Any person exploring a potential luxury home renovation should ignore the “average” renovation statistics you might be able to find elsewhere. These figures might include basic cosmetic tidy-ups or account for renovations that do not reach the level of polish expected in a luxury home remodelling.
When you step into the luxury bracket, you’re often re-engineering a home to fit a new set of expectations, and that comes with a price tag. One well worth paying for, those seeking a truly luxurious outfit, but with a notable price tag nonetheless.
For a true luxury renovation in a city like Auckland or Queenstown, you should expect a starting point of roughly $4,000 to $6,000+ per square metre.
If you are doing a full-scale “back-to-the-studs” renovation on a standard 200m² home, a budget of $800,000 to $1.2 million is a realistic baseline. While that might sound significant, it’s important to understand where that investment actually goes.
In any luxury home renovation, the higher price of the build comes from a no-compromise approach to three specific areas of the home.
This is the invisible aspects of the home that make it much more comfortable to live in. For example, a luxury renovation might include high-spec acoustic insulation to soundproof the entire home, ducted climate control for year-round comfort, custom-machined cabinetry throughout, and double-glazing to manage Auckland’s variable temperatures.
In Auckland, there’s a little-discussed standard for colder, damper homes. It’s taken as a given thanks to our weather. But luxury renovations not only eliminate these conditions, but they also raise the bar for every other home you step into. These ‘invisible’ comforts quickly become a non-negotiable part of life at home.
While standard renovations use “off-the-shelf” products, luxury renovations use custom-made materials.
For example, your kitchen might take on a new life as a centrefold spread in Architectural Digest thanks to a carefully curated selection of marble benchtops, custom-made cabinetry, and machined stone flooring. It’s the ‘custom’ aspect that drives the price tag and delivers unparalleled comfort.
Luxury home remodelling tends to be more structurally complex than your average renovation in Auckland. For example, we might use structural steel beams to open your home up to the surrounding view, while tinting the windows to simultaneously provide privacy. This also allows for wide sliding doors and an airy space that easily adapts to any design era.
Not to mention, the property’s exterior landscaping comes into play as well. A luxury home renovation in New Zealand must account for the grounds to create a seamless indoor-outdoor flow.
To help you visualise where your luxury home remodelling might fall on the spectrum, here is how we typically visualise the cost tiers in the current NZ market:
This is for the homeowner who loves their current layout but wants to upgrade every touchpoint. It covers a top-tier kitchen and two or three bathrooms, all-new flooring, professional lighting design, and high-end painting throughout. You aren’t moving many walls, but every surface you touch is premium.
This is the most common luxury project we see. It usually involves keeping the character of the front of the house (the bedrooms) and demoing the back to build a modern, high-stud “pavilion” for the kitchen, lounge, and dining area. This price includes structural steel, the new foundation, high-spec glazing, and a seamless indoor-outdoor flow.
This is a total transformation. Often, the only thing remaining of the original house is the “soul” and perhaps the framing. It might involve digging out a basement for a wine cellar and media room, adding a second storey, or installing a bespoke glass lift. At this level of luxury home renovation, every single detail is custom-designed and built.
Keep in mind that these prices will vary significantly depending on the specifics of your design, your site, and the team you work with. But we hope this provides a valuable baseline for constructing your luxury home remodelling budget. There is one more thing to consider…
If you are planning a luxury home renovation in New Zealand, our most important tip is to invest 10% of your construction budget (and plenty of time) into the design and pre-construction phase.
While your build team’s ability to meet expectations throughout the construction process is vital, it’s the home’s design that makes the real difference. After all, this is the phase that defines the specifications your build team will adhere to, and it’s also the phase where you get to share every iota of your vision.
There you have it! An informed guide to what you can expect from the cost of a luxury home renovation. Depending on the scale of the change you envision, we recommend starting with that $5,000/m² figure in your head. If you can make that work, you’re in the position to create something truly special that your family will enjoy for decades.
As always, the best way to understand the cost of your luxury home remodelling is to reach out to a trusted company for a direct quote on your vision.
We are proud to bring years of expertise to the luxury home renovation market! If you are ready to begin renovating, speak to the design team at QBS IT to secure a detailed quote for your work and kick off the design process.
