Make Good and Defit Cost Benchmarks: Australia, 2026
A full office strip out typically costs $40 to $80 per square metre in the Sydney market, according to Master Strip Outs' 2025 price guide, while a new office fit-out costs many times more: $2,400 to $3,000-plus per square metre depending on city, per Cushman & Wakefield and JLL's 2026 cost guides. Removing a fit-out is dramatically cheaper than installing one, which is exactly why tenants routinely underestimate their exit cost against their move-in cost.
Data scope note: This page aggregates figures published by third-party industry cost guides, listed with each figure and in the source list below. It is not Make Good Quotes' own measured or transactional data; we hold no listings database. Figures marked "Sydney market" are not assumed to apply nationally. Treat every number here as a planning benchmark, not a quote, and always confirm your exact scope with a licensed provider.
1. Strip out and defit removal costs (Sydney market, 2025)
The clearest published per-square-metre removal pricing available is Sydney-specific. We have not found an equivalent published breakdown for Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Canberra; the new fit-out cost table in section 2 is the best available proxy for how relative costs are likely to differ between cities.
Office strip out
$40–$80 per m²
Master Strip Outs, Sydney price guide, 2025
Retail strip out
$50–$100 per m²
Master Strip Outs, Sydney price guide, 2025
Ceiling removal
$15–$35 per m²
Master Strip Outs, Sydney price guide, 2025
Partition removal
$30–$60 per lineal metre
Master Strip Outs, Sydney price guide, 2025
Floor covering removal
$10–$30 per m²
Master Strip Outs, Sydney price guide, 2025
By total project size: small office strip outs typically run $2,000 to $8,000, medium commercial spaces $10,000 to $30,000, and large building strip outs can exceed $100,000, per the same source. For general context only, Airtasker's 2026 national cost guide puts average commercial demolition (not office-specific interior strip out) at around $80 per square metre across Australia.
2. New office fit-out cost by city (2026)
Fit-out (installing a new space) and make good or strip out (removing an existing one) are different cost lines, but fit-out pricing is the only figure published consistently across all five cities, so it is the best available way to compare relative cost position between cities.
| City | Typical new fit-out cost (2026) |
|---|---|
| Canberra | $2,938 per m² |
| Brisbane | $2,615 per m² |
| Sydney | $2,599 per m² |
| Melbourne | $2,535 per m² |
| Perth | $2,406 per m² |
Source: Cushman & Wakefield, Office Fit Out Cost Guide Australia (March 2026). A second source, AS Estimation's 2026 city guide, independently reports close figures for four of these cities: Sydney around $2,665/m², Melbourne around $2,607/m², Brisbane around $2,548/m² and Perth around $2,453/m², a useful cross-check that the Cushman & Wakefield ordering (Canberra highest, Perth lowest) is consistent across sources. JLL's 2026 ANZ Fit-Out Cost Guide separately reports a national average of AU$3,011 per m² for a moderate-style, medium-quality fit-out as of Q1 2026.
3. Office refurbishment cost by scope tier
Refurbishment tiers (renovating an existing space rather than a full new fit-out) give a useful reference point for the upper end of make good reinstatement work, since a full reinstatement can involve similar trades to a basic refurbishment.
| Tier | Cost | Typical scope |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $800–$1,200 per m² | Paint, carpets, lighting upgrades, minor layout changes |
| Mid-tier | $1,200–$1,800 per m² | New workstations, partitions, tech upgrades, moderate reconfiguration |
| High-end | $1,800–$2,800+ per m² | Designer finishes, smart tech, acoustics, custom joinery |
Source: Stemar Group, Guide to Office Refurbishment Costs by City and Scope (2026). By-city ranges from the same source: Sydney $1,400–$2,800+/m², Melbourne $1,300–$2,600/m², Brisbane $1,200–$2,400/m², Perth $1,000–$2,000/m², Canberra $1,200–$2,300/m².
4. Dilapidation report cost
Small commercial dilapidation report
$1,500–$2,500
Owner Inspections, 2026 pricing guide
Large commercial dilapidation report
$2,500–$5,000+
Owner Inspections, 2026 pricing guide
Residential dilapidation reports are cheaper, typically $500 to $1,500. See our full dilapidation report guide for what one covers and why it matters for your make good.
5. Methodology and data limitations
- Aggregation, not original measurement. Every figure on this page is compiled from a published third-party industry cost guide, cited against the figure. Make Good Quotes did not commission or conduct its own cost survey.
- City coverage differs by data type. New fit-out and refurbishment pricing is published across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra. Strip out and defit removal pricing was only found published in per-square-metre detail for the Sydney market; other cities are not assumed to match Sydney pricing exactly.
- No fabricated or derived figures. Where a source did not publish a number (for example, a per-city strip out rate outside Sydney, or a specific dollar figure for "paint and patch" make good), this page does not estimate or invent one. Sections 2 and 3 are offered as the closest available proxy for relative city cost position, explicitly labelled as such.
- Currency. All figures are 2025 or 2026 publications as cited. Construction and demolition costs move with material and labour markets; check the source guide's publish date before relying on a figure for a live quote.
- Not a quote. Every figure here is a planning benchmark. Get an actual fixed-price quote against your specific lease and premises before budgeting a real project.
How to cite this page
Make Good Quotes (2026). Make Good and Defit Cost Benchmarks: Australia, 2026. Retrieved from https://makegoodquotes.com.au/data/make-good-cost-benchmarks/. Underlying figures remain sourced to their original publishers, listed below.
Sources
- Master Strip Outs, Strip Out Cost Sydney Price Guide (2025)
- Cushman & Wakefield, Office Fit Out Cost Guide Australia (2026)
- JLL, Australia and New Zealand Fit-Out Cost Guide (2026)
- AS Estimation, Office Fit-Out Cost Per m² in Australia: 2026 City Guide
- Stemar Group, Guide to Office Refurbishment Costs by City and Scope (2026)
- Owner Inspections, Dilapidation Report Cost in Australia (2026)
- Airtasker, Demolition Cost Guide (2026)
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