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Read our quick guide on how much you can expect to pay for a land survey and how to save money.
Article By: Tom Ayre
Last Update: March 2024
In this article, we explain how much a typical topographical survey costs in 2025 along with the production of CAD drawings. We explore what aspects affect the overall price of the work.
This section will hopefully shed light on how much a topographic (topo/land) survey costs, how they are quoted, and what you can do to reduce the cost of your survey.
In this section, we discuss the following:
Read our detailed guide on what is a topographical land survey here.
In the UK land surveying companies typically charge between £350 and £1200 for a day’s topographical surveying work in the field. The price fluctuations can be massive which can be down to a few factors discussed further on.
Once the survey team have returned from the site and are back in the office the information that has been collected whilst on site will be drawn up using computer-aided design (CAD) software such as AutoCAD.
A typical cost to draw up the topographical survey would be between £350 and £650 per day. As a rough rule of thumb, for every day on-site for 1 surveyor, expect a day in the office to draw up the topographical drawings.
Most sites we encounter are residential, offices, or small parcels of land. Typically, these take 1 day to survey and 1 day to produce the drawings. This would give an approximate price of £1100 + VAT.
The cost of the land survey team travelling to the site will need to be factored into the quote. If you are in a densely populated area, then you will pay a lot less than, say, someone in a much more remove part of the country as the travel costs will be significantly higher.
The number of hours or days to survey a piece of land can vary based on several factors. These include:
Once back in the office, the hours/days to draw a topographical survey heavily depend on:
The topographical survey company undertaking the quote will typically work out how many days to survey on-site and draw up in the office. They will then produce a quote based on these time frames. Most land surveying companies typically charge VAT, which is another cost to factor into your costs.
Here we give you three examples of how much we charged to undertake three fairly standard topographical surveys. The topographical survey costs quoted included a site survey and producing a topographical survey drawing in CAD and PDF format.
Please note that the surveying costs quoted are heavily based on the distance to the site. Our travel costs are charged from our office in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
Residential Site
£800 + VAT
Parcel Of Land
£2000 + VAT
Parcel Of Land
£3700 + VAT
Do You Need a Price For Your Own Topographical Land Survey?
Working out how much a topographical survey can cost is a difficult task for someone looking for a quote as well as the company pricing the work. Many factors can influence the price of a survey, such as:
In this section, we give you simple tips that will help you get better value from topographical survey quotes. This should either reduce your costs, or give you survey drawings that are exactly what you need.
A topographical survey specification provided to your survey providers is extremely important.
The specification document allows you to list out your exact survey requirements. The specification document can help save money by allowing you to list out your exact survey requirements. This could save site survey time and office hours for the survey company. In turn, this should reduce your costs!
The level of detail required can have a massive impact on your topographical land survey costs. If you need a large area of land surveyed, then a good tip is to specify the areas where you need more detail and those where you need less.
There is sometimes no need to survey all areas in high detail. This will save your surveyors’ time and ultimately lower your costs.
When you receive a quote from the surveying company, check that it contains all the relevant information you need for your survey. It’s crucial your company has understood your specification – you don’t want them coming back and asking for more money because they either didn’t understand your specification or they misunderstood it.
It is also worth checking terms and conditions to check there are no additional fees for revisions to the drawing or returning to the site if they haven’t picked something up correctly.
If you are looking for a topographical survey specification document then please refer to the guide from RICS “Measured Survey Of Land, Buildings and Utilities“.
Sometimes it might not actually be necessary to survey the whole property or extent of the land. Reducing the required survey area will save the survey company time on site and in the office. Thus, costs are reduced.
If you are building an extension, for instance, it may be that you can reduce your survey area to within 10 metres of the existing structure. There is no point in surveying all the way to the end of the garden if this data isn’t going to be used.
Practical Tip: Utilise a tool such as Google Earth to mark up a satellite image. This way you can show exactly what you need surveying and what you do not.
The location and type of land that needs surveying can make a huge difference in your land survey costs. For instance, surveying a big open field in comparison to a remote forest with limited visibility.
If you have an area of dense overgrowth that needs surveying, a good idea may be to reduce overgrowth by making the site more open. Your surveyor will thank you and your bank balance will too! At the quotation stage, ensure you send some example photos to show how clear the area is. This might not necessarily show up in aerial imagery, which is what the survey companies usually price their quotes from.
Practical Tip: If it is cost effective, reduce the foliage where possible and make the site more open where you can. Take photos of the site before and send these with your quote request to show the survey company the lay of the land at ground level.
A topographical land survey is an important part of any building project and serves as a key component when planning out your land development projects. If you want to save on future costs, then ensure the land survey company you employ is:
Practical Tip: A legitimate survey company should be able to demonstrate their levels of insurance, terms, and conditions and provide examples of their work. If you are unsure about a company then checking HMRC companies lookup site can sometimes yield worrying aspects about a company or its directors.
Do You Need a Price For Your Own Topographical Land Survey?
When appointing a land survey company, you must choose the right company to avoid future problems as a result of poor drawings and communication. Before the appointment, we recommend checking the following:
92 Bellhouse Lane, Leigh-on-Sea, Southend-On-Sea, Essex, SS9 4PQ
76 Quill Street, Finsbury Park, London, N4 2AD
THS Concepts has a passionate team of surveyors and CAD draughtsman delivering detailed, thorough and accurate surveys and CAD drawings. We are far more than just a land and building surveying company.
