The Complete Guide to Home Renovations on the Gold Coast (2026)

Renovating a home on the Gold Coast in 2026 is a very different proposition to renovating in Melbourne, Sydney or even inland Brisbane. The coastal climate, the age of local housing stock, Gold Coast City Council's approval process and the way trades and materials are priced across South East Queensland all shape what your project should cost, how long it should take and what it should include. This guide pulls together everything we've learned from delivering renovations across Burleigh Heads, Broadbeach, Southport, Robina, Mermaid Waters, Palm Beach, Currumbin, Tugun, Varsity Lakes, Mudgeeraba, Ashmore, Nerang, Helensvale, Hope Island, Runaway Bay and Coomera - so you can plan with confidence and avoid the traps that catch first-time renovators.

Table of contents

• Why renovate instead of move
• Kitchen renovations
• Bathroom renovations
• Laundry renovations
• Flooring
• Open-plan living
• Extensions
• Decks and outdoor living
• Insurance repairs
• Realistic Gold Coast renovation costs in 2026
• Typical renovation timeframes
• Council approvals and QBCC compliance
• How to choose a QBCC licensed renovation company
• Renovation planning checklist
• Frequently asked questions

Why renovate instead of move?

The maths of moving on the Gold Coast has shifted hard. Between stamp duty, agent commissions, marketing, moving costs and the price gap to a genuinely better home in the same suburb, most families are $80,000-$150,000 out of pocket before they even hang a picture. A well-planned renovation on your existing block often delivers the lifestyle upgrade you actually want for less than the transaction cost of moving.

It also lets you stay in the school catchment, keep the neighbours you like, and hold onto a piece of land that - in most suburbs from Palm Beach up to Hope Island - is appreciating faster than the building on top of it. Renovating is how you get a home that fits the way you actually live in 2026, on land you already own.

Signs it's time to renovate

• The kitchen is closed off from the main living area
• You have one bathroom for four or more people
• The laundry is a cupboard, not a room
• Storage is a constant argument
• The floor plan doesn't work for how your family has grown
• You love the block and the street but not the house

Kitchen renovations

The kitchen is the highest-return room in almost every Gold Coast home. Buyers judge a property in the first ninety seconds, and they judge it on the kitchen and the light. Get the layout right, put the money into the joinery and the benchtop, and every other cosmetic dollar in the house works harder.

What a good kitchen renovation includes

• New custom cabinetry with soft-close hardware
• 20mm or 40mm engineered stone or porcelain benchtop
• Full-height splashback (tile, glass or stone)
• Integrated or freestanding appliances (600mm or 900mm)
• Pantry - preferably walk-in or butler's
• Task lighting under overhead cabinets
• Waste bin drawer, spice pull-outs, corner solutions

Layouts that work in Gold Coast homes

The classic 1990s U-shape kitchen fights the way modern families cook and entertain. In most homes across Robina, Mermaid Waters and Broadbeach we're removing a wall, adding an island, and reorienting sight lines to the pool or the outdoor room. The kitchen stops being a room you cook in and starts being the social centre of the house.

The best kitchens on the Gold Coast are the ones that face where the family already gathers - not the ones that face the driveway.

Bathroom renovations

Bathrooms in Gold Coast homes get punished. Salt air, high humidity, sunscreen, chlorine off wet swimmers - the finish schedule needs to be picked with the climate in mind, not lifted from a Melbourne inspiration board.

Non-negotiables in a coastal bathroom

• Waterproofing to AS 3740 with independent certification
• Full-height tiling in the shower zone
• Marine-grade or 316 stainless fixings on all wall accessories
• Powder-coated or anodised aluminium framing on shower screens
• Ceiling exhaust fan ducted to outside, not into the roof cavity
• Fall to waste that actually drains - not just meets minimum

For families we plan bathrooms around routines. Twin vanities save arguments. A separate WC in the main bathroom keeps mornings functional. A niche in the shower is worth more than a tiled soap dish every time.

Laundry renovations

The laundry is the most under-planned room in the average Gold Coast renovation - and the one clients thank us for most after they move back in. A proper laundry has bench space to fold, a drying rail, a broom cupboard, room for a full-size front-loader and dryer, and ideally external access to a clothesline that gets afternoon sun.

If you can fit a mudroom or drop zone off the garage entry, do it. Kids, bags, sandy towels and school shoes stop invading the rest of the house.

Flooring

Flooring choice on the Gold Coast is a climate decision as much as an aesthetic one. Hybrid and engineered timber both handle our humidity swings well. Solid timber can be beautiful but needs the right subfloor and acclimatisation. Tiles are cool underfoot and easy to clean. Polished concrete works in the right architectural style but is unforgiving on dropped glasses.

We break down every option, cost and lifespan in our dedicated flooring guide - see the internal link at the end of this article.

Open-plan living

Opening the kitchen, dining and living into one connected zone is the single biggest lifestyle upgrade for older Gold Coast homes from the 70s, 80s and 90s. It usually involves a structural beam, an engineer's certificate, some replanning of electrical and HVAC, and a rethink of the flooring transition. Done properly it feels like an entirely new house.

Things people forget when opening up

• Acoustics - hard surfaces echo without rugs and soft furnishings
• Air conditioning zoning needs to be re-designed
• TV placement and sight lines from the kitchen
• Where the pantry and fridge live once the wall is gone
• Sun path through the new windows - west-facing glass on the Gold Coast is brutal without eaves

Extensions

Ground-floor extensions are the most common on the Gold Coast - typically to add a master suite, a family room, or a covered outdoor room. Second-storey additions are increasingly common in Palm Beach, Mermaid Waters and Broadbeach where the block value justifies the engineering.

