How Much Does It Cost to Renovate a House in Australia in 2026?

If you've started pricing up a house renovation in Australia, you've probably noticed the same thing everyone does: nobody gives you a straight number. That's because there isn't one — a bathroom refresh and a full structural rebuild aren't the same project, and a renovation in inner Brisbane won't cost the same as one in a regional town. At Australian Renovation Professionals, we get asked about renovation costs every day, so this guide breaks down real 2026 figures so you can budget with confidence, whether you're planning a small cosmetic update or a full house renovation.

Renovation Costs at a Glance

As a national baseline, renovation costs in Australia typically range from $2,000 to $7,000+ per square metre depending on project scope, with standard quality renovations usually sitting between $3,000 and $5,000 per square metre. Some builders quote a slightly wider band — standard renovations can start as low as $1,600 per square metre, rising to $3,000–$5,000/m² for good-quality, full-house work in capital cities.

In dollar terms, that means:

• Cosmetic update: $20,000–$80,000 (painting, floor sanding, fixtures, lighting)
• Full internal renovation: $80,000–$300,000+ (new kitchen and bathrooms, flooring, non-structural changes)
• Structural extension: $150,000–$550,000+ (second storey, ground-floor extension, foundation work)

These bands hold up across multiple 2026 builder guides, so treat them as realistic planning goalposts rather than exact quotes — your final number depends heavily on your home's condition, your postcode, and how much structural work is involved. This is exactly the kind of ballpark thinking Australian Renovation Professionals helps homeowners work through before they ever call a builder.

Cost of Renovation Per Square Metre

The cost of renovation per square metre is the quickest way to sense-check a builder's quote, and the ranges scale with quality level:

• Basic cosmetic work: $2,000–$3,000/m² — paint, flooring, fixture swaps, minimal structural change
• Mid-range renovation: $3,000–$5,000/m² — quality finishes with some structural modification
• High-end renovation: $7,000+/m² — premium materials, custom joinery, designer features, sometimes exceeding $10,000/m² for luxury work

Wet areas skew this average. Kitchens, bathrooms and laundries eat a disproportionate share of any renovation budget because they involve plumbing, waterproofing and multiple licensed trades, while bedrooms and living areas are comparatively cheap to update. This is worth remembering when you're comparing a quote against a generic per-m² figure — a home with three bathrooms will always cost more per square metre than one with a single bathroom and lots of open living space.

Full House Renovation Cost

If you're gutting and rebuilding most of the interior, the numbers move up a tier. The cost of a full house renovation for a 3–4 bedroom home typically runs $250,000–$450,000+ in 2026, covering electrical, plumbing, flooring and interior finishes throughout. On the lower end, a full internal renovation without major structural work can still land around $80,000–$300,000.

Older properties add risk to these numbers. Homes built before 1990 often need rewiring, replumbing or asbestos removal once walls come open, and these hidden costs can add $30,000–$100,000+ on top of the headline renovation budget.

Old Home Renovation Cost: What Drives It Up

Renovating an older home is rarely just about finishes — it's about what's hiding behind the walls. Character and heritage overlays (common in inner-city Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne suburbs) restrict what you can change and often require heritage-appropriate materials, which pushes per-square-metre costs well above standard renovation ranges. Add in:

• Asbestos removal (from a couple of thousand dollars for minor work to $30,000+ for extensive removal)
• Sub-floor decay, termite damage or ageing plumbing in raised homes
• Outdated wiring that needs a full rewire before any other work can proceed

A pre-purchase or pre-renovation building inspection is the cheapest money you'll spend on an old home renovation cost — it turns these unknowns into a line item you can actually budget for, instead of a surprise halfway through the build.

