How Much Does a Home Renovation Cost in Adelaide?

You have lived with it long enough to know what is wrong. The kitchen faces the wrong way, the bathroom has not been touched since the eighties, and the living area is dark by three in the afternoon. The question that stops most people is the same one: what is this actually going to cost?

It deserves a straight answer, with the sources shown, rather than a number someone made up.

The short answer

Renovating inside your existing footprint generally runs between $1,600 and $3,900 per square metre, according to the Archicentre Australia Cost Guide for 2026. That assumes the structure is sound, you are not underpinning or restumping, and the site has reasonable access.

Room by room, the same guide puts the wet areas at:

Room	Indicative cost	What it covers
Kitchen	$23,000 to $49,000	Fit out, excluding white goods
Bathroom or ensuite	$17,500 to $35,000	Fit out, excluding white goods
Laundry	$10,000 to $19,000	Fit out, excluding white goods

Two things to know before you take those numbers anywhere.

They cover construction only. Design, engineering, council fees, insurance, the CITF levy and a contingency all sit on top, and we break every one of those out further down, because leaving them out is the most common way a cost guide misleads people.

They are also national figures rather than South Australian ones, because no independent Adelaide-specific rate is published.

These are ranges, not quotes. We give you a free quote with real numbers for your actual home, and there is no cost or obligation in asking.

Why a renovation costs less per square metre than an extension

Working inside what you already have is the cheaper way to buy a better house.

The same Archicentre guide puts new construction, including extensions, at $2,700 to $5,100 per square metre against $1,600 to $3,900 for renovating inside an existing building. There is no new slab, no new roof, and nothing has to be tied back into the existing structure.

So if what you actually have is a layout problem rather than a space problem, a renovation usually gets you there for less. We go through the numbers for adding space in our guide on what a home extension costs in Adelaide, and our guide on whether to renovate or extend walks through that decision properly.

What pushes the cost up or down?

Two renovations of the same size can land tens of thousands apart. It usually comes down to five things.

• Whether you move the plumbing. Keeping the sink, shower and toilet roughly where they are is the single biggest saving available in a wet area. Moving them means opening floors and re-running waste, and the cost climbs quickly.
• Structural work. Removing a load-bearing wall to open up a kitchen or living area needs engineering, a sized beam and propping. In Adelaide the engineering design alone commonly runs around $2,000 for a standard three metre opening and nearer $3,000 for a six to eight metre span needing multiple beams, before any building work starts. It also brings ceiling, cornice and flooring repairs with it.
• The age and condition of the house. This is where older Adelaide homes catch people out. Archicentre puts restumping at $14,000 to $19,000 for a house, a full rewire at $9,500 to $24,000, and a full re-plumb at $14,000 to $24,000 on a 150 square metre home with reasonable access. None of that shows in a per square metre rate.
• Finishes. Standard tiles, tapware and joinery cost a great deal less than stone benchtops and custom cabinetry. This is the biggest lever you personally control.
• Access. A wide block with room for a truck costs less to work on than a narrow inner-suburb lot where everything is carried in and out by hand.

The costs people forget to budget for

This is the part that turns a $150,000 project into a $190,000 one, and it is almost always missing from the figures people find online.

• Design and documentation. There is no official fee scale in Australia, so this varies more than people expect. As a guide, a straightforward project tends to run 6 to 8 per cent of the build cost, and a complex one with planning overlays or a tight inner-suburb site can reach 12 to 18 per cent
• Structural engineering. Most residential renovation work is priced as a fixed fee rather than a percentage. In Adelaide, beam design for removing a wall commonly runs around $1,200 to $3,000 depending on the span, and a broader renovation structural design can reach $5,000
• A contingency. The major lenders all land on 10 to 20 per cent, and some suggest going to 30 per cent on larger renovations. We would not start on an older home with less than 15 per cent set aside, because older homes hide things

The South Australian costs nobody else lists

These are set by the state, they are public, and they apply to your renovation whoever builds it. Most cost guides skip them entirely because they are not the same anywhere else in the country.

Development fees. These come off the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Fees Notice 2026, which took effect on 1 July 2026. For an alteration to a house, lodgement is $158 for work over $10,000, $178 over $50,000 and $187 over $100,000. Building consent for a Class 1 building is $538 or 0.25 per cent of the development cost, whichever is greater, with a separate Class 1 compliance fee of $287.

Planning consent depends on which pathway your project falls into, and that is set by your zone and what you are proposing rather than by the size of the job. Accepted development needs building consent only, with no planning fee at all. Deemed-to-satisfy is $250. Performance assessed is $299 or 0.125 per cent of the development cost, whichever is greater. Nobody can tell you which one applies to your house without looking at your zoning, so treat anyone who quotes you a single flat planning fee with caution.

