House Rewiring Cost in Australia: Per Room and Per Point
Estimate your own rewire by room and power point, with live whole-house figures, what changes the price and what a partial job really costs.
A typical 100 m2 home costs $11,000 to rewire, with a usual range of $8,550 – $14,300. Basic jobs come in around $9,100 and premium jobs reach $14,000, all including GST. Here is how to turn that whole-house figure into a number for your own home.
For the full breakdown, see our House rewiring guide. This article is about scaling the price down to a unit, such as a room or a power point, and about where that approach misleads you.
The quick method: price per square metre
Our typical figure is for 100 m2, so divide it by 100 to get a working rate per square metre. Multiply that by your floor area for a first estimate. A 70 m2 unit or small cottage will land lower than the 100 m2 benchmark, but not proportionally lower, because some costs don't shrink with the house (see below).
How we calculate it: labour hours × local rates, plus materials, checked against market prices and real quotes. Cable runs, power points, switches, lighting circuits, safety switches and testing all feed into the total.
Per room: what drives the difference
Rooms are not equal. Rough guide to how much of the job each takes:
- Kitchen and laundry: the heaviest. Dedicated circuits for the oven, cooktop, dishwasher and washing machine, plus many power points in a small space.
- Bathrooms: fewer points, but wet-area rules, exhaust fans and heated fixtures add work.
- Living areas and bedrooms: the cheapest per room. Mostly lighting and general power points on shared circuits.
- Hallways and roof space: cheap in themselves, but cable runs through them carry the rest of the house.
So if you're rewiring only a kitchen and laundry, expect those two rooms to cost far more per square metre than the house average.
Per power point: the add-on test
Quotes are often built from a per-point price. When a tradesperson quotes a number of points, ask what it covers:
- cable run back to the board, not just the fitting
- chasing and making good, or just the cable and faceplate
- whether lighting points, switches and smoke alarms are counted separately
- testing and certification
A cheap "per point" price that excludes plaster repair or the board can end up costing more than a fully priced job. Adding a single point in a house being rewired anyway is cheap. Adding one to an old circuit that needs a new cable run is not.
Hidden costs that don't scale down
These stay roughly the same whether the house is small or large:
- Switchboard: the choice between keeping the existing board and fitting a new one with RCBOs is a big swing. A modern, tested board can stay; an old one usually can't.
- Finishing: the difference between holes filled ready for decorating and full replastering and redecorating is substantial. Redecorating is a different trade and a different budget, so check which one your quote includes.
- Access: double-storey and heritage homes take more labour. The "walls" option in the cost model captures this.
- Living in the house: working around an occupied home takes longer than an empty one.
- Certification: electrical and plumbing work must be done by licensed tradespeople under state licensing. In Victoria, a Certificate of Electrical Safety is lodged with Energy Safe Victoria, and only registered licence holders can buy and lodge certificates. The prescribed electronic certificate fee is $39.70 in FY26-27, and it is usually small next to the job.
Compare the options
The table below shows how the main choices move the price for a typical home.
| Material | Typical | Usual range | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard construction | $11,000 | $8,550 – $14,300 | – |
| Double-storey or heritage home | $14,300 | $11,200 – $18,600 | – |
Partial rewire or full rewire?
A partial rewire makes sense when only one circuit group is failing, for example the kitchen and laundry, or a section added in an older extension. It is the wrong call when the wiring is the same age throughout. You pay for access, the board and the licensed electrician's time twice if you come back to do the rest later.
A useful rule: if more than about half of the house needs new cable, price the full job and compare it with the partial quote. The saving from skipping rooms is often smaller than you'd expect.
Related jobs worth pricing together
Rewiring opens walls and ceilings, which makes it the cheapest time to do other electrical work:
- A dedicated circuit for an EV charger: see our EV charger guide.
- Wiring for split systems: see our Split system air conditioning guide.
- A heat pump hot water unit also needs a suitable circuit: see our Heat pump hot water guide.
- If you're adding solar, see our Solar panels guide, since the board and circuits matter there too.
Check your quote
Once you have a quote, run it through our quote checker (the "is my quote fair" tool). Compare the number of points, whether the board is included, and what finish is assumed. Those three items explain most of the gap between quotes. Get at least three, and ask each electrician to price the same scope so you're comparing like with like.