Retail Fitout Cost Calculator
Estimate the cost of a retail shop fitout in Australia, covering shopfront, shelving and display joinery, lighting, point of sale, and the shopping centre design and after hours rules that inflate the price.
Lighting is the highest return per dollar in retail. A considered scheme with warm accent lighting on product, controlled contrast and no glare makes merchandise look better and measurably lifts dwell time, and it typically costs a fraction of the joinery it illuminates.
Design your fitout to be relocatable where you can. Freestanding gondolas, modular wall systems and demountable counters can move with you at the end of the lease and reduce your make good obligation, whereas fixed built in joinery is written off entirely and then costs you again to remove.
💰 Ways to save
- Use a modular and freestanding fitout system rather than fixed built in joinery wherever the design allows. Freestanding gondolas, adjustable wall systems and demountable counters move with you at the end of the lease, keep their residual value, and dramatically reduce your make good bill because there is far less to strip out. Fixed joinery is written off completely and then charged to you a second time when you have to remove it.
- In a shopping centre, price the after hours restriction explicitly rather than discovering it in a variation. Most centres only allow construction outside trading hours, and night rates lift labour costs by 20 to 40 percent for every affected trade. Ask for the centre's design manual and construction rules before you sign the lease, then hand them to your builder at tender so the price you receive is the price you pay.
- Reuse the previous tenant's ceiling, lighting grid, air conditioning and floor where the layout permits, and put the money into the shopfront, the lighting and the product display instead. Customers form their impression from the window, the entry and how the merchandise is presented. Nobody has ever chosen a shop because of its ceiling grid, but plenty of retailers have spent $40,000 replacing one that worked perfectly well.
- Negotiate the fitout contribution and rent free period against a longer term. Landlords and centre managers value lease term because it underpins their valuation, and retail incentives in 2026 are genuinely available, commonly 15 to 35 percent of gross rent over the term in strip locations and often more in weaker centres. Taking part of that as a capital contribution rather than rent free months puts cash in the project when you are actually paying the builder.
or from $1,342/week over 5 years , indicative finance
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## What a retail fitout costs per square metre in 2026
Pricing reviewed: June 2026.
Pricing reviewed June 2026. Indicative Australian costs, not a quote.
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Understanding retail fitout costs in Australia
What a retail fitout costs per square metre in 2026
Retail fitouts in Australia sit lower per square metre than hospitality or healthcare, but they vary enormously with brand expectations. A basic shop fitout, meaning paint, new floor covering, off the shelf shelving and reuse of the existing ceiling, lighting and air conditioning, runs about $700 to $1,200 per square metre. A mid range designed fitout with custom display joinery, a proper lighting scheme, a new counter and refreshed services sits at roughly $1,400 to $2,300 per square metre. A brand flagship with bespoke joinery, feature ceilings, integrated digital screens and a designed shopfront runs $3,000 to $5,500 per square metre. Large format and bulky goods retail is far cheaper per square metre, often $500 to $900, because the fitout density is low across a big floor plate.
Why shopping centres cost more than strip shops
The same fitout costs materially more inside a major shopping centre than in a strip shop, typically 20 to 40 percent more, and the reasons are structural rather than negotiable. Centres publish a design manual that dictates shopfront materials, signage zones, lighting levels and finishes, and they run a formal design approval process that adds weeks and consultant fees. They nominate their own contractors for fire services, mechanical, electrical and sprinkler modifications, which removes competitive tension from those packages. They require insurances, inductions, security escorts and waste handling through their own facilities. Most significantly they restrict construction to outside trading hours, which means night work at penalty rates for every trade, lifting labour cost by 20 to 40 percent on affected packages. Get the design manual and construction rules before signing the lease and hand them to the builder at tender.
Where the budget goes in a shop
In a typical mid range retail fitout, display joinery and the sales counter account for 30 to 45 percent of the construction cost. Lighting and electrical is 12 to 20 percent, floor and wall finishes 10 to 18 percent, the shopfront and signage 10 to 20 percent where they are in scope, and mechanical and fire adjustments the remainder. That concentration in joinery is why retail fitouts are so exposed to variation risk. Joinery is manufactured off site from approved shop drawings, and a change requested after a joiner has cut sheet material is charged at the full replacement value rather than the difference in price. Freezing shop drawings before manufacture is the single most effective cost control available on a retail project.
Shopfront, signage and the approvals that go with them
The shopfront does most of the commercial work in a retail fitout, and it is also the piece most likely to require external approval. Replacing glazing, changing the entry configuration or installing a new awning usually needs landlord consent, and in a heritage precinct or a main street with a development control plan it also needs council consent for the external change. Accessible entry requirements under AS 1428 apply at the threshold, so a step at the door that has been there for forty years may need to be resolved with a ramp or a level threshold as part of the work. Illuminated signage typically needs its own approval and often a separate electrical submain. Between the glazing, structural support above the opening, the awning and the signage, a shopfront replacement is commonly a $35,000 to $70,000 item.