Worked through on a $150,000 renovation that is performance assessed, the statutory fees come to roughly $1,300. That is our arithmetic on the published schedule rather than a figure anyone publishes. Hundreds to low thousands, in other words, not the tens of thousands some guides imply.

A Certificate of Occupancy may not apply. These have been required for new Class 1a houses since October 2024, and they cost $59.50. On an existing home they are triggered where floor area increases or the building classification changes. An alteration contained wholly inside the building, such as a bathroom renovation or removing an internal wall, may not need one at all. Worth confirming for your specific job rather than assuming either way.

Building indemnity insurance. In South Australia this is required on domestic building work of $20,000 or more that needs development approval, a threshold that rose from $12,000 in November 2025. The cover limit rose to $250,000 at the same time. Your builder takes it out, and it should be itemised in your quote rather than buried in it.

The CITF levy. The Construction Industry Training Fund levy is 0.25 per cent of project value and applies to projects over $100,000 excluding GST. On a $150,000 renovation that is $375. It has to be paid before approval is granted, so it is worth knowing about early rather than at the wrong moment.

Two protections worth knowing you have. In South Australia any building work of $20,000 or more must be under a written contract, and the maximum deposit a builder can ask for on those contracts is 5 per cent of the price. If someone is asking for more than that up front, that is a red flag regardless of who they are.

Taken together with design, engineering and contingency, a realistic all-in budget usually sits 25 to 40 per cent above the construction cost on its own. If you take one number away from this guide, make it that one.

Three things about Adelaide homes worth knowing

Reactive clay. A lot of Adelaide sits on it, and it moves with the seasons. If your renovation touches footings or adds load, a soil test comes first. Locally these generally run a few hundred dollars on a straightforward block and into the low thousands for a full geotechnical report on a reactive or sloping site.

Asbestos. Asbestos was not banned nationally until the end of 2003, so any Adelaide home built before then can contain it, commonly in eaves, wet area sheeting and old vinyl. More than ten square metres of non-friable material legally requires a licensed removalist. It is worth identifying before demolition rather than discovering mid-job.

Character and heritage overlays. Large parts of Adelaide’s inner suburbs sit under one. They change what you can alter, particularly anything visible from the street, and they can push a project onto the performance assessed pathway. There is no published figure for what an overlay adds, because it depends entirely on what you are proposing, but it does affect both time and cost. We check your property’s overlays at the site inspection.

Is a renovation worth the cost?

In most cases, yes. You get a home that suits how you actually live, and you keep the street, the school zone and the neighbours you chose. It compares well against moving, where stamp duty and agent fees buy you no extra space at all.

Where it is not automatically worth it is if you overcapitalise for your street. Every suburb has a ceiling on what buyers will pay, and top-end money in a modest street does not always come back dollar for dollar.

The honest way to think about it: if you are staying long term, build the renovation that makes your life better. If you are likely to sell within a few years, we will give you our read on where the ceiling in your suburb sits before you spend anything.

How we work out your number

Cost depends on your home and your block, so a published range only ever gets you so far.

Our team looks at what you are actually trying to achieve, then works through the things that move the price on your project: the age and condition of the house, whether services have to move, what the structure will allow, your overlays, and the finishes you want. From your first site inspection through to handover, you are dealing with one team that stays across the whole job.

What you get back is a clear, itemised free quote covering design, approvals, construction and the specialist trades, so you can see exactly what you are paying for rather than a single lump sum. No job is too big or small.

You can see how we approach home renovations across Adelaide, or go straight to the rooms most people start with: kitchen renovations and bathroom renovations.

The short version

If you read nothing else, these are the five things worth carrying into your first builder conversation.

• Start from the rate, not a total. Renovating inside an existing home runs $1,600 to $3,900 per square metre nationally. Multiply by the area you are touching and you have a starting figure.
• Add 25 to 40 per cent. The rate is construction only. Design, engineering, council fees, insurance, the CITF levy and contingency are real costs, and this is the step most people skip.
• Renovating beats extending on cost per square metre. If your problem is layout rather than floor area, you will get further for less by working inside what you have.
• The house’s age is the wildcard. Restumping, rewiring and re-plumbing an older Adelaide home can each run into the tens of thousands, and none of it appears in a per square metre rate.
• Moving plumbing is the expensive decision. Leaving wet areas where they are is the biggest single saving on the table, and it is a choice you make on day one.

What none of that tells you is what your renovation costs. That depends on your home, your block and what you want it to do, and no published range can price those.

That is the part we are here for. Our team will walk you through what your project involves, give you an accurate itemised estimate before any work starts, and stay with you through design, approvals and construction to handover.

Every project is different, so contact us for a free quote to get an accurate estimate for your project.