Whole-house fit-out landed on the Gold Coast

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 on the Gold Coast, 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 Gold Coast 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 and no RLB dwelling rate for this city; national figure used. Track Brisbane (RLB Brisbane custom dwellings $3,150 to $5,800 per m2 ex GST). RLB escalation forecast: Gold Coast 5.5% in 2026 and 7.0% a year 2027 to 2029, same as Brisbane.

Is it worth it?

Usually, and by most at a mid to high spec. About $78,786 landed on the Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast market

The Gold Coast tracks Brisbane, about 2 percent under it on the same cost index: kitchens $11,750 to $44,100 installed, bathrooms $9,800 to $34,300. Rider Levett Bucknall expects the same 7 percent a year escalation as Brisbane from 2027. The Tile Collective prices its Gold Coast store the same as Brisbane, and plumbers charge about $78 to $195 an hour.

How it gets to the Gold Coast

Foshan factory to Nansha or Shekou, a South China service to the Port of Brisbane, then about 95 km by road down the M1 to Southport, Burleigh or Palm Beach.

The Gold Coast has no container port. Everything lands at Fisherman Islands in Brisbane and comes down the M1.

Most Gold Coast deliveries are tautliner loads from a Brisbane depot rather than a container at the kerb, because of apartment access and the extra distance.

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 the Gold Coast

Coastal and subtropical, with salt air within a few kilometres of the beach. Specify PVD or 316 stainless on tapware and hardware, and marine-grade powder coat on anything outside.

• The landed price is the Brisbane price plus a longer truck run. The ocean leg is identical.
• High-rise apartments need a booked loading dock, lift and body corporate approval. Containers are unpacked at a depot and the goods come in by truck and trolley.
• Many Gold Coast renovations are apartments and townhouses, where the order is a kitchen and two bathrooms, not a whole house. That usually means a shared container, not your own.

Questions