What does a renovation cost in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs?

Most homes we work on fall into two groups, and each has its own typical costs and catches.

Two-bedroom apartments along the coast (built 1940s to 2000s)

The brick walk-ups and small blocks of Bondi, Bronte, Coogee, Clovelly, Maroubra and Rose Bay.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Bathroom (4–5 sqm), same layout	$23,000 – $35,000
Bathroom with the toilet or shower moved (slab core holes)	$38,000 – $50,000
Kitchen, galley or small L-shape	$20,000 – $40,000
Open the kitchen to the living room	$4,000 – $7,000 (non-load-bearing) or $12,000 – $18,000 (load-bearing)
Laundry, full-height tiles	$15,000 – $20,000
Full refurbishment: kitchen, bathroom, laundry, floors and paint	$120,000 – $220,000

What to expect: strata approval and a by-law for bathroom and structural work, dilapidation reports for the units above and below, set working hours, and everything carried up the stairs. Buildings from the 1940s to 1970s often have internal brick walls that carry load, asbestos in older sheeting, and concrete cancer in balconies and bathroom slabs.

Semis and terraces (inner city and Eastern Suburbs, 1880s to 1930s)

The Victorian terraces and Federation semis of Paddington, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Woollahra, Randwick, Queens Park and Bondi Junction.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Bathroom, upstairs or rear, same layout	$28,000 – $40,000
Kitchen, custom joinery and stone bench	$35,000 – $60,000
Open the kitchen to the living room with a steel beam	$15,000 – $30,000
New or rebuilt rear deck	$15,000 – $40,000
Ground-floor rework: kitchen, living, laundry, floors and paint	$90,000 – $180,000

What to expect: shared party walls (your neighbour gets notice), rising damp and no damp-proof course, old timber floors and roof framing that may need repair, and heritage rules in conservation areas. Narrow frontages mean materials and rubbish usually go through the house or the back lane.

All figures assume you choose your own tiles, fixtures and appliances. Larger homes, higher-end finishes and anything found once walls are opened will move the price.

Type of wall	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Non-load-bearing wall (stud or masonry)	$4,000 – $7,000
Load-bearing wall with a timber (LVL) beam	$10,000 – $16,000
Load-bearing wall with a steel beam, wide opening or new posts	$16,000 – $30,000

What’s included: propping, demolition, beam supply and install, patching render and ceiling, rubbish removal. Usually extra: structural engineer, moving power points or plumbing in the wall, new flooring where the wall stood, and painting. Apartments need strata approval and a dilapidation report, and we work with saw-cutting and dust extraction to keep noise and mess out of common areas.

Why no price per square metre? Walls are priced per opening. The beam size, what sits above it and what’s hidden inside the wall drive the cost far more than area.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Laundry or powder room, same layout	$15,000 – $22,000
Bathroom or ensuite, same layout	$23,000 – $35,000
Bathroom with a new layout (moving the toilet or shower), or an apartment needing slab core holes	$35,000 – $50,000
Tiles, vanity, toilet, tapware and screen (your selections)	add $5,000 – $15,000+

Where bathroom budgets go wrong is underneath: the slab, the waste pipes and the waterproofing. That’s where we spend our time, because a leaking shower costs more to fix than to build properly the first time.

Included: strip-out, plumbing and electrical, waterproofing by a licensed applicator with certificate, screed, render, tiling, ceiling, fit-off and rubbish removal. As builders first, we can also move a wall or nib to make the room work better, which a tiler or plumber can’t.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST, excl. appliances)
Flat-pack kitchen, same layout, laminate bench	$15,000 – $25,000
Custom joinery and stone bench, same layout	$35,000 – $55,000
Open-plan kitchen and living: wall removal, new kitchen, flooring, lighting and paint	$60,000 – $110,000+

Joinery is usually the biggest single cost, often 40 to 60 percent of the kitchen price. Opening a kitchen to the living room is a structural job first and a design job second, which is why it should be run by a builder, not a kitchen showroom.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Re-board or repair an existing deck	$6,000 – $15,000
New ground-level deck, treated pine (softwood), small to medium	$8,000 – $20,000
New ground-level deck, hardwood (spotted gum, blackbutt), small to medium	$10,000 – $28,000
Raised deck with stairs and balustrade	$35,000 – $60,000
Deck with roof, footings and masonry stairs, tied into the house	$70,000 – $100,000+

Hardwood typically costs 15 to 25 percent more than treated pine, in materials and in labour, and lasts longer with less upkeep. Whatever the timber, most deck failures we’re called to fix start in the footings and framing, not the boards you can see, so that’s where we don’t cut corners.

Job	Typical cost (incl. GST)
Small localised repair (a few spots on a balcony edge or ceiling)	$4,000 – $10,000
Balcony or slab underside repair with protective coating	$15,000 – $35,000
Rebuild a section of slab (new steel, formwork and concrete)	$15,000 – $25,000
Strata entries, bridges and large soffits, including scaffold	$50,000 – $100,000

Concrete cancer is rusting reinforcement that swells and cracks the concrete around it. The repair is: cut back to clean steel, treat it, rebuild with a polymer repair mortar, then seal with an anti-carbonation coating. Fixing the water that caused it (drainage, drip edges, membranes) is what stops it coming back. Scaffold or a lift is often 15 to 20 percent of the job. Larger strata jobs usually follow an engineer’s report, and we quote to that report line by line.

These rates price the new area itself, and nothing else.

New work	Rate per sqm of new area (incl. GST)
Extension or new room, built and finished	$6,500 – $9,500
Bathroom, building work only	$5,000 – $8,000
Kitchen and living refit	$2,500 – $4,000
Deck, treated pine (softwood) at ground level	$550 – $850
Deck, hardwood at ground level	$800 – $1,300
Raised or structural deck, built and finished	$1,200 – $2,000

What a square metre rate never covers:

• tying the new work into the old house, and repairing what’s found there
• bringing the rest of the house up to the same standard
• outdoor areas, landscaping, drainage and stormwater
• the architect’s level of finish and your selections
• engineering, approvals, home warranty insurance, site set-up and access

Divide a whole-of-house quote by the size of the new rooms and any properly priced job looks expensive. Rates from 10 or 15 years ago, such as $6,000 a square metre, no longer reflect Sydney building costs either. We price the job in front of us, line by line, and we don’t bid down to win it.

• Access: apartments, steep blocks and no street parking add time and handling.
• What’s hidden: rot, old wiring or concrete cancer found once things are opened up.
• Engineering and approvals: engineer’s design, strata or council approval where needed.
• Your selections: fixtures, tiles and joinery range from budget to premium.
• Home warranty insurance: required in NSW for residential jobs over $20,000, and included in our quotes where it applies.

Why our quotes look the way they do

Joe Rede has spent 25 years on jobs where getting it wrong wasn’t an option: hospitals, government buildings, the Olympics and high-end homes. He trained with the company that built the Sydney Opera House. That’s the standard a two-bedroom apartment in Bondi gets too. Licence 159915C.

Want a firm number? Call Joe on 0413 047 673 or send us your job details for a free on-site quote.

Prices are indicative only, based on our recent Eastern Suburbs quotes adjusted to November 2026 costs. They are not a quote. Your price depends on a site inspection.