# Garden design cost: 2026 prices and your 2027 budget

> What does a garden design cost? 200 to 1,500 euros to have one made, and 1,000 to 1,800 euros and up for 300 m² or more. What each price class buys.

Canonical: https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-design-cost
Last updated: 2026-09-24

![A finished back garden seen from the terrace: herringbone clay pavers, a border of grasses, purple salvia and box behind a corten edge, a lawn and a bench at the back](https://tuinontwerp.app/images/blog/wat-kost-een-tuinontwerp-2027-e7fdc24b.webp)

Published: 2026-09-12

The cost of a garden design runs from 200 to 1,500 euros if you have it made,
with 500 euros as the average. For a garden of 300 m² or more you pay 1,000 to
1,800 euros and up. You draw a plan of your own garden yourself in
tuinontwerp.app, and designing on your own plot costs nothing.

The prices you find online differ by more than a factor of seven. That is
because a garden design is not one fixed product. It can be a sketch on squared
paper or a worked-out drawing with dimensions and a planting plan.

## How much does a garden design cost in 2027?

Budget 200 to 1,500 euros if you have it made. Within that range, the 2026 price
lists give an average band of 410 to 590 euros.

No rates for 2027 have been published yet. The amounts below come from the 2026
price lists, and those are the figures to set your budget with now.

| Price class                               | What you pay                                | Source          | What you get in your hands                                  |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Drawing it yourself, on paper             | nothing, apart from a tape measure          | your own work   | a sketch without dimensions                                 |
| Making your own plan on your own plot     | nothing, for designing on your own plot     | tuinontwerp.app | your own plot to scale, with your terrace, borders and plants on it |
| Simple design by a landscaper             | €200 to €350                                | Trustoo, 2026   | a layout plan for the garden                                |
| Complete design, average band             | €410 to €590                                | Homedeal, 2026  | a worked-out design, planting plan separate                 |
| Large or highly detailed design           | €1,000 to €1,800 and up, for 300 m² or more | Homedeal, 2026  | the design plus extras, such as 3D or a lighting plan       |
| Garden designer (tuinarchitect), per hour | €60 to €90 per hour                         | Homedeal, 2026  | separate guidance, corrections and advice by the hour       |

Homedeal is a Dutch price comparison site for home improvement work, and
Trustoo a Dutch platform for finding tradespeople.

The garden designer row is not like the others. Price comparison sites also
list landscapers with a design service under that heading. Starters there charge
around 45 to 60 euros, and specialists up to 120 euros an hour. So the hourly
rate covers a wider group than the protected Dutch title tuin- en
landschapsarchitect (garden and landscape architect). What that title means is
explained in
[garden designer cost in the Netherlands, or DIY](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-designer-cost-netherlands).

Within that band, the size of the garden mostly decides where you land.
Homedeal names four price factors, in this order on its page: the size of your
garden, with or without a planting plan, designing it yourself or hiring it
out, and extra options and additions.

Priced per square metre, the picture changes. Hovenier.website is a Dutch site on
landscaping and design prices. It gives 3.50 euros per square metre for a garden up
to 100 m², 2.75 euros for 100 to 200 m², 1.50 euros for 200 to 400 m² and 1.06
euros for 400 to 800 m². A large garden costs more than a small one, but less
per metre. The drawing work does not grow with the area.

## What do you get in each price class?

A drawing, and a different one per class. At the bottom it is a layout: where
the terrace goes, where the path runs, where the borders lie. Further up, the
dimensions are added, along with the materials that go into the garden.

The design price is made up of four items: design and layout, working out and
detailing, consultation, advice and corrections, and preparing the build. The
lowest class mainly buys the design and the layout. The highest class buys all
four, plus choices you would otherwise have had to make yourself.

The planting plan is priced on its own. Allow about 50 percent of the design
cost on top of the price, or 40 to 60 percent in a wider estimate. So a
500-euro design with a planting plan comes to about 750 euros.

What the most expensive class adds is presentation and detail: a 3D design, a
lighting plan, extra technical work. Those are options, not fixed parts. Each
one can be left out without making the design unusable.

The design and layout item is one you can settle yourself before you ask for a
quote. In tuinontwerp.app you draw that layout on a plan of your own plot, with
your terrace, your borders and your plants to scale.

## What makes a design dearer in 2027 than in 2026

Labour costs, and an index the trade itself puts on them. Since 2024, CBS
(Statistics Netherlands) has published a quarterly price and labour cost index
for the green sector. It draws the index up with Koninklijke VHG, the Dutch
trade association for landscapers. The index is meant to give landscapers a reference
point when they adjust their rates each year.

At the end of the second quarter of 2025, that index stood at 4.7 percent. The
collective labour agreement for the landscaping trade provided for a wage rise
of 2.5 percent from 1 January 2026. Vakblad De Hovenier, the Dutch trade
magazine for landscapers, expected an average rate rise of 4 to 5 percent to be
needed in 2026 to keep margins up.

For 2027 that figure does not exist yet. What does exist is the mechanism: CBS
publishes the index every quarter, and wages under the collective agreement
rise on 1 January. So a design you budget at 500 euros today needs a little
more for next spring.

