Cafe Fitout Cost Calculator

Understanding cafe fitout costs in Australia

What a cafe fitout costs in 2026

Cafe fitouts in Australia span a wide range because the format does. A small espresso bar of 30 to 50 square metres with no cooking, built into a tenancy that already has services, can be delivered for $80,000 to $160,000. A cafe with a light kitchen converting a retail shop typically costs $180,000 to $320,000. A full all day cafe of around 110 square metres with a proper kitchen, exhaust, grease trap and a designed interior generally lands at $250,000 to $450,000, or roughly $2,200 to $3,200 per square metre. Licensed evening service pushes that higher again through a bar, additional glasswash, and the design expectations that come with a room working two very different services. Taking over an existing cafe commonly halves the number.

Where the money actually goes

The intuitive assumption is that furniture and finishes dominate a cafe budget. They do not. In a typical all day cafe, the front counter and back bar joinery is the single largest item at $30,000 to $60,000, the kitchen and its equipment is $50,000 to $120,000, mechanical services including exhaust, make up air and air conditioning is $35,000 to $80,000, and hydraulic works including the grease trap, floor wastes and reticulation is $20,000 to $50,000. Furniture, lighting and loose fitout, the parts customers consciously notice, are often only 12 to 20 percent of the total. Understanding that split matters, because it tells you where to negotiate and where cutting cost will quietly break the business.

The counter is the machine that runs your business

Everything about a cafe's throughput runs through the counter. It has to place the group head, grinder, knock box, milk fridge, cup stack, point of sale and pastry display so a barista can work a morning rush without stepping backwards or colliding with another staff member. It has to keep the customer queue clear of the pickup point so people are not waiting in each other's way. It has to carry water, waste, and enough dedicated power circuits for the machine, grinders and fridges. And it is the first thing every customer sees, so it does most of the design work in the room. A custom counter with a stone or timber top, a considered face material and integrated refrigeration typically costs $30,000 to $60,000, and it is the last place in a cafe fitout to look for savings.

Power, water and the services that decide viability

Two technical constraints determine whether a small tenancy can be a cafe at all. The first is electrical supply. A two or three group espresso machine, two grinders, a grill, a dishwasher, several under bench fridges and a display cabinet running simultaneously will exceed a typical single phase retail supply. Upgrading to three phase in an older strip shop costs $8,000 to $25,000 including the authority's connection charge and can involve significant lead time. The second is water quality and drainage. Australian mains water scales espresso boilers quickly, and scale damage is excluded from every manufacturer warranty, so filtration and softening at $1,500 to $4,000 is mandatory rather than optional. Drainage matters too, because the counter, the kitchen and the dishwash all need waste, and cutting a slab for new floor wastes is only practical at ground level.

Exhaust, grease trap and food premises approval

The moment you cook, you need a mechanical exhaust canopy with a compliant discharge point and tempered make up air, plus a grease arrestor and a trade waste agreement with your water authority. Together those typically add $50,000 to $110,000 in a retail conversion, and the discharge path is the item to verify before signing a lease rather than after. Even a cafe that does not cook needs council food premises approval. That means impervious washable surfaces behind the counter and in any preparation area, coved skirtings so there is no crevice at the floor junction, a hand wash basin dedicated to hand washing and separate from any food or dish sink, and appropriate storage separation. Operators regularly assume that no kitchen means no approval, and find out at their pre opening environmental health inspection that it does not work that way.

Approvals, landlords and how long it really takes

Converting a retail shop to a food premises is a change of use requiring a development application in most Australian councils, typically six to sixteen weeks. Food business registration and the environmental health fitout approval run alongside it. If you are proposing outdoor seating on the footpath you need a separate outdoor dining permit from council, and if you want to serve alcohol in the evening you need a liquor licence with its own advertising and objection period. In a shopping centre you also need the landlord's design approval, which usually requires drawings submitted to a centre design manual, and centres frequently restrict construction to after hours work, which adds 20 to 40 percent to the labour cost of the affected trades. Realistically a cafe conversion is a six to eleven month project from signing to opening.

Building a budget you can actually fund

Beyond the construction contract, allow for smallwares, crockery, cutlery and glassware at $8,000 to $25,000, point of sale and networking at $5,000 to $15,000, signage and branding at $8,000 to $20,000, and professional fees for a designer, building surveyor and any planning or mechanical consultant at 8 to 14 percent of construction. Then hold real working capital. A new cafe typically takes three to six months to reach steady trade, and wages plus rent plus stock during that ramp is the expense that closes more cafes than any construction overrun. A 10 to 15 percent construction contingency on a retail conversion is also sensible, because the ceiling space, the existing drainage falls and the electrical supply in an old shop are three things drawings routinely get wrong.