So you’ve decided it’s time to give your Melbourne home a proper refresh. Maybe the kitchen’s looking a bit tired, the bathroom still has that avocado-green suite from 1987, or you simply need more space for a growing family. Whatever the reason, the first question on every homeowner’s mind is always the same: how much is this going to cost me?
It’s a fair question and honestly, one that doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all answer. Renovation costs in Melbourne vary significantly depending on the size of your project, the quality of materials you choose, the trades involved, and where in Melbourne your property sits. But that doesn’t mean you have to go in blind.
At Baron Constructions, we’ve been building and renovating homes across Melbourne for years, and we reckon transparency is everything. So here’s your straight-talking 2026 guide to house renovation costs in Melbourne, room by room, tier by tier, with no fluff and no nasty surprises.
What Drives Renovation Costs in Melbourne?
Before we get into the numbers, it helps to understand what actually influences the price tag on a renovation. A few key factors shape your final bill more than anything else:
Scope of work — Are you doing a cosmetic refresh (new paint, new floors, updated fixtures) or are you pulling down walls and reconfiguring your entire layout? Structural changes involve engineers, additional permits, and significantly more labour.
Materials and finishes — The difference between a laminate benchtop and a stone one, or between off-the-shelf tiles and custom-cut porcelain, can be tens of thousands of dollars across a full renovation. Your material choices ripple through every line item.
Trades and labour — In Melbourne, skilled tradies — plumbers, electricians, plasterers, and tilers — typically charge between $50 and $150 per hour depending on their speciality and experience. Any project involving wet areas (kitchens, bathrooms) requires multiple trades working in sequence, which adds both time and cost.
Suburb and site conditions — Building in a heritage overlay area like Hawthorn or Malvern can require additional council approvals, heritage assessments, and specific material choices. Meanwhile, properties in newer growth corridors like Craigieburn may have different access or site-specific considerations.
Hidden surprises — Older Melbourne homes often reveal asbestos, outdated wiring, or suspect plumbing once the walls come down. These aren’t rare — they’re common. Budget for them.
Melbourne Renovation Costs at a Glance: 2026
Here’s a quick-reference overview of current renovation price ranges across Melbourne, based on real project data for 2026:
| Renovation Type | Budget | Mid-Range | Premium |
| Kitchen | $15,000–$30,000 | $30,000–$60,000 | $80,000–$120,000+ |
| Bathroom | $12,000–$20,000 | $20,000–$40,000 | $40,000–$80,000+ |
| Living Room / Bedroom | $8,000–$15,000 | $15,000–$30,000 | $30,000–$60,000+ |
| Full Home Renovation | $80,000–$150,000 | $150,000–$300,000 | $300,000–$600,000+ |
| Home Extension | $100,000–$180,000 | $180,000–$350,000 | $350,000+ |
| Alfresco / Outdoor | $15,000–$30,000 | $30,000–$60,000 | $60,000–$120,000+ |
Note: These are indicative ranges for 2026. Your final cost will depend on your specific brief, site conditions, and finish selections. Always get a detailed, fixed-price quote before committing.
Kitchen Renovation Costs in Melbourne
The kitchen is the heart of the home and typically the biggest single expense in a renovation. It’s also where you get the strongest return on investment — a quality kitchen adds real value and liveability.
Budget kitchen ($15,000–$30,000)
At this level, you’re working with a cosmetic refresh rather than a full gut. Think new cabinet doors and handles on existing carcasses, a laminate or timber veneer benchtop, an updated splashback, and new appliances. You’re keeping the existing layout and plumbing connections in place, which keeps costs manageable.
Mid-range kitchen ($30,000–$60,000)
This is where most Melbourne homeowners land, and for good reason. A mid-range renovation gives you a fully custom kitchen with quality cabinetry, a stone benchtop, new plumbing and electrical updates, a quality range and dishwasher, and potentially some layout adjustments. You’ll notice the difference every single day.
Premium kitchen ($80,000–$120,000+)
At the top end, you’re looking at fully custom joinery, stone or porcelain benchtops, professional-grade appliances, integrated smart technology, butler’s pantry additions, and significant structural changes. These kitchens are built around your lifestyle — and they show.
The Victorian average spend on kitchen renovations sits at approximately $27,500, but Melbourne’s inner and middle suburbs typically skew higher given labour costs and the premium that quality trades command.
Bathroom Renovation Costs in Melbourne
Bathrooms punch well above their weight when it comes to both cost and return. They involve a high concentration of trades — waterproofer, tiler, plumber, and electrician — all in a compact space. That makes them expensive relative to their size, but the uplift in liveability and value is equally significant.
Budget bathroom ($12,000–$20,000)
A budget bathroom renovation covers a full suite replacement — new vanity, toilet, shower fittings, and mirror — along with retiling in selected areas and fresh paint. You’re not changing the footprint or moving plumbing.
