Knockdown rebuild
Melbourne
A knockdown rebuild in Melbourne typically costs $400,000 to $1.5 million all in — demolition, site costs and the new home together. Crowncon handles every part of it across Bayside and South East Melbourne, under one fixed price, with Tim on site.
The block is right.
The house isn't.
A knockdown rebuild means demolishing the existing house and building a new one on the same land. You keep the street, the schools, the neighbours and the land value — and replace a floor plan that stopped working years ago. For most families in Bayside and South East Melbourne it costs less than buying the equivalent home somewhere else, and less stress than renovating around a structure you can't see inside.
One Contract, Start to Finish
Demolition, site works, planning permits, design and construction — all under one fixed-price knockdown rebuild contract. No coordinating four separate trades yourself.
We Know These Councils
Bayside, Kingston and Frankston each apply their own overlays and character controls. Knowing which ones bite before you design saves months on a knockdown rebuild.
The Real Number, Early
We price the whole knockdown rebuild — including asbestos, site costs and service connections — before you commit. The surprises get found during feasibility, not mid-build.
Tim, On Every Site
A knockdown rebuild has more moving parts than a standard build. You deal with Tim through all of them — no project managers, no hand-offs, no chasing.
What it actually costs
in 2026
A knockdown rebuild is two projects stacked on each other — getting the old house off the block, and building the new one on it. Here is how the number breaks down. These are real Melbourne ranges, not a marketing figure designed to get you through the door.
| Cost component | 2026 Melbourne range | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Demolition | $15,000–$40,000 | Single vs double storey, brick vs weatherboard, site access |
| Asbestos removal (pre-1990 homes) | $2,500–$15,000+ | Quantity found, licensed removal and disposal |
| Site costs | $15,000–$80,000+ | Slope, soil classification, service connections, access |
| Planning & permits | $8,000–$25,000 | Overlays, council, engineering, energy rating, surveys |
| New home construction | $2,200–$5,500+/m² | Size, design complexity, level of finish |
| Typical all-in total | $400,000–$1.5m+ | Most Crowncon knockdown rebuilds land $800k–$1.2m |
The line item people forget is rent. You cannot live on site during a knockdown rebuild, so budget 8–12 months of somewhere else to live from the start. Read the full cost breakdown
How a knockdown rebuild
actually runs
Fourteen to twenty months, end to end. Most of the uncertainty sits in the first two stages — which is exactly why we do them properly before anyone signs anything.
Feasibility
We check zoning, overlays, easements, soil and slope against your address, and test for asbestos. You get an honest read on whether a knockdown rebuild stacks up before you spend anything.
Design & Fixed Price
Budget first, plans second. We design to a real number that already includes demolition and site costs — then hold it. Allow 4–8 months across design, engineering and permits.
Permits
We manage council submissions, overlays and building permits. Blocks with a neighbourhood character, heritage or flood overlay need a planning permit too — we tell you upfront if yours does.
Demolition
Services disconnected, asbestos removed by licensed contractors, house down and site cleared. One to two weeks. We handle the permits and the paperwork.
Build & Handover
Six to ten months of construction with Tim on site and regular progress updates. Our Seaford and Bonbeach homes were both delivered in under six months.
Most builders show you the finished photo. We're documenting a knockdown rebuild in Moorabbin as it happens — demolition through to trusses, gaps and all.
If you want to know what a knockdown rebuild really looks like week to week — including the parts that take longer than anyone expects — the Moorabbin build journal is the honest version.
Knockdown rebuilds
across the south-east
We're based in Carrum Downs, roughly ten minutes from most of the blocks we build on. Older housing stock across Bayside and Kingston makes this corridor knockdown rebuild country — good streets, good land, tired houses.
Bayside
Brighton · Hampton · Sandringham · Beaumaris · Cheltenham · Mentone. Heritage and neighbourhood character overlays are common here — worth checking before you design.
Building in BaysideKingston
Highett · Moorabbin · Mordialloc · Bonbeach · Chelsea. Parts of the bayside strip carry flood overlays that change your floor levels and your budget.
Knockdown rebuild in MoorabbinFrankston & South East
Seaford · Frankston · Carrum Downs · Patterson Lakes. Larger blocks, fewer overlays, and often the best value per square metre in the region.
Building in South East MelbourneNot Sure About Your Block?
Our free feasibility check runs your address against Victoria's official planning data — overlays, zoning and bushfire flags — in under a minute.
Check your block, freeFamilies who'd
build with us again
Tim (and the team) were amazing! So easy to work with, very pro active and super organized. Also as a bonus they are extremely family friendly, always made time and allowances for the kids and the dog! The work they did for us is so much better than we ever imagined. 10/10 would recommend!
We had a great experience building our house with Tim. He was super easy to deal with, really professional with amazing communication. We preferred to have a builder with experience in an actual trade so Tim's hands on approach and knowledge made a big difference when it came to design decisions!
Tim and the team are brilliant! Fantastic quality. Great communication. Was really easy to work with. Thanks Tim.
Knockdown rebuild
questions
What people actually ask before they commit. Straight answers — no sales pitch.
How much does a knockdown rebuild cost in Melbourne?
