Dental fitouts in Brisbane
Surgeries, sterilisation and imaging for Brisbane practices, with the base build rate published before you ask for it.
Dental practices in Brisbane
New practices, relocations, and refurbishments staged around a clinic that has to keep trading.
Start a projectBrisbane dental work divides between new practices in the growth corridors and refurbishments of established clinics in the inner suburbs, often in buildings that predate current access requirements.
Two quite different jobs share one city. A new tenancy in a growth-corridor centre arrives largely empty and moves at the developer's pace. An established inner-suburban practice arrives full, trading, and needing to stay that way while you work around it.
More on what goes into a dental practice.
Fitting out in Brisbane
In the corridors north and south of the river the tenancy is usually a cold or partial shell in a new centre, with the developer's program setting the pace. Inner-suburban work is the opposite problem: an operating practice, an ageing building, and two things that almost always need addressing: accessible access and sanitary facilities under AS 1428.1, and a sterilisation room that no longer satisfies the current reprocessing standards.
Approvals, not construction, are what move an opening date. A change of use from retail to a health-care use is assessed on its own terms, and council timeframes vary more than any other part of the program. How approvals work in Queensland.
Also in Brisbane
Medical centre fitouts in Brisbane · veterinary clinics · optometry practices
The two Brisbane projects
Growth corridor, new centre. The tenancy is a cold or partial shell, the developer's program sets the dates, and your fitout has to fit a landlord's design guidelines as well as council's requirements. Budget for the shell works, and get the landlord approval running alongside the council application rather than after it.
Inner suburbs, existing practice. Almost always a refurbishment staged around a clinic that can’t afford to close. Two things come up on nearly every one of them: accessible access and sanitary facilities that no longer satisfy AS 1428.1, and a sterilisation room laid out before the current reprocessing standards, with clean and dirty sharing a bench.
Neither is a disaster. Both are much easier to price when they’re found at assessment, not during demolition.
Dental fitout costs in Brisbane
Base build
Partitioning, services to each chair position, sterilisation room, joinery and finishes.
Chairs, imaging and plant are bought separately.
Specialist & orthodontic
Open bays, a heavier front of house, additional imaging and often a lab or milling area.
Referral practices carry more of the budget at the front.
Cold shell
Air conditioning, ceilings, lighting and fire services you would otherwise inherit.
More detail in the dental fitout cost guide and in dental surgery design, or check what shell condition you are actually being offered before you rely on any of it.
Imaging and licensing in Queensland
Imaging requires shielding designed by a radiation consultant, plus a possession licence and a use licence from Queensland Health under the Radiation Safety Act 1999.
Shielding is designed for the specific unit, its workload and what sits on the other side of every wall, including the tenancy next door. Both the shielding design and the licence want to be underway well before practical completion, not after it.
Questions
How much does a dental fitout cost in Brisbane?
Indicatively $1,200 to $1,800 per square metre for the base build on a warm shell, excluding equipment and GST. Specialist and orthodontic practices run $1,600 to $2,400. A shell handed over cold adds roughly $350 to $550 per square metre.
Do I need council approval for a dental practice in Brisbane?
Generally a material change of use application, assessed by council under City Plan 2014. Whether it is code or impact assessable depends on the zone, and that distinction has a large effect on the timeframe.
What does imaging require in Queensland?
Shielding designed by a radiation consultant, plus a possession licence and a use licence from Queensland Health under the Radiation Safety Act 1999.
Can an older Brisbane practice be brought up to standard?
Usually, and it’s a large share of inner-suburban work. Accessible access under AS 1428.1 and a sterilisation room meeting the current reprocessing standards are the two items that most often need real building work instead of a policy change.
Keep reading
Send us the floor plan
A site assessment tells you what the tenancy can take and what it will cost to get there, ideally before you have signed for it.