The VHG itself notes that indexing is a matter for each business. A sector
figure is an indication, not a rate. Always ask for a current quote rather than
working from a price list in an article, this one included.

## Which costs are not in the design price?

Three. A site visit for advice costs 120 to 250 euros. Sketch and
administration costs come to about 100 euros. Extra advice outside the design is
charged at about 70 euros an hour.

The biggest item stays out of sight as long as you only compare design prices.
Having the garden built costs 50 to 300 euros per square metre, and a
landscaper charges 35 to 65 euros an hour. Next to those amounts, the design is
the smallest line on the bill.

## Starting on your own plot

You can settle the design and layout item yourself, and that costs nothing:
designing on your own plot is free. Enter your address at the bottom of this
page. Tuinontwerp.app takes your plot from the cadastral map of the Kadaster,
the Dutch land registry, via PDOK, the government's geodata platform, and lays
it out to scale. Around it stand the buildings, with their heights from 3DBAG,
the open dataset of measured building heights for the Netherlands. You draw your terrace and borders on it and place your plants, each
as wide as a grown plant.

Next to each plant, the plan gives the most hours of direct sun that spot gets
on 15 May. How that sum works is explained in
[garden sun hours, calculated per spot](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-sun-hours-calculator).
It is an upper bound: soil, differences in height and your neighbours' trees
are not in the calculation, and the measurements are right to within
decimetres. For a border and a terrace that is enough; for setting out a
foundation it is not.

More on the order of design, quote and build is in
[the garden design section of the blog](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/category/tuinontwerp). When
you then ask for a quote, your own layout is already on the table.

## Frequently asked questions

### How much does a garden design cost on average?

500 euros on average, with 200 euros at the low end and 1,500 euros at the top, in Homedeal's price list for 2026. The same page gives an average band of 410 to 590 euros, and 1,000 to 1,800 euros and up for a garden of 300 m² or more.

### Can I get a garden design made for free?

Not made for you: a designer charges 200 euros or more. You can make a plan of your own garden yourself, and designing on your own plot is free. Tuinontwerp.app lays out your plot to scale from public registers, with the buildings around it, and on it you draw your terrace, borders and plants. Each plant shows the most sun its spot gets on 15 May. Soil, differences in height and your neighbours' trees are not in that calculation, so check those in the garden yourself, with your plan in hand.

### What does a garden design cost per square metre?

From 3.50 euros per square metre for a garden up to 100 m² to 1.06 euros for 400 to 800 m², in Hovenier.website's price list. In between are 2.75 euros for 100 to 200 m² and 1.50 euros for 200 to 400 m². So the price per metre falls as the garden gets bigger.

### Will garden design prices go up in 2027?

Probably, but no rates for 2027 have been published yet. For 2026, Vakblad De Hovenier expected an average rate rise of 4 to 5 percent to be needed to keep margins up. Wages in the landscaping trade rose by 2.5 percent under the collective agreement from 1 January 2026.

### Is a planting plan included in the price of a garden design?

Usually not. Allow about 50 percent of the design cost on top of the price; Homedeal uses 40 to 60 percent.

## Sources

- [Homedeal — Wat kost een tuinontwerp maken? 2026 Prijzen](https://www.homedeal.nl/tuinaanleg/tuinontwerp-prijzen/)
- [Homedeal — Tuinarchitect kosten, prijzenoverzicht 2026](https://www.homedeal.nl/tuinaanleg/tuinarchitect-kosten/)
- [Trustoo — Hovenier kosten 2026](https://trustoo.nl/kosten/hovenier/)
- [Hovenier.website — Tuinontwerp laten maken, advies en prijzen 2026](https://hovenier.website/tuinontwerp/)
- [Vakblad De Hovenier — CBS-index moet hoveniers houvast geven bij indexatie tarieven 2026](https://www.vakbladdehovenier.nl/article/52276/cbs-index-moet-hoveniers-houvast-geven-bij-indexatie-tarieven-2026)
- [Koninklijke VHG — Prijsindexcijfers](https://www.vhg.nl/prijsindexcijfers)

## Read next

- [Garden designer cost in the Netherlands, or DIY?](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-designer-cost-netherlands) - What does a garden designer cost in the Netherlands? About 60 to 90 euros an hour. Compare cost, lead time and the finished document, and see what you can do on your own plot. (2026-09-09)
- [A garden sun hours calculator that starts from your address](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/garden-sun-hours-calculator) - How many hours of direct sun does each spot in your garden get? Tuinontwerp.app draws your plot to scale with 3DBAG building heights and works out the most sun each spot gets on 15 May. (2026-09-06)
- [Dutch cadastral map: find your plot via PDOK, step by step](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/dutch-cadastral-map) - Get your plot from the Dutch cadastral map via PDOK, with the actual responses for one address. Depending on its label, the boundary can be 10 to 80 cm off. (2026-09-16)
- [More about garden design](https://tuinontwerp.app/en/blog/category/tuinontwerp)