How much does a dental fitout cost?
Per square metre, what sits inside that figure, and the four things that move it more than finishes do.
The short answer
The honest answer has two halves, and most dental practices only ever get told the first one. The build has a rate per square metre. The equipment doesn’t, and it is bought from somewhere else entirely.
Key points
- $1,200 to $1,800 per square metre for the base build, on a warm shell.
- Chairs, imaging, compressor and suction are bought separately and aren’t in that rate.
- A cold shell can add $350 to $550 per square metre before you choose a finish.
- Rough in the services for the surgeries you will need later while the slab is already open.
The honest answer has two halves, and most dental practices only ever get told the first one. The build has a rate per square metre. The equipment doesn’t, and it is bought from somewhere else entirely.
The base build rate
As an indicative planning figure, allow $1,200 to $1,800 per square metre for a dental fitout, excluding equipment and GST, on a warm shell.
The lower end of that range is a practice with laminate surfaces, a limited joinery run, simple lighting and standard commercial floor coverings. The upper end is premium finishes, extensive joinery, feature lighting and a front of house doing real work for the brand.
On a 180 square metre practice that is roughly $216,000 to $324,000 for the build. You can run your own numbers in the fitout cost estimator.
What that rate includes
- Partitioning, doors and hardware
- Ceilings, lighting and power
- Suction, compressed air, water and waste brought to each chair position
- The sterilisation room, laid out to the reprocessing standards
- Joinery: reception, surgery cabinetry and storage
- Floor, wall and ceiling finishes
- Data and communications cabling
- Builder’s preliminaries and site management
What it does not
This is where dental differs most from an ordinary commercial fitout, and where budgets get away from people.
- Chairs and delivery systems. Bought from your supplier.
- Imaging. An OPG or CBCT, plus the shielding design by a radiation consultant and the premises licence from your state regulator.
- Plant. Compressor, suction unit, and often water treatment.
- Sterilisers and bench equipment.
- GST, council and certifier fees, consultant reports, loose furniture and IT.
- Rent during construction, which is real money, and which almost never appears when two builders’ quotes are compared.
Four things that move the number
1. Shell condition
A cold shell means you’re buying air conditioning, ceilings, lighting and fire services before you choose a single finish. Allow roughly $350 to $550 per square metre on top of the base rate. It is decided in the lease, not in the design, which is why it belongs at heads of agreement. The difference in detail.
2. How many chairs, and where the slab is
Every surgery needs suction, compressed air, water, waste, power and data brought to a chair position that’s fixed the day the slab is cut. On slab-on-ground that means trenching; on a suspended slab it means core-drilling and a route through the tenancy below.
The corollary is the single best piece of value engineering in dental: rough in the services for the chair you’ll need in three years while the slab is already open. The room can be storage or a consult in the meantime, and you will never pay to cut that floor again.
3. The approvals pathway
Converting a shop to a dental practice is a change of use and is assessed as one. Council timeframes vary more than any other part of the program, and time is rent.
4. Staging around an operating practice
Refurbishing surgery by surgery behind temporary partitions, with noisy work out of hours, costs more than a single continuous program. It’s also usually cheaper than closing. Price it both ways before deciding.
What it doesn’t depend on nearly as much as people think
Finishes. The gap between a good commercial specification and a premium one is real, and it’s smaller than any of the four above. It is also the only one of them you can change your mind about late.
Sources and further reading
Cost ranges on this page are our own indicative planning figures. The standards and licensing requirements referred to above are published by the bodies below.
Practice guidance for Australian dentists, including infection prevention and control.
Source for AS/NZS 4815 and 4187 reprocessing, AS 1428.1 access and AS 1668.2 ventilation. The standards themselves are purchased, not free.
The national radiation protection authority. Codes and safety guides that sit behind every state's licensing scheme.
Building activity and construction cost data, useful for sanity-checking where trade pricing is heading.
Questions
How much does a dental fitout cost per square metre in Australia?
As an indicative planning range, $1,200 to $1,800 per square metre for the base build on a warm shell, excluding dental equipment and GST. Specialist and orthodontic practices typically sit higher, around $1,600 to $2,400.
Does that include the dental chairs?
No. Chairs, delivery systems, imaging, compressor, suction and sterilisers are bought directly from your supplier and sit outside the build rate. They also need to be selected before services are set out, because each one dictates its own power, water, drainage and clearance.
How much does a cold shell add?
Roughly $350 to $550 per square metre, because you are installing air conditioning, ceilings, lighting and fire services that a warm shell would have provided.
Should I build the extra surgery now?
Build the surgeries you need now and rough in the services for the ones you’ll need later. Bringing suction, air, water and waste to an extra chair position while the slab is already open costs a fraction of returning to cut it in two years.
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.