What development soft costs run to before you build in Australia

Before construction starts, a duplex needs about $48,000 to $157,000 for council fees, design, consultants, reports and quantity surveyor work, and six townhouses about $134,000 to $452,000. That is roughly 2% to 7% of total development cost. The architect and engineers are the biggest lines. The council application fee is the smallest.

A developer's first cheques go to people who never lay a brick: the council, the architect, the engineers, the planner, the specialist report writers and the quantity surveyor. Those soft costs are paid in cash before a construction lender signs anything, and they are easy to leave out of an early feasibility. This guide prices each line from published fee schedules and guide ranges, applies them to a duplex, a six-townhouse project and a small apartment building, shows them as a share of total development cost, sets out which ones a lender needs before it will move, and explains how the equity and the build are funded.

What the council charges to lodge

The council fee is the smallest soft cost and the only one set by a published schedule. The table applies three 2026-27 schedules to the same three projects. The build costs are our assumption, excluding GST: $1.1 million for a duplex, $3.44 million for six townhouses with site works, and $5.7 million for 12 apartments. For scale, Rider Levett Bucknall's Riders Digest 2026 for Melbourne prices walk-up units at $285,000 to $585,000 a unit and townhouses at $315,000 to $700,000 a unit, current at the fourth quarter of 2025. It states that its build rates exclude land, site works and legal and professional fees, so everything in this guide sits on top of a quantity surveyor's build number.

How each is built. NSW: for estimated cost including GST between $1 million and $10 million, the 2026/27 schedule is $3,625 plus $1.44 for each $1,000 or part above $1 million (our arithmetic on the assumed costs plus 10% GST). Victoria: Class 13 ($1 million to $5 million) is $3,980.70 and Class 14 ($5 million to $15 million) is $10,146.10, at a 2026-27 fee unit of $17.27. Brisbane: the multiple dwelling fee includes dual occupancy, the base of $9,150 covers up to two units, and each unit from the third to the 70th adds $450 (our reading of the schedule). An impact assessable application adds a further $17,100.

Subdivision is separate. Victoria charges $1,537.00 to subdivide into two lots. Brisbane's reconfiguring a lot fee is $4,500 for up to two lots plus $900 for each lot from the third to the 30th. Infrastructure charges and developer contributions are also separate and usually larger than the application fee, so they are not in this guide; see the townhouse and duplex cost guides. NSW councils also push cost verification onto a quantity surveyor: Bayside Council asks for a QS estimated development cost report on works over $500,000, and a QS gross floor area validation from $3 million.

What the consultants and reports cost

No one publishes an official scale for these fees. Melbourne practice BY Projects Architecture states there is no official architect fee scale in Australia, because the Institute withdrew its guide after competition concerns in 2005, so every number below is a published guide range, not a quote. Feasly's September 2026 guide puts total professional fees at 8% to 15% of construction cost and warns that the published percentages disagree mainly because they use different denominators.

Ask the architect for a fee that lists the stages it covers. Planning approval is one stage in the middle of a five-stage engagement, and engineers, the quantity surveyor and the land surveyor usually sit outside the architect's fee. Councils decide the report list. Bayside (NSW) asks for a statement of environmental effects, stormwater concept plan, arborist report and BASIX certificate on multi-unit housing, with a design review panel from three storeys. Knox (Victoria) asks for a sustainable design assessment or sustainability management plan, a levels and features plan by a licensed land surveyor, and a Metropolitan Planning Levy certificate with a multi-dwelling permit application.

Soft costs as a share of total development cost

This table adds the lines above for each project: council fee, architect at 2% to 8% of build cost, engineers at 1% to 3%, the planner, the extra reports, and three quantity surveyor jobs (DA cost report, feasibility estimate, lender report). It leaves out contingency, council infrastructure charges, finance, selling costs, land survey, valuation and legals. Total development cost (TDC) is an assumption: $2.5 million for the duplex, $6.2 million for six townhouses and $10.5 million for the apartments, each including land, build, finance and selling costs.

All figures in the table are our arithmetic on published ranges. The spread is wide because the architect percentage is wide, and a signed fee proposal removes most of it. As a cross-check, Feasly's June 2026 four-townhouse example carries $180,000 of professional fees (3.4% of its $5.33 million project cost) and $120,000 of statutory fees and infrastructure contributions. The council fee is a few thousand dollars on the duplex and under 0.2% of TDC on the apartments; the design team is where the money goes. The same costs matter to what an approved site is worth, because a buyer pays for an approval that has already absorbed them, and to subdivision costs, where the approval and survey lines repeat.

What a construction lender needs before it issues terms

A lender does not lend on a sketch. The items below come from two published lender-readiness checklists, so read them as the usual order of events rather than one lender's policy. Lenders differ, and some will give indicative terms earlier than others.

Now the honest part on appetite. Integrated Finance Group's August 2026 guide has a major bank at 65% to 75% of TDC with presales covering 100% of the debt, a non-bank senior lender at 65% to 80% with presales of 30% to 50%, and private or mezzanine money at 75% to 85% combined with presales of 0% to 30%. Feasly's page for the same period gives banks 70% to 80% of TDC and 60% to 70% of end value. Small first projects with no presales and no builder contract struggle at the banks. The soft costs themselves are almost never lent against: you pay them from your own cash before the first drawdown.

How the soft costs and the build are funded

Council fees, consultants and reports are paid before any construction facility exists, so they are equity. Lenders still count them as project cost, which means paying them lifts your contribution toward the 25% to 35% most first-time developers are asked for. The usual way to fund them is cash, or a loan secured on a home or investment property you already own. A development finance facility from a bank, a non-bank lender or a private lender then funds the build against the approval, the QS cost report and the signed contract. Private lending is typically business-purpose and not consumer regulated, and it costs more than bank debt. Ventas is a broker, not a lender, so we do not quote rates here.

Illustrative only, subject to lender assessment. Six townhouses in Brisbane, assumed total development cost of $6.2 million:

And how it is typically funded:

Equity here is $2,170,000, or 35% of TDC. To get a number from Ventas, send the site address, the DA status or lodgement date, your consultant fee proposals, the QS cost estimate or a build quote, your equity sources, and any presale plan. Start at our development application form. Finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Figures are indicative market data from the sources listed, not Ventas offers, and move with the market. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a professional. All finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This article is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Ventas Asset Lending is a finance broker, not a lender. Approvals are subject to lender assessment. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a qualified professional, including your accountant for any tax questions.