Melbourne sits in the middle of the Australian renovation cost range — meaningfully cheaper than Sydney, meaningfully dearer than Adelaide or Hobart. What makes it distinctive is not the headline rate but the housing stock. A very large share of Melbourne’s inner and middle ring is timber-framed, stumped rather than slab-founded, and sitting on reactive clay that moves several centimetres between a wet winter and a dry summer.
That single geological fact drives more Melbourne renovation cost variance than labour rates ever will. A weatherboard cottage in Brunswick can need $25,000 of restumping before a single new fixture goes in, and nothing in a glossy quote will have warned you.
A related guide to consider while planning this work is How Much Does a Full House Renovation Cost in Australia?.
This guide sets out what renovation work actually costs in Melbourne in 2026, where the money goes, and which of this city’s particular quirks you should budget for.
Melbourne Renovation Costs at a Glance
Current 2026 rates for Melbourne work:
- Renovation of existing building fabric — $1,600 to $3,900 per square metre
- New construction and extensions — $2,700 to $5,100 per square metre
Note the gap. Adding new floor area costs substantially more per square metre than reworking what exists — a useful reality check when weighing an extension against a reconfiguration.
By project scale, most Melbourne renovations land in one of four bands:
- Cosmetic refresh — $15,000 to $40,000. Paint, flooring, tapware, light fittings, benchtop replacement, cabinet doors. Nothing structural, nothing relocated.
- Mid-range renovation — $40,000 to $110,000. A kitchen and a bathroom, or a whole-house cosmetic upgrade with new flooring throughout and some minor wall removal.
- Major renovation — $110,000 to $380,000. Structural change, a rear extension, reconfigured plan, restumping, rewiring, new roof or windows, and full energy compliance.
- Whole-house and premium — $380,000 to $1.1 million-plus. Substantial rebuild behind a retained facade, or a two-storey addition with high-specification finishes.
Room-by-Room Costs in Melbourne
Kitchens
Melbourne kitchen renovations typically run $23,000 to $49,000, with the broader market spanning from budget refits to premium installations well above that.
- $18,000 to $26,000 — entry-level custom or flat-pack cabinetry, laminate or compact laminate benchtops, mid-tier appliances, existing layout retained.
- $26,000 to $42,000 — custom cabinetry, low-silica composite or porcelain benchtops, an island, integrated dishwasher, quality cooktop, modest layout change.
- $42,000 to $75,000 — full custom joinery, butler’s pantry, premium appliances, natural stone, and services relocated to suit a new plan.
- $75,000 plus — designer kitchens with specialty finishes, integrated refrigeration and bespoke detailing.
Bathrooms
A Melbourne bathroom renovation typically costs $17,500 to $35,000 for a standard family bathroom, done properly with a certified membrane and licensed trades.
- Strip-out and disposal: $1,200 to $2,800
- Plumbing rough-in and fit-off: $3,500 to $7,000
- Electrical: $1,400 to $3,200
- Waterproofing to AS 3740: $1,100 to $2,300
- Tiling, supply and lay: $5,500 to $12,000
- Fixtures, tapware, screen and vanity: $3,500 to $11,000
- Plastering, painting and making good: $1,400 to $2,800
In Melbourne’s timber-floored housing stock, add a line for floor framing. Bathrooms in weatherboard homes frequently reveal rotted joists once the old floor comes up — $3,000 to $12,000, and it is not optional.
Laundries
A Melbourne laundry renovation runs $10,000 to $19,000. Bundling it with a bathroom job to share the plumber’s mobilisation typically saves $1,500 to $2,500.
Living areas and bedrooms
Cheap by comparison, because they contain no services. A full cosmetic upgrade of a living room and three bedrooms — flooring, repaint, new skirtings and architraves, lighting, built-in robes — runs $22,000 to $46,000 across the group.
The Melbourne-Specific Cost Drivers
Reactive clay soils
Melbourne’s basalt plains and clay soils are among the most reactive in Australia. Sites are commonly classified H1, H2 or even E under Australian soil classifications, meaning highly to extremely reactive. The consequences:
- Footings must be engineered for movement. A waffle raft or stiffened slab on an H2 site costs substantially more than a standard slab on a stable site — frequently $15,000 to $40,000 more on an extension.
- Existing buildings move. Seasonal cracking, doors that stick in winter and free up in summer, and floors that are never quite level.
- Trees matter enormously. A mature eucalypt near a footing draws moisture from the clay and causes differential settlement. Removing one can cause heave in the opposite direction.
