Whole-house fit-out landed in Adelaide

The whole-house fit-out we priced

A four-bedroom house: kitchen, laundry, wardrobes, vanities, stone, tiles, tapware and sanitary ware, internal doors and lighting, from three or four factories consolidated in Foshan.

Landed in Adelaide, line by line

Every line from the factory gate to your site. Low, middle and high use the low, middle and high of every published rate at once. Estimate: no delivered Elje job sits behind this figure yet.

Against Adelaide prices

Supply only is the fair comparison with a landed price; installed prices include labour, which you pay either way.

The local figures are built up room by room from published cost guides (kitchen, two bathrooms and an ensuite, laundry, about 10 metres of wardrobes, 150 m2 of floor tile), then the goods share is taken at 55 to 65 percent of the installed total. No published survey prices a whole fit-out by city.

No city fit-out source; national figure used. RLB Riders Digest 2026 (Q4 2025 rates, ex GST) custom-built single and double storey dwellings in Adelaide: $2,200 to $4,000 per m2 GFA.

Is it worth it?

Usually, and by most at a mid to high spec. About $76,749 landed in Adelaide against roughly $75,000 to $175,000 for the same goods locally. At the bottom of that local range a budget fit-out costs about the same as landed; at the spec Elje prices (2-pac, stone, brand-level tapware) the gap is tens of thousands, because one container, one customs entry and one set of Elje fees carry the whole house. Estimate.

The Adelaide market

Adelaide is the cheapest of the eight on the cost index, about 8 percent under Brisbane: kitchens $11,050 to $41,400 installed, bathrooms $9,200 to $32,200, tiling labour $37 to $92 per m2. Stone fabrication is 15 to 20 percent cheaper per metre than in Sydney or Melbourne. Cheaper local prices mean a smaller gap to landed here than on the east coast.

How it gets to Adelaide

Foshan factory to Nansha, Shekou or Yantian, then a service to Outer Harbor, often with a stop or a transhipment on the way, then about 25 km by road to the city.

One container terminal, Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal at Outer Harbor, about 25 km north-west of the city.

Most Adelaide suburbs take a container at the kerb. Older inner-east streets can be narrow; ask before booking a 40 ft.

What moves the number

• 20 ft or 40 ft. A typical four-bedroom fit-out of joinery, stone, tiles and tapware fits a 20 ft container. Add internal doors and more joinery and it needs a 40 ft, which adds about $4,500 landed at October 2026 rates.
• How many factories. Every factory means a pre-shipment inspection, about US$240 to US$310 a day.
• Consolidation. Goods from several factories are gathered at one Foshan warehouse and go in one container, under one customs entry.
• Freight timing. Carriers have announced rate increases from November 2026. The rate is set when the container is booked, not when you order.
• Elje's fees are the same whatever the size: $990 for the Project Plan and 2 percent of the order for Assured.

What it has to comply with

• One shipment, many rules: WaterMark and WELS for plumbing, AS 4586 slip ratings for tiles, illegal logging due diligence for timber and board, RCM for anything electrical, ISPM 15 for timber packaging.
• Aluminium windows and doors from China attract anti-dumping and countervailing deposits from 15 October 2026 that a certificate of origin does not remove. Price them separately.
• Nearly every fit-out product is Free of duty from China with a ChAFTA certificate of origin; without one, most are 5 percent.

Notes for Adelaide

Hot dry summers and mild winters. Check veneers and solid timber are kiln-dried to suit dry air, and specify UV-stable finishes outdoors.

• Adelaide has fewer direct calls from South China than the east coast ports, so transit is longer and less predictable. Build the extra weeks into the program.
• Shared-container (LCL) services into Adelaide are thinner. Some forwarders route LCL through Melbourne and truck it across; ask which.
• Plumbing and building work is licensed through Consumer and Business Services SA. Imported WaterMark and RCM products go in the same way as local ones.

Questions