Bathroom landed on the Gold Coast

The bathroom we priced

1200 wall-hung vanity with stone top, basin, basin mixer, shower rail and rose with a concealed mixer, toilet suite with concealed cistern, towel rail and accessories. Tiles priced separately.

Landed on the Gold Coast, 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.

Shipped with a kitchen

On its own, a bathroom pays the full set of fixed charges and Elje's minimum fees. Added to a kitchen in the same shipment it adds about $4,254 to the kitchen's landed price ($3,295 to $5,554), because the port, broker, delivery and Project Plan are already paid. Estimate.

Against Gold Coast prices

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

The local set is priced from real products at an Australian online retailer that ships nationally: a Timberline or Parisi 1200 vanity, Phoenix or Gessi tapware, a Caroma or Villeroy and Boch wall-faced toilet suite. Many were on sale.

Is it worth it?

Not on its own. Shipped alone it lands at about $8,186, inside the $5,900 to $10,100 a local set costs, because one bathroom carries a whole shipment's fixed charges. Shipped with a kitchen it adds about $4,254, well under the local price. Estimate.

The Gold Coast market

The Gold Coast tracks Brisbane, about 2 percent under it on the same cost index: kitchens $11,750 to $44,100 installed, bathrooms $9,800 to $34,300. Rider Levett Bucknall expects the same 7 percent a year escalation as Brisbane from 2027. The Tile Collective prices its Gold Coast store the same as Brisbane, and plumbers charge about $78 to $195 an hour.

How it gets to the Gold Coast

Foshan factory to Nansha or Shekou, a South China service to the Port of Brisbane, then about 95 km by road down the M1 to Southport, Burleigh or Palm Beach.

The Gold Coast has no container port. Everything lands at Fisherman Islands in Brisbane and comes down the M1.

Most Gold Coast deliveries are tautliner loads from a Brisbane depot rather than a container at the kerb, because of apartment access and the extra distance.

What moves the number

• Vanity size and top. A 1200 vanity with a stone top costs about twice a 900 with a ceramic top.
• Cistern. A concealed cistern and panel costs more than a close-coupled suite, and needs a wall cavity ready for it.
• Finish. Brushed brass, gunmetal and other PVD finishes cost more than chrome at the factory, but far less than the same finish here.
• Two factories. Tapware and sanitary ware often come from a different factory to the vanity, so two inspections.
• Tiles are priced separately. See tiles.

What it has to comply with

• Every tap, mixer, waste, toilet and cistern needs a current WaterMark certificate in the maker's name. A licensed plumber is not permitted to install a product without it.
• Toilets, taps and showers need WELS registration and labelling before supply.
• Toilets and basins: tariff 6910.10.00, general duty 5 percent, Free from China with a certificate of origin.

Notes for the Gold Coast

Coastal and subtropical, with salt air within a few kilometres of the beach. Specify PVD or 316 stainless on tapware and hardware, and marine-grade powder coat on anything outside.

• The landed price is the Brisbane price plus a longer truck run. The ocean leg is identical.
• High-rise apartments need a booked loading dock, lift and body corporate approval. Containers are unpacked at a depot and the goods come in by truck and trolley.
• Many Gold Coast renovations are apartments and townhouses, where the order is a kitchen and two bathrooms, not a whole house. That usually means a shared container, not your own.

Questions