3D Rendering London — Architectural Visualisation for London Schemes

3D rendering services for London projects

The briefs that arrive with London drawings attached come from a recognisable set of building types. A developer marketing a mixed-use block with flats above ground-floor shops. A build-to-rent operator leasing up a new tower before practical completion. A housing association and its development partner re-providing homes on an estate regeneration. An architect converting a former office or warehouse into flats. A homeowner adding a rear extension, a mansard or a basement to a terraced house. An interior designer pitching an office fit-out or a retail unit. Each one is produced as photoreal CGI from the architect's or designer's files, at the same published prices that apply everywhere else in the UK.

What changes between London briefs is the mix of images. A planning-stage set leans on street-level views and photomontage; a sales launch leans on a dusk hero, the show flat and floor plans for the brochure; a fit-out tender needs two to four interiors that carry the finishes schedule exactly. These are the services London clients order most, each with its own page explaining the deliverables.

• Property CGI for off-plan launches, build-to-rent leasing and site hoardings.
• 3D exterior renders at street level, with aerial views for regeneration masterplans.
• Interior CGIs of show flats, amenity floors and refurbished period rooms.
• Verified views and planning photomontages for applications and committee meetings.
• Architectural animation for launch films and marketing suites.
• 3D floor plans for brochures, portals and lettings particulars.
• Virtual staging for empty build-to-rent and resale flats.
• Kitchen CGIs for specification sheets and kitchen and bathroom brands.
• Commercial visualisation for office fit-outs, shops and hospitality.
• Housetype CGIs for small infill schemes in the outer boroughs.
• Product rendering for furniture, lighting and fittings suppliers.

Architectural visualisation London: planning, committees and the views that get scrutinised

A London planning application goes to the local planning authority (LPA), which for most sites is the borough council. It is assessed against the council's local plan, any local design code and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the framework for England whose current edition was published in its current edition in August 2026. Every LPA publishes a local validation list of what an application must contain, so a planning set starts with the list for the borough concerned rather than an assumption about what officers want to see.

Heritage drives much of the visual scrutiny in London. Conservation areas are, in most cases, designated by the local planning authority, and works that alter or extend a listed building in a way that affects its character need listed building consent whether or not planning permission is also needed. The effect on the setting of a listed building is often judged through the visual relationship between the proposal and the building, which is where a view from the right position does more work than an elevation. A Design and Access Statement is required for major development, for listed building consent and, in a conservation area, for schemes of one or more dwellings or a building of 100 square metres or more; CGIs support that statement, they are not a requirement of it.

Applications that raise no significant issues are usually decided by officers under delegated powers, while contested schemes go to a planning committee, where the images are presented to members. If a scheme is refused, or no decision is made within eight weeks (13 for major development), the applicant can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, and the same images go into the appeal.

Who we render for in London

Residential developers and build-to-rent operators order launch sets and leasing imagery for apartment blocks and mixed-use schemes, usually as a package of exteriors, amenity interiors and floor plans. Housing associations and their development partners order phased views for estate regeneration, where the same images can serve residents' consultation events as well as the planning application. Architects order planning-stage views, committee presentations and competition imagery, often on a deadline set by the committee date. Commercial landlords and retailers order fit-out and shopfront views when a unit is being let or refitted.

Interior designers order fit-out and refurbishment interiors for offices, shops, hotels and private flats, frequently for a tender. Estate agents and homeowners order CGIs of conversions, extensions and refurbished flats so a property can be marketed before the builders leave. Planning consultants order photomontages that show an extension, a roof addition or a new block in its actual context, from positions the officer is likely to stand.

How we work with London clients

Every London project runs from your drawings by email, phone and video. Send plans, elevations, sections, the site survey if there is one and the finishes schedule as PDF, DWG, Revit, ArchiCAD or SketchUp files, and we come back within one business day with a fixed quote, what it includes and a delivery date. Camera angles are agreed on a marked-up plan or a short video call before modelling starts, so the first draft shows the views you actually need.

Site photographs from you or your planning consultant are enough for most photomontages. We match the camera in the model to features visible in each photograph and composite the scheme onto it; if a view has to be survey-verifiable, the survey is yours to commission and we build the montage to the camera data it provides. The draft comes with materials and lighting close to final, then up to 4 revision rounds on your mark-ups, and finals at 4K in 5–7 business days, assuming mark-ups come back within a day of each draft.

