How Much Does a Building Inspection Cost in Melbourne?

A pre-purchase building inspection in Melbourne costs between $350 and $900, and most standard three or four bedroom houses land between $500 and $650. At Melba Building Inspections a pre-purchase building inspection is $595 inc. GST, or $650 inc. GST with a timber pest inspection included.

What moves the price is the size of the house, its age and construction, how much of it can safely be got into, and whether timber pest work is bundled in. A one-bedroom unit in Bundoora takes far less time than a double-storey home on timber stumps on a sloping block in Eltham, so it costs less.

Below is the actual price list, what changes it, what the fee covers, what it does not cover, and how to compare two quotes properly. Nathan Maries has 23 years in construction and nine of those as a project manager, and these prices are set on what the work honestly takes.

Melba Building Inspections price list

These are the published prices for Melbourne's north-east.

What actually changes the price

Two quotes for the same suburb can sit $200 apart for good reasons. These are the things that genuinely move the number:

• Size and storeys. A two-bedroom unit is roughly half the on-site time of a five-bedroom double-storey house.
• Age and construction. A 1970s brick veneer home on timber stumps has a subfloor to get into. A newer home on a concrete slab does not.
• Access. A crawlable subfloor and a proper roof manhole mean the inspection can be done properly. Blocked, sealed or unsafe areas take longer to work around and have to be recorded as limitations.
• The site itself. Retaining walls, decks, carports, sheds and steep driveways all add time.
• Timber pest. Adding a timber pest inspection to a building inspection is $55 with Melba, because the inspector is already on site.
• Timing. A short-notice booking before an auction is a different job to one with a week's notice.

What the fee includes

A Melba pre-purchase inspection is prepared with reference to AS 4349.1, the Australian Standard for pre-purchase property inspections. Timber pest work references AS 4349.3. For $595 you get:

• The interior and the exterior of the building, including walls, floors, ceilings, windows and doors.
• The roof space, where there is safe access.
• The subfloor or under-floor space, where there is safe access.
• The roof exterior, viewed from a safe position.
• Outbuildings and the site within the boundaries, including garages, carports, sheds, retaining walls, paths and drainage.
• Photos of anything worth knowing about, so you can see it yourself rather than take someone's word for it.
• The written report the same day in most cases.
• A phone call afterwards to talk through what was found and what it means for your offer.

What is not included, and why that matters

This is where cheap quotes quietly earn their margin. A standard building inspection is visual and non-invasive. Nobody cuts into walls, lifts carpet, moves your stored goods or takes the lid off a switchboard. That is the standard, not a shortcut, and any inspector who claims otherwise is overselling.

• Concealed areas are not covered. Inside wall cavities, under floor coverings, behind stored goods and inside sealed roof spaces cannot be seen. Anything inaccessible on the day gets written into the report as a limitation.
• It is not a compliance certificate or a valuation. A building inspection reports on condition. It does not certify the house against the Building Code, and it does not tell you what the property is worth.
• Specialist trades are separate. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical inspections are arranged through licensed partners. Nathan does not carry out that work himself, licensed tradespeople do.
• Asbestos and lab testing. Suspect materials can be flagged in the report, but confirming them takes laboratory testing by a specialist.

Read the limitations section of any report before you rely on it. If a subfloor was never entered, the report cannot tell you what is going on under the house.

Why the cheapest quote often costs the most

You can book a $250 to $350 inspection in Melbourne today. The money has to come from somewhere, and it usually comes out of time on site. Here is the honest comparison.

How to compare quotes without getting stung

Ask every inspector you call the same seven questions, and the cheap quotes sort themselves out quickly:

• Is that price inc. GST, and is there a travel or call-out fee on top? Advertised prices are sometimes ex-GST.
• Will you enter the roof space and the subfloor, or view them from the access hatch? This is the single biggest difference between quotes.
• Is the report referenced to AS 4349.1? If they cannot answer that, keep dialling.
• Is timber pest included or extra? Some quotes look sharp because pest is a separate $250 later.
• Who is attending, and what is their background on site? Ask directly.
• When do I get the report, and can I ring you about it? A report you cannot ask questions about is half a service.
• Can I see the inspection agreement and terms before I book? You should get these up front, not after payment.

What Melbourne's north-east adds to the job

The housing stock here shapes the work. Greensborough, Watsonia, Macleod, Rosanna and Heidelberg carry a lot of 1950s to 1970s brick veneer and weatherboard homes on timber stumps, and the Silurian mudstone and clay soils through the north-east move with the seasons. Footing and stump movement, cracked brickwork and uneven floors are ordinary findings here, not exotic ones.

• Eltham, Diamond Creek, Hurstbridge and Montmorency have steep treed blocks, split-level homes, decks, retaining walls and a good number of mudbrick and rammed earth houses from the Alistair Knox era. These take longer to inspect and need someone who has actually built on sloping sites.
• Leafy, damp subfloors across the north-east mean timber pest risk is real. On an older home with timber floors, the $55 to add timber pest is the easiest decision on this page.
• Parts of Nillumbik sit in a Bushfire Management Overlay, which affects what can be built and altered. That is a planning matter for your conveyancer, but it is worth knowing before you bid.

A $595 inspection on a split-level Eltham home is more work than the same fee on a Bundoora unit. The price stays the same. The time does not.

Book before you are committed, not after

Timing matters more than the fee. In Victoria there is no cooling-off period when you buy at auction, or within three clear business days either side of the scheduled auction date. Once the hammer falls the contract is unconditional, and whatever the inspection would have found is now yours to pay for. Private sales carry a three business day cooling-off period, which is short.

So the inspection has to happen before you bid or before you sign, alongside your conveyancer's review of the Section 32 vendor's statement. If the auction is Saturday, ring during the week. Bookings in Greensborough, Eltham, Diamond Creek, Ivanhoe, Watsonia, Montmorency, Doreen, Bundoora, Heidelberg, Rosanna, Macleod and Hurstbridge can usually be fitted in within a couple of days.

Common questions

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