Lighting, and the cheapest way to lift a shop
Retail lighting is the highest return per dollar in the entire fitout. Merchandise looks materially better under warm accent lighting with controlled contrast than under a flat grid of general fluorescent or panel lighting, and better presented merchandise measurably lifts dwell time and conversion. A well designed track and accent scheme for a 120 square metre shop typically costs $12,000 to $25,000 including the electrical work, which is often less than a single run of feature joinery. If your budget is tight, spend on lighting and the shopfront before you spend on ceilings, feature walls or bespoke finishes, because those three items are what a customer actually processes in the four seconds they spend deciding whether to walk in.
Make good and the end of the lease
Retail leases carry some of the harshest make good clauses in Australian commercial property, particularly in shopping centres, where the standard obligation is to strip the tenancy back to bare shell including removal of floor coverings, ceilings, lighting, shopfront and all services you installed. On a 120 square metre centre tenancy a full strip out commonly costs $25,000 to $60,000, and it is due at exactly the moment you are funding your next fitout or exiting the business. Two mitigations matter. First, negotiate the clause at signing, ideally capping it at a fixed sum or reducing it to a clean and paint obligation. Second, design a fitout with a high proportion of freestanding and demountable elements, which reduces the strip out scope and lets you take value with you.
Timelines and getting to trading
A strip shop fitout that does not change the use and does not alter the facade generally proceeds under a building certificate rather than a full development application, taking two to five weeks for approval, with construction of four to ten weeks depending on joinery lead time. A shopping centre tenancy adds the landlord design approval process, typically four to eight weeks before construction can start, and then the after hours construction constraint stretches the build. Custom joinery is almost always the critical path, running six to ten weeks from approved shop drawings to delivery. If you are chasing a trading date, particularly the pre Christmas window when centres impose construction blackouts, work backwards from the joiner's lead time rather than from the builder's site programme.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a retail fitout cost per square metre in Australia in 2026?
A basic shop fitout reusing the existing ceiling, lighting and air conditioning runs about $700 to $1,200 per square metre. A mid range designed fitout with custom joinery, new lighting and a counter sits at roughly $1,400 to $2,300. A brand flagship with bespoke joinery and a designed shopfront runs $3,000 to $5,500. Large format and bulky goods retail is much cheaper at $500 to $900 because fitout density is low across a big floor.
Why does a shopping centre fitout cost more than a strip shop?
Typically 20 to 40 percent more, for structural reasons rather than negotiable ones. Centres impose a design manual and a formal design approval process, nominate their own contractors for fire, mechanical and electrical work which removes competitive tension, require inductions, insurances and security escorts, and restrict construction to outside trading hours. Night work at penalty rates is the single largest component of that premium.
What is the biggest single cost in a retail fitout?
Display joinery and the sales counter, at 30 to 45 percent of construction cost in a typical mid range fitout. Lighting and electrical follows at 12 to 20 percent, finishes at 10 to 18 percent and shopfront and signage at 10 to 20 percent where in scope. Because joinery is manufactured off site from approved shop drawings, changes made after material is cut are charged at full replacement value, so freezing the drawings before manufacture is the most effective cost control on the project.
What will make good cost at the end of my retail lease?
On a 120 square metre shopping centre tenancy, a full strip out back to bare shell commonly costs $25,000 to $60,000, covering removal of floor coverings, ceilings, lighting, shopfront and all installed services. Negotiate the clause at signing, ideally capping it at a fixed dollar sum or reducing it to clean and paint. Designing with freestanding and demountable elements also shrinks the strip out scope and lets you retain resale value.
Do I need council approval for a shop fitout?
Usually not a full development application if you are not changing the use, altering the facade or increasing occupant numbers. Most internal retail fitouts proceed under a building certificate issued by a private surveyor in two to five weeks. You do need consent for external changes, so a new shopfront, awning or illuminated signage generally requires council approval and always requires landlord consent, and heritage or main street precincts add further controls.
How long does a retail fitout take?
A strip shop is typically six to fifteen weeks all up, with two to five weeks for the building certificate and four to ten weeks on site. A shopping centre tenancy adds four to eight weeks of landlord design approval before construction and is slowed by the after hours restriction. Custom joinery is nearly always the critical path at six to ten weeks from approved shop drawings, so plan backwards from the joiner rather than the builder, and watch for pre Christmas centre construction blackouts.
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