Rough 2026 costs for extensions on the Gold Coast: $3,800-$5,500 per m² for a ground-floor extension in like-for-like construction, and $4,800-$7,500 per m² for a second-storey addition once you factor in engineering, temporary weatherproofing and living arrangements.

Decks and outdoor living

On the Gold Coast, the outdoor room is the room you actually live in for eight months of the year. A well-designed deck with a roof, ceiling fan, integrated lighting and a screen from the western sun genuinely doubles the usable footprint of a house.

Deck material at a glance

• Hardwood (spotted gum, blackbutt, merbau): warm, natural, requires annual oiling
• Composite (Trex, Ekodeck, ModWood): higher upfront cost, near-zero maintenance
• Modified timber (Accoya, Kebony): premium, dimensionally stable, long service life

We compare timber and composite in detail in our dedicated decking article - internal link below.

Insurance repairs

Between hail from summer storms, water ingress from wind-driven rain, and the occasional cyclone tail, insurance repairs are a constant across South East Queensland. Not every builder is set up to work with insurers - it's a specific workflow of scoping, itemised quoting, loss adjuster liaison and staged progress payments.

We work directly with major insurers and loss adjusters, and the same standards we apply to a full renovation apply to an insurance repair. It's still your home.

Realistic Gold Coast renovation costs in 2026

Per-square-metre benchmarks

• Cosmetic refresh (paint, flooring, kitchen face-lift): $1,200-$2,200 per m²
• Internal renovation (kitchen + bathroom + laundry + flooring): $2,800-$4,500 per m²
• Major renovation with layout changes and structural work: $4,500-$6,500 per m²
• High-end architectural renovation with premium finishes: $6,500-$9,000+ per m²
• Ground-floor extension: $3,800-$5,500 per m²
• Second-storey addition: $4,800-$7,500 per m²

Lump-sum benchmarks by scope

• Kitchen only: $28,000-$95,000
• Bathroom only: $22,000-$42,000
• Kitchen + main bathroom + laundry: $85,000-$180,000
• Full internal renovation: $220,000-$450,000
• Renovate + extend: $450,000-$1M+

These are the numbers we quote every week from Coolangatta up to Coomera. Anyone promising materially less is either quoting a different scope or excluding items you'll be charged for later as variations.

Typical renovation timeframes

1. Design, selections and quoting: 3-8 weeks
2. Council or private certifier approvals: 4-8 weeks (in parallel where possible)
3. Cosmetic refresh on site: 4-8 weeks
4. Full internal renovation on site: 10-16 weeks
5. Major renovation with structural work: 16-24 weeks
6. Renovate and extend: 20-32 weeks

The single biggest driver of delays we see is late selections. Every tap, tile and handle needs to be signed off before we start - not while we're on site.

Council approvals and QBCC compliance

Gold Coast City Council and City of Brisbane both allow a lot of internal work under owner-builder or self-assessable exemptions, but the moment you touch structure, plumbing waste positions, roof lines, boundary setbacks or fire separation, you need a certifier - and often a development application.

Every project over $3,300 in Queensland must be carried out by a QBCC licensed builder, and every project over $20,000 must be on a QBCC-compliant fixed-price contract with the correct insurance under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme. This isn't red tape - it's the reason you have somewhere to go if a job goes wrong. Confirm the licence number of anyone quoting your job at

• Verify the licence at the QBCC public register (qbcc.qld.gov.au)
• Ask for a certificate of currency on public liability and works insurance
• Confirm Queensland Home Warranty Insurance is included in the contract price
• Read the AS 4905 or QBCC Level 1/2 contract before you sign, not after

How to choose a QBCC licensed renovation company

What to look for

• Current QBCC licence in the correct class (Builder - Low Rise or above)
• Public liability of at least $20M
• A real, walkable portfolio of similar Gold Coast work
• Fixed-price quoting with defined inclusions - not vague 'allowances'
• A defined variation process in writing
• Weekly progress updates and a single point of contact
• Recent Google reviews you can read in the reviewer's own words

Red flags

• No licence number on the quote or website
• Deposits above 10% of contract value (QBCC rules)
• Cash discounts or 'off the books' offers
• Vague inclusions and PC sums that look suspiciously low
• No physical office, no ABN, or a brand new company with no history

Renovation planning checklist

1. Write your brief - what you want changed, room by room
2. Set a realistic budget with a 10-15% contingency
3. Get a QBCC-licensed builder onto the site early - before drawings are finalised
4. Lock in your scope and selections before you sign a contract
5. Confirm approvals pathway (self-assessable, building approval or DA)
6. Sign a QBCC-compliant fixed-price contract
7. Plan living arrangements - can you stay, or do you need to move out?
8. Agree a communication cadence with your builder
9. Sign off progress at each stage - don't pay ahead of works completed
10. Complete a joint defect walk before final payment

Common mistakes to avoid

• Choosing on price alone - the cheapest quote almost always excludes the most
• Skipping the contingency line
• Making selections after work has started
• Not planning where you'll live and store belongings
• Ignoring the outdoor room in the design
• Under-specifying the laundry
• Failing to check the builder's QBCC licence and insurance

Expert tips

• Spend on layout before you spend on finish - a great layout in mid-range finish beats a bad layout in premium finish every time
• Standardise tap and handle finishes across the whole house - it looks intentional and it's cheaper
• Put the money into the kitchen island and the main bathroom - they carry the house
• On the Gold Coast, plan around the western sun - eaves, screens and glazing choice matter more than you think
• Ask your builder for a schedule up front - a professional will hand you one on day one