How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Australia?

Bathroom renovation pricing in Australia is genuinely hard to pin down from a single number, because "renovating a bathroom" covers everything from swapping tapware and regrouting to a full strip-out with moved plumbing and a completely new layout. Rather than chasing one average figure, it helps to think in terms of scope, since the difference between the cheapest and most expensive category is roughly five times the price for what still gets called the same job.

At the lower end, a basic cosmetic refresh — new tapware, a repaint, updated fittings, maybe a new vanity, without moving plumbing or changing the layout — commonly costs somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. This is the option that gets a tired bathroom looking current without the cost or disruption of a full strip-out, and it is usually the fastest category to complete as well.

A mid-range full renovation, where the bathroom is stripped back to the studs and rebuilt with new waterproofing, tiling, a new vanity and shower, but the layout broadly stays the same, commonly lands somewhere between $15,000 and $22,000. This is the category most homeowners end up in, and it is also where our separate article on waterproofing compliance becomes directly relevant, since a full strip-out means the waterproofing membrane has to be redone properly to Australian Standard AS 3740 before any tiling can start.

At the premium end, a renovation involving structural change — moving a wall, relocating plumbing to change the layout entirely, or using bespoke fixtures and finishes — commonly runs somewhere between $25,000 and $40,000 or more. Taken across all categories together, industry figures for a complete bathroom renovation nationally commonly span roughly $20,000 to $49,000, with a commonly cited national average sitting around the $26,000 mark — though where any individual job actually lands depends heavily on which of the scopes above it falls into.

Location shifts these figures meaningfully. Sydney and Melbourne commonly sit at the higher end of every pricing band above, while regional areas are commonly cheaper again, often by somewhere around 15 to 20 percent compared with the major capitals. Within the budget itself, fixtures and fittings — the vanity, tapware, shower screen, toilet — commonly account for somewhere around 30 to 40 percent of the total spend, which is worth knowing if you are trying to work out where a quote's money is actually going rather than just looking at the bottom line.

A few extra costs are worth budgeting for beyond the base renovation price. Most industry guidance recommends adding a contingency of roughly 10 to 20 percent on top of any quoted figure, since older homes in particular often reveal surprises once demolition starts — deteriorated subfloor, outdated plumbing that needs replacing rather than reusing, or wiring that does not meet current standards. Our separate article on how long a bathroom renovation takes covers the stages involved in more detail, which is useful context for understanding why a strip-out costs meaningfully more than a cosmetic refresh even before you get to finishes.

None of the figures above are a quote for your own bathroom, and actual pricing depends on the scope of work, your location and the renovator you engage. This article is general information, not a substitute for a written quote. The most reliable way to know what your renovation will cost is to get a couple of licensed renovators through to look at the space and describe exactly what is and is not included in their figure — our directory lists Australian bathroom and kitchen renovators by area if you are ready to start comparing.

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