How Much Does It Cost to Rewire a House in Melbourne or Sydney?

"How much will it cost?" is usually the first question homeowners ask about rewiring, and it's a fair one, but there's no single honest number that applies to every house. A one-bedroom apartment with easy ceiling access and a two-storey Victorian-era home with plaster walls and no subfloor access are completely different jobs, even though both get called "a rewire." Here's what actually drives the price, so you know what to ask about when you get quotes.

What affects the cost of rewiring a house

A few factors do most of the work in determining price:

• Size of the home and number of circuits. More rooms, more power points, and more lighting circuits means more cable and more time on site.
• Access. A home with an accessible roof cavity and subfloor is far quicker to rewire than one with none, since cable can be run without opening walls. Solid brick, double-storey, and heritage homes typically cost more because of the extra work needed to run cable through finished walls.
• Switchboard condition. Most full rewires also need a switchboard upgrade to handle modern loads and safety switch requirements, which is usually priced as part of the job rather than as an afterthought.
• Current wiring type. Homes with old cloth or rubber-insulated (VIR) wiring, or aluminium wiring, often need more extensive work than homes with ageing but modern PVC-insulated cable.
• Whether it's during a renovation. Rewiring while walls are already open during a renovation is significantly cheaper than rewiring a home that's fully lined and finished, since there's no patch-up and reinstatement work required.

Getting an accurate price

Because of how much these factors vary, any number quoted without a site visit is really just a guess. We provide a clear, upfront quote after assessing your specific property, so you know the full cost before any work begins, with no surprises added to the invoice partway through.

Signs your home might need rewiring

• Fuses (not modern circuit breakers) in your switchboard
• Fabric or rubber-insulated cabling visible in the roof or subfloor
• Frequent tripping, flickering lights, or warm power points
• A home built or last rewired before the early 1980s that hasn't been upgraded since
• Not enough power points for how the home is actually used, leading to double adaptors and power boards everywhere

Staging the work if a full rewire isn't in budget yet

If a full rewire isn't feasible right now, a licensed electrician can prioritise the highest-risk circuits first (typically the switchboard and any areas with old cloth-insulated wiring) and plan the rest in stages over time, rather than leaving it all until it becomes an emergency.