How much does an apartment renovation cost in Sydney CBD?

The same as the rest of Sydney to build: a kitchen from $22,000, a bathroom from $20,000, and a full apartment from $60,000 for a studio or 1-bed and $80,000 to $130,000 for a 2-bed. The CBD does not add to the trade cost. It adds to the timeline, through lift booking windows, restricted work hours and same-day waste removal.

Can you renovate a bathroom for $10,000 in Sydney?

Not properly. A $10,000 bathroom is a cosmetic patch over the existing waterproofing, and in a CBD tower that is exactly what causes a leak into the apartment below, which becomes your liability once your by-law is registered. A bathroom rebuilt and tanked to AS 3740 by a licensed waterproofer starts around $20,000.

Do I need strata approval to renovate a Sydney CBD apartment?

For a bathroom, yes. Anything touching waterproofing, plumbing or structure is major work under section 108 and needs a special resolution plus a registered by-law. A kitchen is usually minor work and needs an ordinary resolution. Painting and carpet are cosmetic and need nothing. CBD schemes are large, so the meeting calendar matters more than in a small block.

How long does a Sydney CBD apartment renovation take?

A bathroom takes 2 to 3 weeks on site, a kitchen 3 to 4, and a full apartment 8 to 16. Our Market Street CBD apartment, covering a kitchen, two bathrooms, flooring and a full repaint, ran ten weeks. Strata approval sits ahead of all of it and takes 6 to 12 weeks for major works, running in parallel while you choose finishes.

Can internal walls be removed in a CBD apartment?

Sometimes. A non-structural wall can usually go, subject to strata approval. A load-bearing wall or a wall carrying services generally cannot, and in a high-rise the answer is no more often than in a low-rise because the structure is working harder. It needs an engineer's assessment before anything is priced, not after.

Can I live in my apartment during a CBD renovation?

For a single-room job, often yes. For a kitchen or your only bathroom, it is hard, and in the CBD it is harder because the work is compressed into restricted hours and you cannot spread it across a weekend to get it finished sooner. Most owners doing a full apartment move out for the duration.

Apartment Renovation Sydney CBD: What the Building Decides

The short answer

A CBD apartment costs the same to renovate as one anywhere in Sydney: a kitchen from $22,000, a bathroom from $20,000, a full apartment from $60,000. What the CBD changes is the timeline. Service lift booking windows, loading dock access, restricted work hours and same-day waste removal set the pace, not the trades.

Years in apartments

Projects completed

5-star Google reviews

Strata approval rate

Most guides to renovating a Sydney CBD apartment describe a renovation that could be happening anywhere. The part that actually decides whether your job runs to schedule is the building: how materials get in, when trades are allowed to make noise, and how a large owners corporation reaches a decision. That is what this covers, with a real CBD project running through it.

What a Sydney CBD apartment renovation costs

The build cost does not carry a CBD premium. A kitchen is a kitchen. What the location adds is time, and time shows up as holding costs rather than as a bigger trade invoice.

Single rooms, Sydney apartments 2026
Room	Standard	Mid-range	High-end
Kitchen	$22,000 – $28,000	$28,000 – $38,000	$38,000 – $55,000+
Bathroom	$20,000 – $28,000	$28,000 – $38,000	$38,000 – $50,000+

Full apartment renovations, Sydney 2026
Apartment	Full renovation
Studio / 1 bed	$60,000 – $100,000
2 bedroom	$80,000 – $130,000
3 bedroom	$100,000 – $160,000

The full breakdown, including the strata and access costs no general renovation guide spells out, is in our Sydney apartment renovation cost guide. Budget a 15 to 20 percent contingency on top, because CBD stock includes plenty of 1990s and earlier conversions with tired services behind the walls.

In the CBD, the building sets the schedule

This is the real difference, and it is the reason a CBD job needs a builder who has done CBD jobs. Six building rules shape the program before a single trade is booked.

What a CBD tower imposes, and what it does to the job
Building rule	What it does to the job
Service lift bookings	Often 2-hour slots. Materials arrive in batches, so deliveries are sequenced weeks ahead.
Loading dock access	Booked windows and height limits. A late truck loses its slot to another trade.
Same-day waste removal	No on-site storage for spoil. Strip-out is paced by how fast waste can leave.
Restricted work hours	Typically 8am to 4pm weekdays. No weekend catch-up, so the calendar stretches.
Noise restrictions	Core drilling and jackhammering confined to set windows, which slows demolition.
Trade parking	Rarely any. Trades park off site and carry in, which costs time on every arrival.

None of these are obstacles once they are planned for. They are only expensive when they are discovered in week one, which is what happens when a house builder takes on a tower.