Mid-range bathroom ($20,000–$40,000)
The most common category for Melbourne renovations. This covers complete retiling floor-to-ceiling, a new frameless shower or freestanding bath, quality fittings, waterproofing, updated plumbing and electrical, and heated towel rails. The result is a bathroom that looks and feels entirely new.
Premium bathroom ($40,000–$80,000+)
Think large-format porcelain tiles, custom-built cabinetry, designer fixtures, a freestanding statement bath, underfloor heating, and potentially an expanded footprint. These bathrooms are a daily luxury.
Melbourne’s typical spend on bathroom renovations is around $19,000, though inner-suburb projects with higher-end finishes regularly exceed $35,000.
Living Room and Bedroom Renovation Costs
These spaces are generally less complex than wet areas, making them more budget-friendly — but the costs still add up when you factor in flooring, plastering, lighting, and joinery.
A bedroom or living room refresh in Melbourne typically runs between $8,000 and $30,000, depending on scope. Cosmetic updates — new flooring, paint, lighting, and built-in wardrobes — sit at the lower end. Structural changes, new windows, or custom joinery push you higher.
Floor sanding and polishing on existing timber boards costs approximately $1,000–$8,000, depending on the area, while new engineered timber flooring typically runs $60–$120 per square metre installed. These are high-impact, relatively lower-cost improvements that genuinely transform a space.
Full Home Renovation Costs in Melbourne
If you’re overhauling your entire property rather than just updating individual rooms, your budget needs to reflect the scale and complexity involved.
Mid-range whole-home renovation ($80,000–$150,000)
At this level, you can expect updated kitchen and bathroom, new flooring throughout, fresh paint, updated lighting, and some cosmetic improvements to other spaces. This is the renovation that makes a home feel genuinely new without major structural changes.
Comprehensive renovation ($150,000–$300,000)
This is where serious transformation happens. Open-plan reconfiguration, full kitchen and bathroom upgrades with quality finishes, structural modifications, new windows and doors, and updated electrical and plumbing throughout. Victorian homeowners spent an average of $74,800 per renovation project in 2026 — but whole-home projects significantly exceed that average.
High-end renovation ($300,000–$600,000+)
At the premium end, you’re often approaching the cost of a new build. These projects involve substantial structural changes, architecturally considered layouts, premium materials throughout, custom joinery, smart home integration, and often feature elements like landscaping and alfresco areas as part of the scope.
A useful rule of thumb: if your renovation budget is approaching or exceeding 60% of what a comparable new build would cost on the same site, it’s worth having a serious conversation about whether a knockdown-rebuild makes more financial sense.
Home Extension Costs in Melbourne
Extensions are a different beast to standard renovations — you’re adding floor area, which involves a higher level of structural work, council approvals, footings, and potentially heritage or planning overlays depending on your suburb.
Home extensions in Melbourne typically start around $100,000–$180,000 for a single-storey addition and rise to $180,000–$350,000+ for double-storey work or premium finishes. A major whole-home extension can exceed $400,000 in inner-Melbourne suburbs where labour and site access costs are higher.
Key cost drivers unique to extensions include:
- Building permit fees (typically 0.128% of works value in Victoria)
- Engineering and structural design
- Footings and slab work
- Site access and waste management
- Council planning applications in heritage or overlay zones
Extensions are typically charged at $2,500–$4,500 per square metre for comprehensive work, with luxury finishes pushing beyond $5,000 per square metre.
Alfresco and Outdoor Renovation Costs
Australians love their outdoor living, and Melbourne’s weather — despite its reputation — actually rewards a well-designed outdoor space across most of the year. Alfresco renovations consistently deliver some of the strongest returns on investment of any home improvement, often 60–100%.
A solid alfresco setup in Melbourne typically includes:
- Covered pergola or roofed structure: $15,000–$40,000
- Outdoor kitchen or BBQ area: $10,000–$30,000+
- Decking (timber or composite): $8,000–$25,000
- Landscaping and paving: $8,000–$30,000+
A well-executed outdoor entertaining area at $30,000–$60,000 can genuinely transform how you use your home and add meaningful appeal to buyers.
What’s Often Left Out of Renovation Budgets
This is where projects come undone. The renovation itself gets budgeted carefully, but these additional costs catch homeowners off guard:
Temporary accommodation — Major renovations that make your home unlivable mean rental costs, storage fees, and eating out more often. For a two-to-four-month project, this can easily add $5,000–$15,000.
Skip bins and waste removal — Demolition generates enormous volumes of waste. Budget $2,000–$5,000, depending on scope, and more if asbestos removal is involved.