A knockdown rebuild in Melbourne in 2026 typically costs between $400,000 and $1.5 million all in. That covers demolition ($15,000–$40,000), asbestos removal on pre-1990 homes ($2,500–$15,000+), site costs ($15,000–$80,000+) and new home construction at $2,200–$5,500+ per square metre. Most Crowncon knockdown rebuilds across Bayside and South East Melbourne land between $800,000 and $1.2 million.
Is a knockdown rebuild cheaper than renovating?
Often, yes — particularly on homes built before 1980. A major renovation means working around footings, wiring, plumbing and structure you cannot see until you open it up, which is where renovation budgets blow out. A knockdown rebuild starts from a known position: a clear block. You get a new home with a full structural warranty, current energy ratings, and none of the compromises inherited from the old floor plan.
How long does a knockdown rebuild take?
Allow 14 to 20 months end to end. Roughly 4–8 months covers design, engineering and council permits. Demolition itself takes one to two weeks. Construction runs 6–10 months depending on size — we delivered our Seaford and Bonbeach homes in under six months each.
Do I need a planning permit for a knockdown rebuild?
It depends on your overlays. A straightforward block in a General Residential Zone with no overlays usually needs only a building permit. Blocks carrying a neighbourhood character overlay, heritage overlay, flood overlay or bushfire attack level assessment need a planning permit as well, which adds roughly 3–6 months. Bayside and Kingston both apply character controls across parts of their municipalities — check your address before you commit to a design.
Can I stay in my home during a knockdown rebuild?
No. You'll need somewhere to live from demolition through to handover — typically 8 to 12 months. Budget for rent from the start. It's the single most commonly missed line item in a knockdown rebuild.
Which suburbs do you do knockdown rebuilds in?
We build knockdown rebuilds across Bayside and South East Melbourne — Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Black Rock, Beaumaris, Cheltenham, Highett, Mentone, Moorabbin, Mordialloc, Bonbeach, Chelsea, Seaford, Frankston, Carrum Downs and Patterson Lakes. Our office is in Carrum Downs, roughly ten minutes from most of the sites we build on.
What happens to asbestos in an old house?
Homes built before 1990 frequently contain asbestos in eaves, wet-area sheeting and fencing. It has to be removed by a licensed remover and disposed of at a licensed facility before demolition proceeds — budget $2,500 to $15,000 or more. We test for it during feasibility, before you sign anything, so it never becomes a mid-build surprise.
Is my block suitable for a knockdown rebuild?
Most are — but overlays, easements, soil classification and slope all affect what you can build and what it costs. Our free feasibility check runs your address against Victoria's official planning data and returns a plain-language read in under a minute. If you'd rather read first, here's what we check and why.
Can I keep my established trees in a knockdown rebuild?
Often yes — and since 15 September 2025 you may not have the choice. Clause 52.37 of the Victoria Planning Provisions protects canopy trees across most residential zones: anything over 5m tall, with a trunk circumference over 0.5m measured at 1.4m, and a canopy at least 4m across. Vegetation Protection and Significant Landscape Overlays sit on top of that. Keeping a tree means building around its root zone, which affects machinery access, excavation and sometimes the footprint itself. On our Moorabbin build we used cranes rather than trucks specifically so we never had to work close to the owners' thirty-year-old garden. Full guide to what's protected and what it costs.
Who pays if the build damages the nature strip?
The builder does — through an asset protection permit taken out before work starts. It covers everything council owns outside your block: nature strip, footpath, kerb and channel, drains, street trees, signage and the vehicle crossing. In Kingston the permit fee is $350 with a refundable bond of $2,000 on works under $100,000 and $5,000 between $100,000 and $1 million. Damage must be reinstated to council's specification before final inspection, or the bond isn't returned. Worth asking any builder whether the permit and the reinstatement sit inside their fixed price — if they don't, that cost lands on you. We damaged a nature strip on our Moorabbin build and wrote up exactly what we're doing about it.
Do I need to tell my neighbours before I knock down?
There's no blanket legal duty to announce a demolition, but two things can require it. If your rebuild needs a planning permit, council may advertise the application and neighbours can object. And if the work could affect an adjoining property — excavation near a boundary, underpinning, anything touching a shared wall or fence — the Building Act's protection work provisions require you to serve a formal notice on the adjoining owner before starting, and to cover the cost of protecting their property. Past the legal minimum: telling the neighbours what's coming and roughly when is the difference between a build the street tolerates and one it complains about.
How do you stop mould getting into a new frame?
By drying the frame properly before it's closed in. A timber frame will get wet during a Melbourne build — that's unavoidable, and any builder telling you otherwise hasn't worked through a wet winter. What matters is what happens next. Once the roof is on we sweep and blow the water out, wrap the frame, get the windows in and tape around them so the structure is sealed, then run a dehumidifier inside to pull the moisture content down before any insulation or plaster goes near it. It adds a couple of weeks. Skip it and you seal damp timber inside a wall cavity — which is where mould in new homes actually comes from.
Thinking about a
knockdown rebuild?
Book a free, no-obligation conversation with Tim. Tell us about your block, your vision and your budget — and get an honest read on whether a knockdown rebuild stacks up for you.
Building Law Changes 2026
The new home warranty, and how we build ahead of the standard.
Read the breakdown