A commercial fitout under $500,000 typically takes four weeks on site in New Zealand. A $1 million to $3 million fitout takes eight to twelve weeks, and a $5 million project runs twelve weeks and beyond. End to end, from first concept through consent to occupation, most projects run three to six months.
The construction period is rarely what determines the finish date. Design sign off, building consent and long lead procurement are where programmes are won and lost, and all three happen before anyone picks up a tool.
Duration by project value
| Project value | On site duration |
|---|---|
| $0 to $500,000 | 4 weeks |
| $500,000 to $1 million | 6 weeks |
| $1 million to $3 million | 8 to 12 weeks |
| $5 million and above | 12 weeks and beyond |
These durations are drawn from Complete Construction’s completed project record.
Indicative duration by sector
| Project | On site | End to end |
|---|---|---|
| Small office fitout | 4 to 8 weeks | 2 to 4 months |
| Medium office fitout | 8 to 12 weeks | 3 to 5 months |
| Large or highly customised office | 12 to 20 weeks | 5 to 9 months |
| Cat A only | 6 to 10 weeks | Varies with base build |
| Small standard retail store | 3 to 6 weeks | 2 to 4 months |
| Mainstream retail store | 6 to 10 weeks | 3 to 6 months |
| Flagship retail | 10 to 20 weeks | 6 to 12 months |
| Cafe or small hospitality | 6 to 10 weeks | 3 to 6 months |
| Restaurant or bar with full kitchen | 8 to 16 weeks | 4 to 8 months |
| Hotel soft refurbishment | Days per room, rolling | Programme by floor |
| Hotel hard refurbishment | Weeks per room, rolling | 6 to 18 months |
Airport retail and hospitality typically run around 30 percent longer than an equivalent shopping centre or high street project because of security clearances, restricted overnight access and the absence of on site storage.
These are planning assumptions for a straightforward tenancy in reasonable base build condition. Live environments, heritage buildings, seismic work and complex services all add time.
The phases, and where the time actually goes
Feasibility and brief, 1 to 3 weeks
Headcount, work settings, covers, trading model, growth assumptions and any specialist requirements. Time spent here is recovered several times over. The most common cause of overrun is a brief that keeps changing after documentation has started.
Concept and developed design, 4 to 8 weeks
Concept becomes a coordinated set of drawings and specifications across architecture, services, fire, structure and joinery. Lock the specification at the end of this phase. Every change afterwards triggers rework across multiple disciplines and, if it is late enough, a consent amendment.
Landlord approval, 1 to 3 weeks
Most leases require landlord approval of tenant fitout drawings. Some landlords respond in days, some take a month. Shopping centre and airport landlords have their own design criteria and review processes that run in addition to council consent. Ask for the turnaround commitment in writing.
Building consent, 4 to 12 weeks
The largest single variable. The statutory clock is 20 working days from acceptance, but it stops whenever the council issues a request for further information. Nationally, commercial applications ran a median 13 working days of processing time in late 2025, with 93 percent processed within the statutory period.
Auckland Council runs slower than the national picture, and elapsed time there routinely exceeds the statutory period once requests for further information are counted. A well prepared application typically clears in four to six weeks.
Site mobilisation, 2 weeks
From contract award to site establishment. Frequently omitted from client programmes and then discovered as a two week gap.
Procurement and long lead items, runs in parallel
Procurement should start before consent is granted, not after. Cabinetry manufactured in house takes around four weeks. Standard commercial products run four to six weeks. Subcontracted joinery, imported finishes, furniture and specialist plant commonly run 12 to 16 weeks, and mechanical plant and switchboards are the classic critical path items.
The single most effective programme decision is to identify long lead items at the end of schematic design rather than at the start of construction, so orders are placed while documentation is being finalised.
Construction, 4 to 20 weeks depending on value
Broadly: strip out, services rough in, partitions and ceilings, wet areas and joinery installation, floor coverings and finishes, commissioning, furniture and audio visual, clean and defects.
Commissioning and handover, 1 to 2 weeks
Code Compliance Certificate where consent was required, fire and mechanical commissioning, defects walkthrough, operations and maintenance manuals. Build this in. Practical completion is not the same as being able to occupy or trade.
What makes a fitout take longer
Late scope change. The most expensive kind of delay because it compounds across design, consent and procurement simultaneously.
Working in an occupied or trading building. Live environments require staged works, restricted access windows and after hours noisy work. Expect a programme extension in the range of 20 to 50 percent compared with the same scope in an empty space. The trade off is that the business keeps operating, which is almost always worth more than the extra weeks.
Base build surprises. Asbestos, undocumented services, non compliant existing work and seismic issues discovered after strip out.
Requests for further information on consent. Each one stops the statutory clock and adds the council’s re review time on top of your own response time.
Change of use. Where a fitout changes the building’s use category, upgrade obligations for fire safety, accessibility and structure can be triggered, which adds both scope and consent complexity.
Single source procurement. Any item with one supplier and a long lead time becomes the critical path by default.
How to compress the programme
Run design and consent before the lease is signed, using a conditional agreement to lease. Order long lead items in parallel with consent rather than after it. Bring the contractor in during design so buildability and lead times shape the drawings instead of being discovered afterwards. Lock the specification and hold it.
Design and build procurement compresses the overall programme by roughly 30 to 40 percent compared with a sequential design, tender then construct approach, mainly by overlapping design with procurement.
Offsite manufacture is the other significant lever. Where joinery and assemblies are produced in a factory while site works proceed, the two programmes run concurrently rather than sequentially. In house manufacturing reduces lead times by up to 35 percent against subcontracted supply and removes reliance on volatile external suppliers.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an office fitout take in New Zealand? On site duration tracks project value more reliably than floor area. A fitout under $500,000 typically takes four weeks on site, $500,000 to $1 million six weeks, $1 million to $3 million eight to twelve weeks, and $5 million and above twelve weeks or more. Add design, landlord approval, consent and procurement to reach an end to end duration of three to six months for most projects.
How long does building consent take for a fitout in Auckland? The statutory processing period is 20 working days, but the clock pauses when the council requests further information. Nationally, commercial applications ran a median 13 working days of processing in late 2025, with 93 percent processed within the statutory period. Auckland runs slower, and elapsed time is considerably longer than processing time. A realistic planning assumption is six to ten weeks from lodgement to grant.
What is the longest lead time item in a fitout? Mechanical plant, switchboards, glazed partition systems, imported finishes and loose furniture, all commonly 12 to 16 weeks or longer. Cabinetry manufactured in house is a notable exception at around four weeks. Identify long lead items at the end of schematic design so orders go out while documentation is being finalised.
Can a fitout be done while we keep operating? Yes, and most commercial fitout work in New Zealand is delivered this way. Over 80 percent of Complete Construction’s projects are delivered in live, occupied buildings. It requires zoning, staged handover, after hours noisy work and tighter coordination, and typically extends the programme by 20 to 50 percent.
Should we sign the lease before designing the fitout? Most tenants use a conditional agreement to lease so design and consent can start while commercial terms are finalised. This commonly removes one to two months of dead time from the programme. Take legal advice on the conditions.
Related reading
- Long Lead Items in New Zealand Fitout: What to Order First
- Does Your Commercial Fitout Need a Building Consent?
- Auckland Council Consent Timeframes: Statutory Versus Reality
Sources
- Complete Construction completed project record
- Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, building consent processing statistics, Q4 2025
- Building Act 2004
- Auckland Council, building consent processing guidance
This article is general information. Programme durations vary significantly by project, building and scope.