Restumping and reblocking
This is the Melbourne cost that catches out buyers from other cities. A very large proportion of Melbourne’s pre-1960 housing sits on timber stumps that have a service life of 50 to 80 years. Many are now well past it.
A related guide to consider while planning this work is The Most Expensive Renovation Mistakes People Make in Melbourne.
- Cost per stump — $200 to $350
- Typical whole-house restump — $15,000 to $30,000 and above
- Concrete stumps — mid-range cost, strong long-term performance, now the standard
- Steel stumps — highest upfront cost, longest life
- Difficult access or a low subfloor — adds substantially, as every stump must be excavated by hand
Signs you should investigate: sloping or bouncy floors, doors and windows out of square, cracked plaster at wall junctions, gaps opening between skirting and floor, and visible rot or ant damage at the base of stumps in the subfloor.
Restumping should happen before anything else. Restumping a house after installing a new kitchen means the new joinery moves with the house, and it will crack.
Timber framing and rot
Melbourne’s cool damp winters and older weatherboard stock produce rot in bottom plates, bearers, joists and the base of wall framing — particularly on the south side of buildings and anywhere ground levels have crept up over decades. Budget $5,000 to $25,000 as a contingency line on any pre-1940 Melbourne home.
Heritage overlays
Melbourne’s inner suburbs are extensively covered by heritage overlays in local planning schemes. Where an overlay applies, a planning permit is required for most external work, adding three to nine months and $3,000 to $10,000 in documentation and fees. Our guide to Melbourne heritage controls covers this in detail.
Seasonal weather
Melbourne’s winter is genuinely wet and cold enough to slow external work. Roofing, excavation, external framing and rendering all lose days between June and September. A project with substantial external work scheduled through winter should carry an additional two to four weeks of programme.
Extension Costs in Melbourne
At $2,700 to $5,100 per square metre for new construction, Melbourne extensions typically cost:
- Small rear addition, 20 to 30 sqm — $70,000 to $145,000
- Medium ground-floor addition, 30 to 50 sqm — $130,000 to $240,000
- Large ground-floor addition, 50 to 70 sqm — $190,000 to $340,000
- Rear open-plan addition with new kitchen — $150,000 to $300,000
- Second-storey addition — $280,000 to $560,000, heavily dependent on whether the existing stumps and framing can carry the load
The second-storey question is more acute in Melbourne than in most Australian cities, because a stumped timber-framed cottage was never designed to carry another floor. Many Melbourne second-storey additions require complete replacement of the subfloor structure with engineered footings — which is why they often cost more here than the equivalent addition on a Brisbane brick home. See our guide to Melbourne home extensions.
How Melbourne Suburbs Change the Number
The inner north and west
Brunswick, Northcote, Coburg, Footscray, Yarraville and Seddon are dominated by Victorian and Edwardian weatherboard cottages and single-fronted terraces. Expect restumping, rewiring, replumbing and rot repair as standard. Heritage overlays are common. Add 20 to 35 per cent over the equivalent work on modern stock.
The inner south and east
Prahran, Richmond, Hawthorn, Camberwell and Malvern combine Victorian terraces with interwar californian bungalows and solid brick. Higher finished values support higher spend, and heritage controls are extensive.
The middle ring
Bentleigh, Box Hill, Preston, Reservoir, Sunshine and Glen Waverley contain large volumes of post-war brick veneer on generous blocks. This is the easiest and cheapest stock to renovate and extend in Melbourne — regular, level, structurally straightforward, and largely free of heritage friction.
The growth corridors
Point Cook, Tarneit, Craigieburn, Cranbourne and Officer are full of post-2000 homes on slabs. Work here is fast and predictable, though the reactive clay under many western and northern growth suburbs still governs any footing design.
Hidden Costs on Almost Every Melbourne Job
- Restumping — $15,000 to $30,000 on pre-1960 timber-framed homes
- Electrical upgrades — old wiring, no safety switches, undersized switchboard: $3,000 to $9,000
- Replumbing — galvanised steel supply pipe at end of life: $6,000 to $15,000
- Asbestos — eaves, wet area sheeting, fencing, vinyl backing: $2,500 to $15,000
- Rot in framing — $5,000 to $25,000
- Floor levelling — $40 to $90 per square metre, and Melbourne floors are rarely level
- Energy compliance — meeting the 7-star NatHERS standard on an uninsulated weatherboard cottage: $10,000 to $28,000
Set a 15 per cent contingency on any Melbourne home built before 1980, and 20 to 25 per cent on pre-1930 timber-framed stock. The higher figure is not pessimism; it reflects that a weatherboard cottage conceals almost everything until it is opened.
