Hospitality fitout in New Zealand runs from around $1,500 per square metre for a simple cafe to $5,000 per square metre for a premium restaurant, with a commercial kitchen adding a further $500 to $1,000 per square metre on top. Bars typically sit at $2,500 to $3,500 per square metre.
Hospitality is the most cost variable of all fitout types. Two venues of identical size can differ by a factor of three, and the difference is rarely in the visible finishes. It is in the kitchen, the services and the building you have chosen.
Indicative cost bands
| Venue type | Cost per sqm | Main cost drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Cafe, simple | $1,500 to $2,000 | Counter joinery, limited cooking |
| Cafe with full kitchen | Around $2,500 | Extraction, gas, grease management |
| Casual restaurant | Around $2,500 | Kitchen, seating density, acoustics |
| Bar | $2,500 to $3,500 | Bar joinery, cellar, glasswash, acoustics |
| Premium restaurant | $3,500 to $5,000 | Bespoke joinery, feature lighting, kitchen spec |
| Commercial kitchen | Adds $500 to $1,000 | On top of the venue rate above |
| Food hall tenancy | Varies widely | Landlord provisions determine much of the cost |
These figures are drawn from Complete Construction’s internal pricing data, benchmarked against RLB and QV CostBuilder.
Actual cost depends heavily on the base building, the existing services and the kitchen specification. A tenancy with no existing kitchen services can sit well above these bands.
Where the money actually goes
The kitchen is usually the largest single item
For any venue with serious cooking, the kitchen and its supporting services will typically account for the largest share of the fitout budget. That is not just the equipment. It is the mechanical extraction and makeup air, the gas reticulation and certification, the grease trap and trade waste connection, the hygienic wall and floor finishes, the drainage falls, and the electrical capacity to run it all.
Extraction is the item most commonly underestimated. A commercial kitchen canopy requires a compliant exhaust route to atmosphere, which in a multi level or multi tenanted building can mean a long duct run, acoustic attenuation, fire dampers at every compartment penetration, and a discharge point that satisfies the council and the neighbours. The duct route is frequently the single biggest constraint on whether a tenancy works at all.
Services capacity in the base building
Before signing a lease, establish what the tenancy actually has:
- Electrical capacity in amps, and whether three phase is available
- Gas supply and capacity, or whether the venue will be all electric
- Water supply and hot water generation capacity
- Waste and drainage, including whether a grease trap exists or must be installed
- An available and compliant kitchen exhaust route to atmosphere
- Makeup air provision
- Structural capacity for plant, cool rooms and heavy equipment
- Acoustic separation from neighbouring and above tenancies
A tenancy that lacks any of these is not necessarily unworkable, but the cost of providing them belongs in the deal negotiation, not in a variation after you have signed.
Bar and counter joinery
Bar fitouts are joinery intensive. A bar is a piece of precision millwork containing plumbing, refrigeration, glasswash, drainage, power, data and lighting, in a wet environment, usually to a custom design. It is also the visual centrepiece of most venues.
Custom joinery lead time is a common programme risk. Where joinery is manufactured in house under the same management as the site programme, production can be scheduled directly against the construction sequence rather than queued behind a third party manufacturer’s other work.
Acoustics
Hospitality acoustics are both an experience issue and a compliance issue. Guests will not return to a venue where they cannot hold a conversation. Neighbours, particularly residential neighbours above or adjacent, will complain, and district plan noise limits are enforceable. Acoustic treatment retrofitted after opening is expensive and usually compromised. Design it in.
Compliance and consenting
Hospitality fitouts almost always require building consent, and frequently more than that. Typical requirements:
- Building consent for the fitout works
- Food Control Plan registration under the Food Act 2014
- Trade waste consent and grease trap approval from the council
- Gas certification
- Alcohol licensing, where relevant, which runs on its own timeline and has its own premises requirements
- Resource consent in some cases, particularly for extraction discharge, signage, hours of operation or a change of use
- Fire design where occupancy numbers or layout affect egress
Alcohol licensing and resource consent both run to their own timetables that are independent of the construction programme. Starting them late is one of the most common causes of a delayed opening.
What drives a hospitality budget up
A tenancy with no existing kitchen services. Converting a retail or office tenancy to hospitality means installing everything from scratch, including the exhaust route, which can be the most expensive single element.
Heritage buildings. Character venues are commercially attractive and technically difficult. Restrictions on penetrations, structural interventions and external plant all add cost.
Multi level or multi tenanted buildings. Long duct runs, fire compartmentation, restricted access, after hours work and body corporate approvals.
Bespoke design. Custom joinery, feature lighting, imported finishes and one off elements. This is where a concept can outgrow a budget quickly if cost planning does not run alongside design.
Late scope change. Kitchen layout changes after services are roughed in are among the most expensive variations in commercial construction.
Controlling cost without compromising the concept
Get a contractor and a kitchen consultant involved before you sign the lease. A pre lease technical assessment of the tenancy is inexpensive relative to discovering after signing that the exhaust route does not exist.
Cost plan the concept at design stage. A design developed without cost input reliably produces a scheme that has to be value engineered late, which damages the concept more than designing to budget from the start.
Prioritise spend where the guest experiences it. Bar, front of house joinery, lighting and acoustics do most of the work in a guest’s perception. Back of house should be functional, durable and compliant rather than expensive.
Standardise where you can, particularly across multiple sites. Operators rolling out several venues gain substantially from standardised kitchen layouts, joinery modules and specification, because it reduces design cost, shortens manufacture and simplifies maintenance.
Do not compromise the kitchen to fund the front of house. An undersized or poorly laid out kitchen constrains the menu, the covers and the labour cost for the life of the venue.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a restaurant fitout cost in New Zealand? A simple cafe runs from around $1,500 to $2,000 per square metre, a cafe with a full kitchen or a casual restaurant around $2,500, a bar $2,500 to $3,500, and a premium restaurant $3,500 to $5,000. A commercial kitchen adds a further $500 to $1,000 per square metre on top of the venue rate.
How long does a hospitality fitout take? Site works commonly run 8 to 16 weeks depending on scale and kitchen complexity. End to end, including design, consent, licensing and long lead equipment procurement, 4 to 8 months is a realistic planning assumption. Alcohol licensing and resource consent can run longer than the construction programme.
Does a restaurant fitout need building consent in New Zealand? Almost always. Work affecting fire egress, sanitary facilities, structure, or the building’s specified systems requires consent, and hospitality fitouts typically affect several. A Food Control Plan, trade waste approval and gas certification are separate requirements.
Can a venue stay open during a fitout or refurbishment? Front of house refurbishment can often be staged so a venue keeps trading. Kitchen works are much harder, because a venue cannot trade without a compliant working kitchen. A short, tightly planned closure with a temporary kitchen arrangement is often the better commercial answer than an extended partial trade.
What is the most commonly underestimated cost in a hospitality fitout? Kitchen exhaust and makeup air. The duct route to atmosphere, acoustic attenuation, fire dampers and the discharge point can cost far more than operators expect, particularly in multi level or multi tenanted buildings, and in some tenancies the route determines whether the venue is viable at all.
Related reading
- Fitting Out a Live Trading or Occupied Building Without Closing the Doors
- Does Your Commercial Fitout Need a Building Consent?
Sources
- Complete Construction internal pricing data, reviewed by Shaun Francois, Estimator
- RLB and QV CostBuilder, benchmarking
- Food Act 2014 and Food Control Plan requirements
- Building Act 2004
- Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012
This article is general information. Costs are indicative and vary significantly by venue, building and specification.