In 2026, the cost of renovating and building has significantly changed from the cost of renovating pre covid. Unfortunately, some of our enquiries come in with the expectation that a budget that may have got you over the line 4 or 5 years ago will only get you half the job done today.
I’m not sure if TV shows are giving a false impression of what the true value of renovating really costs and involves, or if inexperienced professionals in the early stages of planning don’t truly understand what it costs in 2026 to renovate or build.
Costs
With a 5-minute chat over the phone, we can give our clients a ballpark figure of what their upcoming renovation may cost. It’s disappointing to see clients who have spent 5 to 15 thousand dollars on fancy drawings, schedules of selections, and 3D images and then come to us for a quotation, and they report back that they only have half that amount as a budget or are $100,000 off the mark! How is this possible after having all the documents done?
Has there not been some conversation along the way as to just what all this might end up costing us if we use all the high-end specs and move load-bearing walls with 3.5m ceilings??
There are ways to renovate without blowing a realistic budget, but certainly putting an architecturally designed 150sqm addition on the back of a Bungalow or a Villa in Unley, Dulwich or Kensington for $300,000 is not enough money; you would be looking at tripling that figure and budgeting $900,000.
Yet we are still getting enquiries from clients who have somehow been misled into thinking this will be achievable? All this is achieving is a lot of wasted time and money on a project which can never get off the ground, and if it did for the lower price, it certainly would be floored with shortcuts, errors, and most likely a lot of unskilled labour performing tasks they do not have the licence for.
Avergage Budget
If we look at an average bathroom renovation today in Adelaide, a budget of between $60,000 and $67,000 is where you need to plan if you are doing the job properly from start to finish with higher-end finishes. Floor-to-ceiling wall tiles, feature walls, heated flooring, new plumbing, new concrete slab with pest control, LED backlit mirrors, frameless shower glass, upgrades to electrical, double wall-hung vanities with LED strip lighting, recessed wall niches, stone benchtop, smart tile grates, strip grates and maybe a Velux openable ceiling window.
The cost of renovating has increased across all aspects, including fuel, labour, professional fees, BII, contracts of works policies, application fees, materials and rubbish disposal. It’s not just the building industry that has seen this; the cost of groceries, electricity and mortgages have increased.
Yet still there is a mindset that what it may have cost back in 2021 to renovate would still be achievable today. I’m not sure if it’s just people trying to get work at the early stages of the project and knowing full well that a project won’t get legs, but their part is done, and they are paid? But it is hard for us as the builder to then get the client to understand that, unfortunately, what you had anticipated or have been told is nowhere near what you need to spend to get the outcome documented.
No Surprises
It is important that before any project starts, there is a proper understanding of the scope of works and what the client is expected to pay for and what the builder is covering to ensure the entire project goes smoothly with no surprises along the way that could have been discussed before the signing of any contracts. The majority of our projects take between 8 and 12 months, so being on good terms with the client is important to us, and it helps keep the lines of communication open the entire way.