Budget Home Renovation: Where to Spend and Where to Save

Not every budget home renovation needs to chase the top of the range. A few ways experienced renovators stretch a budget further:

• Keep the plumbing where it is. Moving a kitchen or bathroom's plumbing is one of the single biggest cost drivers in any renovation — working within the existing layout saves significantly.
• Phase the project. Rather than renovating the whole house at once, tackle the highest-impact rooms (kitchen and main bathroom) first and phase the rest over time.
• Get at least three quotes. Pricing for the same scope of work can vary substantially between builders, so comparing quotes is one of the most effective ways to find genuine value.
• Lock the scope before you start. Every variation requested once a contract is signed almost always costs more than if it had been included from day one.
• Budget from the middle of the range, not the bottom. The lowest quoted figure is rarely where a real project lands once a contingency is added — build in 10–15% for the unexpected.

How Much to Renovate a Small House

Wondering how much to renovate a small house? Smaller homes don't scale down proportionally — fixed costs like permits, site setup and trade call-outs stay roughly the same regardless of floor area, so small renovations often carry a higher effective cost per square metre than large ones. For a small house or apartment:

• Cosmetic refresh (paint, floors, fixtures): often achievable from around $20,000–$40,000
• Kitchen or bathroom-only renovation: $25,000–$45,000 for a mid-range fit-out, given these rooms carry the highest cost concentration in any home
• A full renovation of a small 2-bedroom home: frequently falls in the $80,000–$150,000 range once trades, permits and contingency are included

If your budget is tight, a combined approach — renovating a bathroom and adjoining laundry together, for example — is often more cost-effective than treating each room as a separate project.

Home Renovations Brisbane: Local Pricing

Brisbane deserves its own section, since costs here differ from Sydney and Melbourne and vary a lot by suburb. As a general benchmark, most substantial Brisbane renovations fall between roughly $3,000 and $5,000 per square metre for a standard to good-quality finish, with cosmetic work below that range and structural or character-home projects above it.

Broken down by area and finish level:

• Cosmetic work: $2,100–$3,300/m²
• Standard quality: $3,300–$4,700/m²
• High-end finishes: $4,500–$6,900/m²
• Inner Brisbane character homes (subject to heritage overlay constraints): $5,000–$8,000/m² for standard structural work, rising to $7,000–$12,000/m² for premium specifications
• Outer suburbs (Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Redland): generally $3,000–$5,000/m²

Brisbane's market is also being pushed upward by Olympics-driven demand and population growth, which have been steadily lifting both property prices and renovation costs — still cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne, but climbing. If you're in Brisbane and weighing up renovate-versus-rebuild, note that many inner-city character homes fall under overlays that rule out demolition entirely, so a feasibility check early on can save months of wasted planning.

House Making Cost: Renovate or Rebuild?

If your existing home needs more than cosmetic work — failing foundations, extensive structural damage, or a layout that can't realistically be reworked — it's worth comparing renovation against a full rebuild. As a rule of thumb: if the structure is sound and the layout broadly works, renovating usually wins on cost. If the home needs replacing from the stumps up, a knockdown-rebuild can sometimes come out cheaper per square metre than trying to save a badly deteriorated structure, since new builds avoid the unpredictability of unknown existing conditions. A proper feasibility assessment — not a guess — is the only reliable way to answer this for your specific property.

Getting an Accurate Quote

Every figure in this guide is a planning benchmark, not a quote. The only way to get a number you can actually budget against is to:

1. Get a building inspection before finalising scope, especially on any home built before 1990.
2. Get at least three written quotes from licensed builders for the same defined scope of work.
3. Add a contingency of 10–15% on top of the quoted price for unexpected issues.
4. Lock your scope before signing, since variations after the contract is signed are the most common source of budget blowouts.

Renovation costs will keep shifting with material prices and trade availability, so treat these figures as a starting point for your conversations with builders rather than a final answer — and always confirm current local pricing before committing to a budget.

Talk to Australian Renovation Professionals

Whatever stage you're at — pricing up a house renovation in Australia for the first time, or trying to nail down the cost of a full house renovation before you sign with a builder — Australian Renovation Professionals is here to help you plan with real numbers, not guesswork. Get in touch for tailored guidance on your project and location.