Permits and approvals — Building permits in Victoria are typically calculated as 0.128% of the works value. A $200,000 renovation attracts roughly $256 in permit fees alone, but council planning applications, heritage assessments, or engineering certificates add more.
Asbestos removal — Homes built before 1990 in Melbourne frequently contain asbestos in floor tiles, wall sheeting, roofing, or pipe lagging. Licensed removal is non-negotiable and adds $2,000–$10,000+, depending on the extent.
Temporary kitchen or bathroom facilities — If your main wet areas are being renovated simultaneously, you may need to hire temporary facilities or set up a makeshift arrangement.
The contingency fund — Always, always, always set aside 10–15% of your total budget as a contingency. Experienced builders flag this not to scare you, but because hidden conditions inside walls and under floors are genuinely common, especially in homes built before the 1980s. It’s far less stressful to have that buffer sitting in reserve than to be caught short mid-project.
How to Get the Best Value From Your Melbourne Renovation
A bigger budget doesn’t automatically mean a better outcome. Here’s what we’ve learnt from doing this across Melbourne for years:
Get a fixed-price contract — Avoid any builder who won’t commit to a fixed price. Time-and-materials arrangements shift all the financial risk to you. A properly scoped, fixed-price contract protects your budget and forces the builder to own their estimate.
Prioritise wet areas and structural changes first — Kitchens and bathrooms offer the highest day-to-day value and best return on investment. Get these right before spending on cosmetics.
Choose durable mid-range materials over budget options — The cheapest tiles and fittings rarely survive Melbourne’s usage patterns for more than a few years. Quality mid-range selections offer comparable visual appeal to premium products at a fraction of the cost, with far better longevity.
Get at least three quotes — But don’t just compare the bottom line. Compare the scope. Quotes that look cheap are often cheap because they’ve left things out.
Don’t change your mind mid-build — Variations (changes to scope after work has started) are where renovation budgets blow out. They cost two to three times what the same change would have cost before construction began. Lock your design in before the first tool is swung.
Is It Better to Renovate or Rebuild?
It’s a question worth asking honestly, especially for Melbourne homeowners sitting on well-located blocks in suburbs like Craigieburn, Epping, or the inner east where land values are strong.
If your home’s structure is sound, the layout broadly works, and you’re targeting specific improvements, renovation is usually the smarter financial decision. But if you’re looking at a comprehensive overhaul of a poorly configured or structurally compromised property, and your renovation budget is approaching $400,000+, a knockdown rebuild may deliver better value, a stronger result, and a new home warranty.
The best way to answer this question for your specific situation is with a detailed conversation with a builder who can assess both options honestly.
Ready to Get a Straight Answer on Your Renovation Budget?
At Baron Constructions, we don’t deal in vague estimates or wishy-washy ranges. We provide fixed-price quotes, plain-English communication, and a building process designed to keep your project on time and on budget.
Whether you’re planning a kitchen update, a full home renovation in Melbourne, or a home extension to create the space your family actually needs — we’d love to have an honest conversation about what’s possible with your budget.
Call us on 03 7379 4043 or get in touch online for a free, no-obligation consultation.
Baron Constructions is a licensed custom home builder and renovation specialist serving Melbourne’s Northern and Eastern suburbs, including Craigieburn, Hawthorn, Malvern, Brighton, Richmond, and beyond.
FAQs
How much does a house renovation cost in Melbourne per square metre?
Renovation costs in Melbourne typically range from $1,500 per sqm for cosmetic updates, $2,500–$4,500 per sqm for comprehensive mid-range renovations, and $5,000+ per sqm for high-end or luxury finishes. Extensions follow a similar range. The type of work, materials chosen, and site conditions all affect the final figure.
What is the average cost of a full home renovation in Melbourne?
Victorian homeowners spent an average of $74,800 per renovation in 2026. A mid-range whole-home renovation in Melbourne typically costs $150,000–$300,000, while high-end projects run $300,000–$600,000+. The right budget depends entirely on the scope of your specific project.
Do I need a building permit for a house renovation in Melbourne?
It depends on the work involved. Cosmetic renovations (painting, flooring, fixture replacements) generally don’t require permits. Structural changes, electrical work, plumbing alterations, and any extension or addition require a building permit. Your builder will advise what approvals are needed for your specific project.
How long does a house renovation take in Melbourne?
A kitchen renovation typically takes 4–8 weeks. A bathroom 2–6 weeks. A full home renovation can take 3–9 months, depending on the scope. Extensions may take 4–9 months. Good project management and thorough planning up front are the biggest influences on keeping your timeline tight.
Should I renovate or knock down and rebuild?
If your renovation budget is approaching 60% of what a new build would cost on the same site, a knockdown rebuild is worth serious consideration. For most homeowners with structurally sound properties, making targeted improvements and renovations delivers a better outcome and a faster result.