The Market Street apartment, start to finish

A recent Market Street apartment in the CBD is a good example of what the work looks like in practice. The apartment was a dated 1990s interior with oak-panel cabinetry, terracotta-coloured flooring and a beige tile splashback. The brief was a full cosmetic overhaul in neutral, durable finishes to get it ready for sale or high-end rental, rather than a personal renovation for someone staying put.

The kitchen was stripped to the walls and rebuilt as a U-shape in white polyurethane with brushed nickel handles, a pale blue glass splashback and stone benchtops. Both bathrooms were refitted with new vanities, vessel basins, stone-look tiling and frameless glass screens. Light timber-look hybrid flooring replaced the terracotta throughout, and the whole apartment was repainted in neutral tones. Ten weeks on site.

Dated 1990s CBD apartment kitchen with brown laminate benchtops and cork flooring before renovation — Before: oak-panel cabinetry, brown laminate and cork flooring.

Renovated Market Street CBD apartment kitchen with white cabinetry and a pale blue glass splashback — After: white polyurethane, stone benchtops and a pale blue glass splashback.

Every kilogram of that arrived through a service lift on a booked window, and every kilogram of the old kitchen left the same way on the same day it came out. That is the part of a CBD renovation nobody photographs, and it is the part that decides whether ten weeks stays ten weeks.

“The team handled our CBD apartment renovation brilliantly. They delivered a stunning transformation. The before and after is incredible. It's like a completely different apartment.”

— Stevyn, Sydney CBD

Strata approval in a large CBD scheme

The rules are the same statewide. What changes in the CBD is scale: bigger schemes, more lots, a professional strata manager rather than a volunteer, and a meeting calendar that does not bend for one apartment.

s109Cosmetic work

Painting, carpet, hanging fixtures, built-in wardrobes. No approval needed.

s110Minor renovations

$0 statutory

Kitchen, hard flooring, recessed lights, non-structural walls. Ordinary resolution, no by-law.

s108Major works

~$1,200+

Anything affecting waterproofing (most bathrooms), structure or plumbing. Special resolution and a registered by-law.

By-law drafting runs around $900 to $1,000 plus GST, plus $182.73 to register it with NSW Land Registry Services. Allow 6 to 12 weeks for major-works approval, and confirm your building's meeting schedule before you set a start date.

Once you renovate the bathroom, the leak is yours

In NSW an original bathroom is the owners corporation's responsibility. A renovated one is yours, permanently, and it stays with the apartment when you sell. In a tower, water from a failed membrane does not stay in your unit. It reaches the ceiling below, and the building's insurance does not cover your renovation. This is why waterproofing to AS 3740 by a licensed waterproofer is the one line nobody should be trimming.

This is the part we carry. In 30 years and more than 1,000 Sydney apartments, our strata approval rate is 100 percent. We prepare the by-law and the application, book the lifts and the dock, work inside the building's hours, and hand over the waterproofing certificate at the end. Fine Touch Group holds NSW Builder Licence 151772C.

Renovated Market Street CBD apartment bathroom with a white vanity and frameless corner shower — One of the two bathrooms, rebuilt and rewaterproofed.

Second bathroom in the Market Street CBD apartment with a built-in bath and beige tiling — The second bathroom, finished to match.

Can you take a wall out?

Sometimes, and it needs an engineer's answer before it needs a builder's quote. A non-structural wall can usually come out with strata approval. A load-bearing wall, or one carrying plumbing risers, electrical or ducting, generally cannot. In a high-rise the odds are worse than in a walk-up, because the structure is carrying more.

Four things get established before anything is priced: whether the wall is load-bearing, whether engineering advice is needed, whether strata approval covers it, and what services run through it. We have written the full version of this in removing walls in Sydney apartments.

How long it takes, and living through it

A bathroom is 2 to 3 weeks on site, a kitchen 3 to 4, a full apartment 8 to 16. Market Street ran ten. Strata approval sits ahead of the build, not inside it, so the 6 to 12 weeks it takes runs while you are still selecting finishes.

Whether you can stay comes down to one question: is the kitchen or your only bathroom out of action, and for how long. In the CBD that question is sharper, because restricted hours mean the disruption is spread over more days rather than compressed into fewer. More detail in renovating while living in your apartment.

2026 Sydney Apartment Renovation Price Guide

Real per-room costs, the full strata cost checklist, and the questions to ask before you sign. Sent straight to your inbox.

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Sydney CBD apartment transformation, Market Street

Kitchen, two bathrooms, flooring and a full repaint over ten weeks in a high-rise.