Whole-house fit-out landed in Canberra

The whole-house fit-out we priced

A four-bedroom house: kitchen, laundry, wardrobes, vanities, stone, tiles, tapware and sanitary ware, internal doors and lighting, from three or four factories consolidated in Foshan.

Landed in Canberra, line by line

Every line from the factory gate to your site. Low, middle and high use the low, middle and high of every published rate at once. Estimate: no delivered Elje job sits behind this figure yet.

Against Canberra prices

Supply only is the fair comparison with a landed price; installed prices include labour, which you pay either way.

The local figures are built up room by room from published cost guides (kitchen, two bathrooms and an ensuite, laundry, about 10 metres of wardrobes, 150 m2 of floor tile), then the goods share is taken at 55 to 65 percent of the installed total. No published survey prices a whole fit-out by city.

No city fit-out source; national figure used. RLB Riders Digest 2026 (Q4 2025 rates, ex GST) custom-built single and double storey dwellings in Canberra: $2,150 to $4,200 per m2 GFA.

Is it worth it?

Usually, and by most at a mid to high spec. About $79,381 landed in Canberra against roughly $75,000 to $175,000 for the same goods locally. At the bottom of that local range a budget fit-out costs about the same as landed; at the spec Elje prices (2-pac, stone, brand-level tapware) the gap is tens of thousands, because one container, one customs entry and one set of Elje fees carry the whole house. Estimate.

The Canberra market

Canberra is the second dearest city after Sydney, about 10 percent above Brisbane on the cost index: kitchens $13,200 to $49,500 installed, bathrooms $11,000 to $38,500. Amber Tiles prices its ACT zone about 8 percent above Sydney. Much of what Canberra buys is trucked in from Sydney already, so the extra truck leg on a landed order is a cost the local supply chain carries too.

How it gets to Canberra

Foshan factory to Nansha, Shekou or Yantian, a direct service to Port Botany, then about 300 km by road to Canberra.

Canberra has no port. Goods land at Port Botany in Sydney and come down the Hume and Federal Highways.

Most Canberra deliveries come as a tautliner load from a Sydney depot. A whole-house order can come as a container on a B-double route; ask what your street will take.

What moves the number

• 20 ft or 40 ft. A typical four-bedroom fit-out of joinery, stone, tiles and tapware fits a 20 ft container. Add internal doors and more joinery and it needs a 40 ft, which adds about $4,500 landed at October 2026 rates.
• How many factories. Every factory means a pre-shipment inspection, about US$240 to US$310 a day.
• Consolidation. Goods from several factories are gathered at one Foshan warehouse and go in one container, under one customs entry.
• Freight timing. Carriers have announced rate increases from November 2026. The rate is set when the container is booked, not when you order.
• Elje's fees are the same whatever the size: $990 for the Project Plan and 2 percent of the order for Assured.

What it has to comply with

• One shipment, many rules: WaterMark and WELS for plumbing, AS 4586 slip ratings for tiles, illegal logging due diligence for timber and board, RCM for anything electrical, ISPM 15 for timber packaging.
• Aluminium windows and doors from China attract anti-dumping and countervailing deposits from 15 October 2026 that a certificate of origin does not remove. Price them separately.
• Nearly every fit-out product is Free of duty from China with a ChAFTA certificate of origin; without one, most are 5 percent.

Notes for Canberra

Cold winters, frost and dry heat in summer. Ask for timber and veneer that has been conditioned for low humidity, and check door and window glazing against your energy rating.

• Canberra carries the longest truck leg of any capital on this page. Cartage is the line to watch.
• Most Canberra fit-outs come from the Sydney side, so a Sydney container run is the benchmark for timing.
• ACT building and plumbing work is licensed through Access Canberra. Imported WaterMark and RCM products are installed by a licensed trade, the same as local ones.

Questions