote should name in writing, how payment stages work, and how variations get priced once the walls are opened.
Thinking of doing this?Get up to five quotes, free.
Describe the project and we will gather quotes from companies that can handle the whole sequence.