Dental fitouts in Sydney
Surgeries, sterilisation and imaging for Sydney practices, with the base build rate published before you ask for it.
Dental practices in Sydney
New practices, relocations, and refurbishments staged around a clinic that has to keep trading.
Start a projectSydney dental practices split between strata suites in commercial buildings and shop conversions on suburban strips. The two behave very differently once you start cutting floors.
Sydney projects tend to be decided by the floor rather than the floor plan. Before the layout matters, someone has to establish how suction, compressed air, water and waste reach each chair position, and whether the building will allow the route. Everything downstream follows from that answer.
More on what goes into a dental practice.
Fitting out in Sydney
A strata suite arrives with an owners corporation, by-laws and often restrictions on hours, noise and services penetrations, though the base building services are usually already there. A shop conversion gives you more freedom and a change of use to resolve. Either way, the question that decides the project is whether you can get suction, air, water and waste to the chair positions, which on a suspended slab means core-drilling and a route through somebody else's tenancy.
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 New South Wales.
Also in Sydney
Medical centre fitouts in Sydney · veterinary clinics · optometry practices
Strata is the Sydney variable
A large share of Sydney dental tenancies sit in strata buildings, which puts an owners corporation and a set of by-laws on top of the lease you’re negotiating.
Those by-laws commonly govern construction hours, noise, waste storage, signage and, most importantly for a dental fitout, penetrations through common property. Core-drilling a slab to run services to a chair is a penetration through common property. It needs consent, and the consent is not automatic.
The upside is real: strata suites usually arrive as warm shells with base building services already in, which takes several hundred dollars per square metre out of the build. The trade is flexibility. Read the by-laws before you fall in love with the floor plan.
Dental fitout costs in Sydney
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 New South Wales
An OPG, CBCT or intraoral unit needs shielding designed by a radiation consultant and a premises licence from the NSW Environment Protection Authority under the Radiation Control Act 1990.
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 Sydney?
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, and a cold shell adds around $350 to $550 per square metre.
Do I need a DA for a dental practice in Sydney?
Usually, where the use is changing from retail or commercial to a health services facility. Some tenancies and scopes qualify as complying development under the Codes SEPP instead, which is considerably faster. Establish which pathway applies before you sign.
What is involved in a strata dental fitout?
The owners corporation and the by-laws sit on top of the lease, commonly restricting hours, noise, signage and any penetration through common property. Services to a chair position through a suspended slab need the landlord's and often the neighbour's agreement.
What licence does an OPG need in NSW?
A premises licence from the NSW Environment Protection Authority under the Radiation Control Act 1990, plus shielding designed by a radiation consultant for the specific unit.
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.