What a squat dental practice actually costs in 2026, line by line

Ask ten people in dentistry what a squat costs and you will get answers between £150,000 and a million pounds. Every one of them is telling the truth. None of them is helping you.

The reason is that "a dental practice" is not a product with a price. A two surgery unit in a Yorkshire market town and a five surgery flagship on a London high street are the same words and completely different businesses. So instead of giving you a number, I am going to give you the lines, because once you can see the lines you can build your own number.

These are the categories I have used on three builds. Dentozen London, Leeds and Harrogate. I am not a dentist, which means I have never had the luxury of thinking about anything except this.

The honest headline range

Most squats in 2026 land between £250,000 and £500,000 all in.

Below £250,000 is possible. It usually means a small unit, two surgeries, a landlord contributing to the fit-out, and a specification that is functional rather than impressive. Above £500,000 usually means either a lot of surgeries, a premium location, or a specification chosen with the heart rather than the model.

Here is where that money goes.

1. Building works and fit-out: £100,000 to £250,000

The biggest line, and the one with the widest range, because it depends entirely on what you take on.

A shell unit that has never been clinical needs everything. Drainage, ventilation, compliant surfaces, lead lining, plumbing to each surgery, electrical capacity, fire compliance, accessibility, plant space. A unit that was previously medical will save you a meaningful amount, which is why I always look at former GP surgeries, opticians and veterinary practices when I am shortlisting.

Budget by surgery. As a working figure, allow £45,000 to £70,000 per surgery for the build work alone, before you put a single piece of equipment in it.

The trap: signing a lease before you have had a contractor walk the unit. I have seen dentists commit to a site and then discover the three phase electrical supply they needed was going to cost £18,000 to bring in. That is a survey you do before you sign, not after.

2. Equipment: £60,000 to £150,000

Chairs, compressor, suction, autoclaves, imaging, cabinetry, hand instruments.

Chairs are the decision that swings this line most. There is a genuine range from around £12,000 to well over £30,000 per surgery depending on brand and specification, and the honest truth is that your patients cannot tell the difference. Your dentists can, which matters for recruitment, but your patients are looking at the ceiling.

Where I spend and where I do not. I spend on imaging, because it drives treatment plan acceptance and it is the thing you cannot easily upgrade later. I spend on the compressor and suction, because when they fail everything stops. I go mid-range on chairs in surgeries that will not open on day one, and I fit out fewer surgeries than the unit holds, leaving them plumbed and ready to commission when demand justifies it.

That last point is worth more than anything else in this article. Do not fit out every surgery on day one. Build the room, run the services, leave it empty. You will thank yourself in month four.

3. Professional fees: £15,000 to £40,000

Architect or practice designer, planning, building control, solicitor for the lease, accountant for the structure, surveyor.

This is the line people try to cut, and it is the worst possible place to save money. A solicitor who does not understand commercial dental leases will miss the clause that costs you six figures on exit. I have written a whole separate piece on which clauses those are.

4. CQC and compliance: £3,000 to £10,000

The CQC registration fee itself is around £1,867 for 2025 and 2026. The rest is what it takes to get the application to a standard that will not come back: policies, procedures, DBS checks, evidence structured the way CQC actually assesses it under the Single Assessment Framework.

If you do this yourself with a template pack you found online, the fee is small and the cost is three months of your life. I say that as someone who now runs a compliance consultancy specifically because this was the bottleneck on every single build I did.

5. Brand, website and pre-launch marketing: £10,000 to £30,000

Identity and brand assets: £2,000 to £5,000. Signage: £1,000 to £5,000. Website and enquiry capture: £3,000 to £10,000. Pre-launch campaigns: £5,000 to £20,000.

Most people treat this as the thing you do after the fit-out. That is exactly backwards, and it is the single biggest reason squats have a terrible first quarter. Your marketing needs to be live while the builders are still in, so that your diary has names in it on day one instead of hope.

6. Working capital: £50,000 to £100,000

This is the line everyone forgets, and it is the line that kills practices.

Your practice will not break even in month one. It probably will not break even in month six. Meanwhile you are paying rent, salaries, materials, lab bills, software, insurance and loan repayments out of revenue that is still building.

Run the model. Work out your monthly running cost with a half empty diary, multiply it by the number of months you honestly expect it to take to reach breakeven, and add a third. That is your working capital requirement, and if you have not funded it, nothing else in this list matters.

I have watched genuinely good practices with full diaries by month eight fail in month five because nobody budgeted for month five.

What this means for your funding

Here is the part that surprises most associates. Banks lend differently for a squat than for a purchase.

Buy an existing practice with three years of accounts and a lender will typically fund 80% to 90% of the purchase price, because the profitability is already proven. Build a squat and you are usually looking at closer to 50%, because there is no trading history to underwrite.

So a £350,000 build might need £150,000 or more of your own money in it. That is the real barrier to entry, and it is why the funding conversation belongs in week three of your planning, not month six.

Build your own number

Every figure above is a range because your practice is not my practice. What matters is that you know the lines and you build a model with all of them in it, including working capital, before you sign anything.

I built a calculator that does exactly that. It takes four minutes and it will give you a realistic range for your specification, in your area, with the working capital line included.

If you want the full model, the one with month by month cash flow and a lender ready export, that lives inside the Dream Squat Club for £19.99 a month.