About us
Real numbers from people who actually paid them.
Most home-cost guides are written by people who have never held a quote in their hands. Project Price Point works the other way around: we start with what Australian homeowners actually spent, in their own words, and fill the gaps with researched market ranges.
Why we started
Home-improvement pricing is deliberately opaque. You get a lump-sum quote with no breakdown, no way to compare it against anything, and no sense of whether the number is reasonable or padded. Ask around and you'll get three wildly different answers from three people who each did the job once.
Most cost guides online don't help. They're thin, out of date, quietly written to sell you something, or based on American prices that mean very little in Newcastle or Coffs Harbour.
We wanted the opposite: itemised breakdowns, dated so you know how current they are, priced in Australian dollars, and grounded wherever possible in what a real person actually paid. If we do our job, you walk into a quote already knowing the range to expect and the questions to ask.
The people
Who writes Project Price Point
Project Price Point is a small independent site, not a content agency. It's run by one person, and its most valuable material comes from named homeowners who share what their projects genuinely cost.
I research and write the cost guides, and I edit the homeowner accounts that appear alongside them. I'm accountable for every number on this site. I'm not a builder or a licensed trade — I'm the person who got tired of being unable to find out what things should cost before agreeing to pay for them. If you think a figure here is wrong, I would genuinely rather hear it than not: the contact page comes straight to me.
James has renovated an established property and priced up a second dwelling on his block. Several guides carry a first-hand account from him covering what he actually paid, what caught him out, and what he learned managing trades himself. Where you see “A Newcastle homeowner’s account,” that’s James, in his own words. He’s credited by first name and region at his request, and the figures he shares are his genuine out-of-pocket costs in Australian dollars.
How we work
Our editorial standards
First-hand accounts are real, and clearly labelled
When a guide includes a homeowner's account, that person actually did the work and the figures are what they actually paid. We don't invent composite homeowners, and we don't bolt a personal story onto a guide where nobody has genuine experience. Guides without a named account are researched market ranges, and we say so.
We name our sources
Researched ranges are built from published industry pricing, trade cost guides and public data. Each guide names the sources behind its figures at the foot of the page, so you can go and check them yourself.
We date everything, and we're honest about currency
Prices move, so every guide shows when it was last updated. Some of our earlier guides were built on international benchmark data and are progressively being rebuilt with Australian pricing. Where a guide has been localised, its ranges reflect Australian market data rather than a currency conversion — and where it hasn't been yet, we don't pretend otherwise.
Our numbers are planning estimates, not quotes
Costs vary by region, by house, and by how busy the trades are that month. Our guides are independent research, not an assessment of your specific project. Always confirm with local, itemised quotes before committing to a budget.
Money never decides what a guide says
Advertising and affiliate relationships have no influence on our figures, our recommendations, or the order in which anything appears.
We correct mistakes in the open
When we get something wrong we fix it and note the correction. Accuracy matters more than looking infallible.
Have you renovated in Australia?
The most useful thing on this site is a real person saying what they actually paid. If you've renovated, extended, repaired, or even just collected quotes and decided against it, we'd like to hear about it — including the jobs that went badly, which are often the most useful of all.
Contributors are credited however they prefer: full name, first name and region only, or not at all. Get in touch.
How we make money
Plainly, so there's no confusion.
Project Price Point is free to read and supported by advertising. Some pages display ads, and we may earn a commission when readers use certain links — at no additional cost to you.
Our commitment: advertising and commissions never influence our cost research, our recommendations, or the order in which anything appears. The guide says what our research found, full stop.