What does a kitchen renovation cost on the Gold Coast?

Local kitchen specialists tend to sort jobs into three brackets. A budget reno, with basic flatpack-style cabinetry, standard appliances, a vinyl floor and a tiled splashback, generally lands around $20,000-$30,000. A mid-range reno, with custom-designed cabinetry, upgraded appliances, better taps and flooring, typically runs $30,000-$50,000. High-end work, with bespoke joinery, designer appliances, stone or porcelain benchtops and timber floors, starts around $50,000 and climbs from there (per BJF Joinery, Gold Coast).

Other Gold Coast cost guides slice it slightly differently again, putting basic work at $10,000-$20,000, mid-range at $20,000-$45,000 and high-end at $45,000 and up (per benchtopreplacement.net.au). The brackets overlap rather than contradict, and the lesson is the same: treat them as a starting point, not a fixed menu. Where you land inside a bracket comes down to the choices below.

This is the biggest lever you control. Flatpack cabinetry for a standard layout generally runs somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 (per Cobbitty Grove). An IKEA kitchen starts from roughly $3,200 for a small setup and runs to about $7,000-$15,000 for a full one; Kaboodle from Bunnings is broadly similar, around $4,500-$14,000, with installation on either usually adding from about $1,000-$1,200 (per Oneflare). Custom cabinetry from a cabinetmaker is a different proposition, typically starting around $20,000 and climbing well past that for the kitchen alone (per Cobbitty Grove).

Going flatpack can cut your upfront cabinetry spend by a fair margin against custom. The honest caveat is that over ten years the gap narrows once you factor in repairs and earlier replacement. One worked comparison put a flatpack kitchen at around $24,000 over a decade, against $30,000-$32,000 for custom (per Cobbitty Grove). Flatpack is the sensible call for a rental, a unit you'll sell, or a tight budget. Custom earns its keep in a home you'll stay in, or an awkward space where standard cabinet sizes simply won't fit.

A useful rough gauge is cost per square metre: budget work (flatpack plus laminate) sits around $1,500-$2,000/m², mid-range around $2,500-$3,500/m², and luxury (bespoke joinery and stone) at $4,000/m² and up (per What's The Damage). The catch is that a small kitchen isn't proportionally cheap. A 6m² galley can cost 70-80% of a 12m² kitchen at the same finish, because the cabinetry, benchtop, plumbing and electrical work are largely fixed regardless of size (per What's The Damage).

The single biggest line item is cabinetry, which eats roughly 30-50% of the total (per BJF Joinery). After that, the quiet budget-killer is moving things. Keep the sink and cooktop where they are and you keep the cost down; relocating them adds new plumbing and gas runs, and the bill climbs further again if you go as far as adding a butler's pantry. The smartest saving on most renos is keeping the existing layout and spending the difference on better finishes.

If you've been picturing a quartz-style engineered-stone benchtop, the rules have changed. Engineered stone is now banned in Australia. The ban on manufacturing, supplying, processing and installing it took effect on 1 July 2024, and it became a prohibited import from 1 January 2025, on the back of the silicosis risk to the workers who cut it (per Safe Work Australia).

In practice that means no new engineered-stone benchtops can be installed. You don't have to rip out stone that's already in your home, and removal, repair or minor changes to existing pre-ban stone are still allowed. For a new benchtop, plan around the legal options: natural stone, porcelain or sintered stone, laminate, solid timber, or stainless steel. It's worth deciding this early, because the benchtop choice shapes both your budget and your cabinetry.

Timelines depend on how far you're going. A cosmetic refresh with no layout change is usually 2-4 weeks. A mid-range reno tends to run 6-10 weeks from signing to completion, and you'll be without a working kitchen for roughly 3-5 of those (per Home Improvement Australia). A full custom job with layout changes can stretch to 12-20 weeks or more.

The longest single wait is almost always cabinetry manufacturing, anywhere from a week or two for flatpack up to 6-10 weeks for full custom joinery (per Home Improvement Australia). Sensibly, allow two to three months from your first design conversation to the actual start date. The upside of planning that lead time properly is that the on-site disruption is shorter and the trades aren't left waiting on each other.

This matters for both your budget and your protection. In Queensland, building work over $3,300, including materials, labour and GST, must be done by a QBCC-licensed contractor, needs a written contract, and requires QBCC home warranty insurance (per QBCC). A kitchen reno almost always clears that threshold, so it's effectively always licensed work. Jobs from $3,300-$20,000 use a Level 1 regulated contract; above $20,000 you move to a Level 2 contract, which gives you stronger protections, including a written description of the work, plans, costs and a completion date (per Queensland Law Handbook).

There are also separately licensed trades inside the job. Plumbing and gas relocation are licensed in their own right, and if the work touches a wet area, waterproofing must be done by a licensed waterproofer and certified in writing to the Australian standard. This is where the one-number model earns its place: you ring or message Property Repairs GC, Paul either does the work himself or lines up the right licensed specialists from a vetted network, manages it on site, and sends you a single itemised invoice, so you're not separately chasing a cabinetmaker, a plumber, a sparky and a tiler yourself.