The short answer
Across metropolitan Melbourne, a knockdown rebuild on a standard suburban block generally lands between $2,400 and $3,600 per square metre of finished home, before land. Demolition itself is usually $18,000 to $35,000 depending on the size of the house, the presence of asbestos and how much of the block a truck can reach.
That range is wide because the same floor plan can cost very differently on two blocks a street apart. What follows is what actually moves the number.
Where the money goes
- Demolition and site clearing. Asbestos assessment, removal, service disconnections and disposal. Older homes almost always carry some bonded asbestos in eaves or wet areas.
- Site costs. Soil classification, contour survey, footing design, cut and fill, retaining and rock removal. This is the single biggest source of variation between blocks.
- Approvals. Building permit, engineering, energy rating and, where an overlay applies, a planning permit with its own timeline and fees.
- The build itself. The part most people compare on, and the part that varies least between quotes for the same specification.
- Connections and finishing. New service connections, driveway, landscaping and fencing, which are regularly left out of a headline price.
The five surprises
In our experience the items that catch owners out are, in order: asbestos removal, rock in the footing zone, a required protection work notice to a neighbour, an upgraded stormwater connection, and the cost of a temporary rental for longer than the original programme allowed.
None of them are avoidable. All of them are knowable before you sign, which is why we commission the soil report and the contour survey before pricing rather than carrying them as a provisional sum.
How to compare two quotes properly
Ask both builders for an itemised inclusions schedule and check three things: whether site costs are fixed or provisional, whether the price includes the driveway and fencing, and what the variation process looks like in writing. A quote that is $30,000 cheaper with provisional site costs is usually not cheaper at all.
