Stone benchtops landed in Perth

The stone benchtops we priced

A kitchen's benchtops in porcelain, sintered or natural stone: long wall plus island, about 7 m2, 20 to 30 mm, cut and edged to shop drawings, crated.

Landed in Perth, 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.

Shipped with a kitchen

On its own, a kitchen's stone benchtops pays the full set of fixed charges and Elje's minimum fees. Added to a kitchen in the same shipment it adds about $7,377 to the kitchen's landed price ($4,925 to $10,403), because the port, broker, delivery and Project Plan are already paid. Estimate.

Against Perth prices

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

Only a dated 2023 Airtasker average ($1,600 per m2, well under Sydney and Melbourne).

Stone is the closest call on this site. Against local porcelain the saving is thin once install is added back; it is widest on natural marble and quartzite, and only when the stone ships with the kitchen.

Is it worth it?

Sometimes. For porcelain, local supply and install is close enough that the saving is thin. For natural marble and quartzite, shipped in the same crate run as the kitchen, the gap is real. Weigh it against the risk of cutting to drawings rather than a site template. Estimate.

The Perth market

Perth sits about 5 percent above Brisbane on the cost index: kitchens $12,600 to $47,250 installed, bathrooms $10,500 to $36,750. Rider Levett Bucknall puts custom houses at $3,100 to $5,100 per m2, a high floor. A 2023 average put stone benchtops at about $1,600 per m2 in Perth against $2,200 in Sydney and Melbourne. Much local stock is shipped from the east coast first.

How it gets to Perth

Foshan factory to Nansha, Shekou or Yantian, a direct service to Fremantle, the closest Australian container port to South China, then about 20 km by road.

DP World and Patrick run the container terminals in Fremantle's Inner Harbour, about 20 km from the city.

Most Perth suburbs take a container at the kerb. Hills sites and narrow coastal streets may need a depot unpack.

What moves the number

• Material. Porcelain and sintered slabs are usually the cheapest per m2. Natural marble and quartzite cost more and vary by block.
• Cut to drawings. The factory cuts to your shop drawings, not to a template taken on site. The cabinets have to go in square and the drawings have to be exact.
• Edges and cut-outs. Mitred aprons, integrated sinks and waterfall ends add labour at the factory.
• Weight and breakage. Stone is heavy and fragile. It is crated, and insurance sits at the top of the range.
• What it travels with. Crated in the same shipment as the kitchen, stone only adds its own freight, not a second set of port charges.

What it has to comply with

• Engineered stone benchtops, panels and slabs have been banned from import and use in Australia since 2024 and 2025. Elje prices porcelain, sintered and natural stone only.
• Ask for the material test report. A slab sold as sintered or porcelain must not be resin-bound engineered stone.
• Natural stone worked: tariff 6802.91.00 (marble) or 6802.93.00 (granite), general duty 5 percent, Free from China with a certificate of origin.

Notes for Perth

Hot dry summers and coastal wind. UV-stable finishes outside, and conditioned timber inside.

• Fremantle is the first Australian call on some South China services, and its terminal access charge is the lowest of the five ports, under $100 a container.
• Perth is a long way from the east coast showrooms and warehouses, so local stock often carries a freight cost of its own. Landed direct from Foshan skips that leg.
• Plumbing and building work is licensed through Building and Energy WA. Imported WaterMark and RCM products are installed the same way as local ones.

Questions