Resilient markets, but challenges remain
As forecasted in our 2022/2023 Fit-Out Cost Guide, inflation levels are now stabilising, resulting in more normal price increases throughout the Australian market.
However, ongoing disruptions in the supply chain are driving up costs for imported materials, and a shortage of skilled labour is impacting productivity and increasing expenses. Despite these challenges, occupiers should aim to strike a balance between returning to the office and creating tech-enabled, hybrid work environments that prioritise employee wellbeing.
We hope this guide provides you with the confidence to make informed fit-out decisions, with a good understanding of the options, risks, and potential opportunities.
AUD $2,810
is the average cost per square metre for a fit-out across Australia
Sydney
is the most expensive city for a fit-out in Australia
5.56%
year-on-year change in average fit-out cost
Source: JLL Australia Fit-Out Cost Guide 2023/2024
Maximise your budget: Understand where typical fit-out costs are allocated
Are you planning a fit-out but don't know where to start with budgeting? Before starting any project, it's crucial to understand the average costs associated with commercial fit-outs.
Questions & Answers
This guide enables office occupiers to make better, more informed real estate decisions by providing cost transparency across different office styles, build quality levels, and geographic markets. It is a useful tool to show what to expect to pay for a typical office in a specific city, and how fit-out decisions can affect the bottom line.
The data is sourced from JLL offices across Australia. Actual unit rates from recently completed projects were provided for each of the typical trades that go into an office fit-out. As such, we were able to accurately benchmark and compare costs within the applicable states and territories.
Progressive, Moderate and Traditional refer to how space is used in an office.
A Progressive layout is all open plan (except for meeting rooms) and features different types of seating for employees dependent on the task they wish to perform. This could be traditional workstation benches, sit-stand desks, high benches for drop-in remote workers and breakout areas for teams to collaborate.
A Moderate layout is in the middle, and typically adopted by a firm transitioning between a traditional and progressive type of layout.
A Traditional office means that a lot of the floorplate is given over to individual offices. This is typical for firms that have a higher emphasis on privacy.
Our data is not an aggregate of projects, but rather actual data from our offices which we then applied to a standard project specifically. This means we created a regional index to know how the costs in one market compared to another.
In addition to that, we have a very strong regional presence in 30 cities across Asia Pacific.