Our London business address is 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, the registered office of RealRender3D Ltd, of which Build3DRender is a trading name. It is a business address rather than a studio, and nothing in the process depends on a meeting room: the drawings, the drafts and the mark-ups all travel by email. Enquiries answered seven days a week.

From central London to the outer boroughs: what the brief usually needs

Location within London predicts the brief better than almost anything else. In central London, in Westminster, Camden, the City and the streets around them, most projects alter something that already exists: an office floor being refurbished, a commercial building converted to flats, a roof extension on a mansion block, a new shopfront. A refurbishment or conversion here is more likely to involve a listed building or a conservation area, so the planning set usually needs a street-level photomontage that shows the setting honestly, with interiors following for marketing once consent is granted.

In inner boroughs such as Southwark and Tower Hamlets the work shifts towards new-build: mid-rise apartment blocks, build-to-rent towers, mixed-use schemes with commercial space at ground level and estate regeneration delivered in phases. These sets are larger, typically a hero exterior, a dusk view, amenity interiors, floor plans and an aerial of the masterplan.

Further out, in boroughs such as Bromley, the brief is more often a rear or side extension to a semi-detached house, a short run of new houses by a local housebuilder on an infill plot, or suburban housetypes for a sales brochure. Two or three images usually cover it.

London project types, from the portfolio

These six archive projects match the brief types London projects most often need. None is presented here as a London project; each case study states its own details. The townhouse marketing set is the full launch package for a terraced scheme: a street view, a rear view and an aerial, plus seven furnished interiors, with the rear camera raised during review so the balustrades and the raised gardens over the garages read clearly. The amenity interiors, a clubroom kitchen, a lobby with a leasing desk, a rooftop clubroom and a games room, are the build-to-rent set produced for both the developer's marketing and its funding material.

The pre-application photomontages are four camera-matched street views and a high-level context view of a modular building, with the first four delivered in under a week for a planning statement. The office fit-out interiors, a reception, two breakout areas and the main office, were rendered against a tender deadline for an interior designer. The whole-house refurbishment is the period-house brief: ten interiors from the living room to a converted loft, with French doors, a utility room and rooflights added through the mark-ups. The large new-build house, front, rear and interior stills corrected against the builder's specification, is the set an estate agent orders to market a home before completion.

What a London render costs

London projects are priced exactly as projects anywhere else in the UK: exteriors from £295, interiors from £225, floor plans from £395, aerial and masterplan views from £695, animation at £45 per second with a 30-second minimum, and virtual staging from £95 per room. Photomontage and verified views are quoted per project, with the method documented, because the number of viewpoints, the surrounding context to be modelled and the photographs you supply change from one site to the next.

Sets of five images or more are priced as a package. That is how most London launch and regeneration sets are bought, since a hero, a dusk view, amenity interiors and floor plans together are more efficient to produce from one model than as separate orders. Payment is 50% to start, 50% on approval of drafts.

What moves a quote is the number of views, how much of the surrounding street has to be modelled, and how much alignment work each of your photographs needs. For the full breakdown, read 3D rendering cost in the UK, then send the drawings for a fixed figure.

Photomontage and verified views for London applications

A photomontage sets the modelled scheme into a photograph of the real site. The Landscape Institute's Technical Guidance Note 06/19, which is current and under review, defines four Visualisation Types; a photomontage of this kind is Type 3, and it is the right tool for most householder applications, small infill schemes and pre-application meetings. Type 4 is the photomontage whose scale and position can be verified against a survey, which the industry calls a verified view or an accurate visual representation (AVR).

We produce Type 3 photomontages from your own site photographs: you photograph each viewpoint and note where you stood, the lens and the time, and we match the camera in the model to features in the frame before compositing the scheme onto the photograph. We do not survey, so where an authority asks for survey-verifiable Type 4 views, the survey is yours to commission and we build the montage to the camera data it supplies. Each set comes with a methodology note listing the photograph, the camera position and lens as you supplied them, the date and time and how the model was aligned, so an officer, a committee member or an inspector can see how the images were made.

TGN 06/19 also points to the London View Management Framework (2012), which uses its own AVR Types 0 to 3. If your planning consultant specifies that scale rather than the TGN 06/19 types, tell us at quotation; the methodology note will state which system each view is labelled under, and where the framework calls for surveyed positions we build to the survey data you supply. Verified views are quoted per project, with the method documented.