Where the Money Is Well Spent
- Structure first. Restumping, footings and framing repair. Everything else is decoration applied to a moving object.
- Waterproofing. Never value-engineer the membrane.
- Insulation and glazing. Melbourne’s climate has genuine heating and cooling loads, and comfort improvements here are felt daily.
- Northern light. In Melbourne’s cool temperate climate, getting winter sun into living areas is worth more than almost any finish.
- Custom joinery. Old Melbourne homes are not square, and custom cabinetry handles that where flat-pack does not.
Where restraint pays
- Premium appliances. The gap between good mid-tier and premium European is $4,000 and rarely visible in use.
- Tile price. A well-laid $50 tile beats a poorly laid $140 one every time.
- Moving wet areas. Every metre a bathroom moves costs money for no visible gain.
- Smart home systems. Wire for them; install later.
Building a Budget That Holds
The Melbourne renovations that finish on budget follow a pattern. The owners investigate the structure before designing — a building inspection, a look under the floor, and an honest assessment of the stumps. They price the structural work as a separate, non-negotiable line. And they set the finishes budget with whatever is left, rather than the other way around.
Structure the money as roughly 80 per cent scope, 15 per cent contingency and 5 per cent soft costs — permits, surveys, energy reports, storage, temporary accommodation. On a $200,000 Melbourne renovation that means $30,000 held back and untouched, which on this city’s housing stock is close to the minimum that experience justifies.
For the approval pathway, see our guide to building and planning permits in Melbourne, and for the traps this housing stock sets, our guide to expensive Melbourne renovation mistakes.
What the Pre-Construction Costs Add Up To
The number most Melbourne homeowners leave out of their budget entirely. Before a builder starts, allow:
- Architectural or drafting documentation — $6,000 to $40,000 depending on scale and whether you use a draftsperson or an architect
- Structural engineering — $2,500 to $6,000
- Soil report — $600 to $1,500, and non-negotiable on Melbourne’s reactive clay
- Feature and level survey — $1,200 to $3,000
- Energy rating assessment — $400 to $1,200
- Building permit — $2,000 to $6,000 including inspections
- Planning permit, where an overlay applies — $1,500 to $5,000 in council fees
- Heritage impact statement, where required — $1,800 to $5,000
- Arborist report, where trees are affected — $800 to $2,500
- Town planner, where used — $3,000 to $12,000
That is $12,000 to $35,000 on a mid-sized Melbourne renovation, and considerably more on a heritage property requiring a contested planning permit. Include it from the start and the project stops feeling like it is constantly getting more expensive — because it will not be.
Comparing Renovation Against the Alternatives
Before committing, it is worth testing the renovation against what the same money does elsewhere.
- Moving house. Victorian stamp duty on a $1.2 million purchase is roughly $66,000, plus agent commission on the sale, marketing, styling and legal costs. Total transaction costs of $110,000 to $150,000 buy no improvement at all — which is why renovation frequently wins for households who like their location.
- Knockdown rebuild. A 230 square metre Melbourne rebuild runs $520,000 to $1.1 million plus site costs, and delivers a fully compliant 7-star home. Where the existing structure has failed, this can be better value than a renovation of similar cost. See our guide to knockdown rebuild versus renovate.
- Adding a second dwelling. Victoria’s small second dwelling reforms make a 60 square metre unit achievable for $205,000 to $285,000 with no planning permit on most suburban blocks — often a better return than an equivalent spend on the main house. See our guide to granny flats in Melbourne.
- Doing less, better. A $120,000 renovation concentrated on the kitchen, one bathroom and the thermal envelope frequently delivers more day-to-day improvement than a $300,000 extension that adds area the household does not really need.
Building a Budget That Holds
Structure the money as roughly 80 per cent scope, 15 per cent contingency and 5 per cent soft costs. On a $200,000 Melbourne renovation that means $30,000 held back and untouched — which on this city’s housing stock is close to the minimum experience justifies.
Then sequence it correctly. Structure and water first, services second, thermal envelope third, wet areas fourth, kitchen fifth, finishes last. Homeowners almost always want to reverse that order because the last two stages are the visible ones, and the cost of doing so is that the kitchen installed in year one is damaged when the house is restumped in year three.