Guide · Taking the photos
How much does a property photographer cost in the UK? Prices for 2026
A property photographer in the UK typically charges around £200 for a standard two or three-bedroom home, from about £150 for a flat to £260 for a larger house. Behind those averages the spread is wide, and the price of one shoot does not tell you what photography costs an estate agent over a year. Here are the prices we collected in October 2026, worked out per photo and per property, with what each quote includes and what it does not, and the cases where a photographer is still the right call.
By Teddy Verneuil, founder of Maiso · Updated
What a property photographer charges in the UK in 2026
The figures below are averages. For each service we took the ranges that UK photographers, booking platforms and specialist guides published in October 2026, then worked out the middle of each. The gaps between offers are real: the size of the property, the city and what is included can change the price by a factor of three.
| Service | Range we found | Average used |
|---|---|---|
| Studio or one-bedroom flat | £75 to £250 | about £150 |
| Two or three-bedroom home | £100 to £350 | about £200 |
| Four-bedroom home or larger | £150 to £500 | about £260 |
| Estate agent package, per property (photos and floor plan) | £100 to £175 | about £140 |
| Drone shots, as an add-on | £100 to £200 | about £150 |
Some prices include VAT and some do not, and published ranges do not always say which. We kept the amounts as advertised. London sits above these averages: expect to start from around £180 for a one-bedroom flat.
Worked out per photo, the price comes to about £10
A £200 shoot sounds reasonable until you divide it. At 20 photos delivered, that is £10 a photo. The entry price many photographers advertise, £100 for ten edited images, comes to exactly the same: £10 a photo.
The discount for volume stops early. Travelling and shooting cost the same whether you keep ten photos or thirty, and every extra photo still needs editing time. Going from 15 photos to 30 saves a little per photo, never enough to halve the bill.
What the price does not tell you
Two quotes at the same price do not buy the same thing. Before you compare, look at what is inside the amount and what will be added to the invoice.
| Item | What a basic package usually covers | What is added to the bill |
|---|---|---|
| Editing and HDR blending | Included in standard and full packages | Advanced editing: objects removed, sky replaced |
| Drone | Included in premium packages | An add-on of £100 to £200 otherwise |
| Floor plan | Included in many estate agent packages | Charged separately by some photographers |
| Large property | A typical home, up to about four bedrooms | A supplement beyond that, with more photos |
| Travel | Included inside the photographer’s home area | Charged outside it: ask before you book |
| Turnaround | Usually within one to three working days | Faster on request, sometimes at a premium |
Five questions to ask before accepting a quote
- Are editing and HDR blending included?
- Is travel included, and up to what distance?
- How many photos are delivered, not just taken?
- What does the quote say about how the photos may be used: listing, agency website, social media?
- How soon are the files delivered?
And always ask whether the price includes VAT: on a £200 shoot, the difference is £40.
For an estate agent, one shoot is paid for dozens of times a year
The price of a single shoot is settled when you book it. What matters to an agency is what it spends over a year. At an average of £200 a property, the photography budget climbs fast.
| Properties photographed per month | Shoots per year | Photography budget per year |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 36 | about £7,200 |
| 5 | 60 | about £12,000 |
| 10 | 120 | about £24,000 |
Worked out at £200 a property, the average of the prices we found for a two or three-bedroom home, with no drone and no floor plan.
Then there is the delay. Between the request and the listing going live, an independent photographer usually needs one to three working days, depending on their diary. For an instruction you want online quickly, that is a day or two when the property cannot be seen.
Some agents absorb the cost, others pass part of it on to the vendor as a marketing fee, and vendors increasingly ask about it. Either way, no rule says you must use a photographer: a listing simply must not mislead buyers about the property, as our guide to the rules on editing listing photos explains. The photography budget is therefore a choice, and it can be compared with other ways of getting a good result.
A professional finish without a photographer: shoot it yourself, then edit
What gives a listing photo a professional finish has less to do with the camera than with four things: open light, straight verticals, a clear room, and framing that stays consistent from one photo to the next. A photographer gets there by combining the shoot and the edit. For an ordinary property, an agent can get close with a phone, by following a shooting method (we set one out in our guide to taking property photos with an iPhone) and then editing the photos.
That is what Maiso does. It takes the photos you shot on your phone, opens up the light, straightens the verticals, removes what clutters the room, and hands back the result next to the original two minutes later. Each tool is shown on real photographs on our page on AI photo editing for listings. If you are weighing up several tools, our comparison of estate agent photo editing software ranks them.
Here are the three routes side by side, for a property with 20 photos:
| Route | Cost per property | Turnaround | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photographer | about £200 | One to three working days | Shoot and edit by a professional |
| Phone alone | £0 | Immediate | Depends on the framing and light on the day |
| Phone and Maiso | about £5 excl. VAT | Same day: about 30 minutes to prepare and shoot, then 2 minutes of editing | Light, verticals and clutter corrected afterwards |
Maiso does not take the photos for you: you still have to go and shoot them. What you gain is cost and speed; what you invest is half an hour a property. At five properties a month and twenty photos each, that is 100 credits, which fits the Solo plan at £35 excl. VAT a month, £420 excl. VAT a year, against about £12,000 of shoots at £200 a property. It is not the same service, and the comparison stops there.
Try it free10 free credits, no card needed.
When a photographer is still the right choice
A photographer is not a needless expense. They are the right choice in five cases:
- An exceptional or prestige property, where staging and light account for part of the sale price.
- A 360° tour, which needs dedicated equipment and know-how.
- A large plot, or a view best shown from the air, where a drone gives what no phone can.
- A vendor who insists on one, or an instruction you are determined to win against an agent who offers one.
- An unusual property (castle, loft, chalet), whose appeal lies in volumes and materials that only professional equipment captures.
A simple split: a photographer for the few properties that justify one, say one in ten, and the phone with editing for all the rest. The photographer budget goes where it pays back, and ordinary properties go live the same day.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average price of a property photo in the UK?
About £10 a photo for a standard shoot: around £200 for 20 photos delivered, and about £100 for ten edited images, the entry price many photographers advertise.
How much does a drone photo of a house cost?
Drone shots are an add-on of about £150 on average, from £100 to £200 depending on the offer. They are sometimes included in premium packages.
Can an estate agent negotiate a photographer’s price?
Often, yes: photographers offer agencies package prices, around £100 to £175 per property for photos and a floor plan, about £140 on average. The price falls with the monthly volume you give them.
Do you need a photographer to list a property?
No. Nothing requires you to use a photographer: the listing simply must not mislead buyers about the property. You can shoot it yourself with a recent phone and a good method, which our guide to taking property photos with an iPhone sets out.
How much does a property photographer cost in London?
More than the national averages. A one-bedroom flat starts from around £180, so budget above the £150 to £260 range shown here, depending on the size of the property and what is included.
How long does it take to get the photos?
An independent photographer usually delivers within one to three working days, depending on their diary. If you shoot yourself and edit from your phone, you can publish the same day.
A professional finish on the photos of your next property.
Ten free credits, no card needed: enough to edit the photos of a whole property and judge on your own images.