How much does it cost to open a cafe in Sydney?

Michael Le · Sydney · Updated 3 September 2026

The full list, line by line

Two columns, because there are two very different ways to open. The lean column is a 60 square metre former cafe you take over and refresh. The build column is the same space as an empty shell, fitted out to a mid-range standard. Both are one room, one coffee machine, about 30 seats, seven days a week.

Where the money actually goes

The lease. A landlord will ask for security, usually a bank guarantee of one to three months' rent, and some ask for six, plus the first month up front. On a $1,500 a week inner Sydney shop, three months' security and a month in advance is close to $26,000 before you own a chair. Add $1,000 to $3,000 for a lawyer to read the lease. Do not skip the lawyer. Under the NSW Retail Leases Act the landlord must hand you a disclosure statement at least seven days before the lease starts, listing rent, outgoings and the term. Read it. Outgoings are the second rent.

The fit-out. Australian fit-out builders quote $1,800 to $2,500 per square metre for a basic takeaway, $2,500 to $4,000 for a mid-range dine-in cafe, and $4,500 and up for premium. Sixty square metres at mid-range is $150,000 to $240,000. Joinery alone runs $15,000 to $25,000. Builders allow eight to twelve weeks on site, and every week you are paying rent on a room that cannot trade.

The three you cannot see. Mechanical exhaust and ventilation, $15,000 to $45,000. A grease trap, $10,000 to $25,000 to install, plus a trade wastewater connection agreement with Sydney Water, which every retail food business must hold. Council applications and a certifier, $5,000 to $15,000. A former cafe usually has the first two already, and a change of use may not be needed. This is why a dead cafe is worth more to you than a beautiful empty shop.

The lucky option: take over the lease. Cafes close every week in Sydney, and when one does, the landlord wants the next tenant in fast. Take over the lease of a former cafe and you can inherit the exhaust, the grease trap, three-phase power, the cool room, sometimes the parking, and often the approvals. Everything in the table above that costs the most is already bolted to the building. I have friends who opened this way and spent less than $15,000 on their fit-out. That is not a typo. It is paint, a bench, a machine and a sign. Watch the listings for "former cafe" and "fully fitted", ask the agent why the last one left, and make sure the exhaust and grease trap have a current certificate before you get excited.

The machine. A commercial espresso machine is $7,000 to $18,000 and the grinders are $1,000 to $3,000 each. You need two grinders. Buy the machine new or on a roaster deal. Most of the rest of the kitchen can be secondhand, and in Sydney it always is, because cafes close every week and their equipment is sold within a month.

The brand. A name, a logo, a menu that reads well, signage, and a website people can find. Signage and exterior alone is $2,000 to $10,000. Spend here before you spend on the ceiling. Nobody photographs the ceiling.

The paperwork. In NSW you notify your council before you start selling food. The form is simple. Councils then charge their own annual administration and inspection fees, and they vary by council. You need a certified food safety supervisor on the premises. The course is about $120 to $200 online and the certificate is renewed every five years. Public liability and contents insurance is $2,000 to $5,000 a year. Music in the room needs a licence, $35 to $185 a month. Outdoor seating is a separate council permit with its own fee.

The people. From 1 July 2026 a casual food and beverage attendant at level 2 under the Restaurant Industry Award is $33.85 an hour, and Saturdays and Sundays are 150% at that level. From level 3 up, Sundays are 175%. Two casuals covering 112 hours a week, plus 12% super, is about $4,200 a week before penalty rates. That is $32,000 to $40,000 for the first eight weeks, and you have not paid yourself.

The number nobody puts in the spreadsheet

Working capital. The 2025 Restaurant and Catering Australia benchmark puts wages at 40.25% of turnover and rent at 10.79%. Almost two in five venues made 2% or less. Those are venues that have been trading for years. A cafe in its first three months is not one of them. You will be busy on the weekend and quiet on Tuesday, and the wages and rent arrive either way.

So the last line of the budget is three months of rent and wages sitting in the bank on opening day, untouched by the build. For the cafe above that is about $75,000, on top of the table. If you cannot get there, open smaller, open later, or do not open. Running out of cash in month four is the most common way a good cafe dies, and the numbers were visible before the lease was signed.

What this looked like for me

In 2011 I found an empty shop on Enmore Road. It had been a locksmith for years, and then it had sat empty for years after that. People walked past it every day and saw a dead shop. I stood in the doorway and saw tables, a pass, and a queue on the footpath. I saw my grandmother's recipes on plates in front of people who never sat at our table. It is very hard to see something that is not there yet. The vision was strong. My desire was stronger. I knew I had to bring her recipes to the world.

Here is what it cost, because nobody told me. The design and the build, from an empty shell, was $180,000. With everything else before opening, and not counting stock, it came to about $200,000. I sold my property to fund it. The rest was savings, loans, and twenty thousand dollars from my mother, which was most of what she had. Every person I told about the plan told me not to. She handed me the money and told me she knew I could do it.

Approvals, drawings and the build took the next year. That was a year of rent on a room that could not trade, and nobody had told me to budget for it. We opened in August 2012 with my grandmother's name over the door and no working capital in the bank. The first quiet weeks taught me why that line matters more than the fit-out.

Later I managed commercial property for three years and sat on the landlord's side of the table. The tenants who lasted were not the ones with the best fit-out. They were the ones who signed a lease they could afford on a bad month. I ran Great Aunty Three for eleven years. It worked. It also cost ten times the twenty thousand dollars people remember from the story. Both numbers are true. Only one of them was the budget.

Vision gets you to the door. The numbers keep you in the room.

You need both, and most of the people I have watched fail had only one. The dreamers run out of cash in month four and blame the weather. The spreadsheet people never sign, and call it being careful. If you can stand in a dead shop and see a queue on the footpath, and then sit down that night and write the bad-month budget, you are exactly who this page is for. Everyone else ends up as a line in someone's secondhand equipment budget. Sydney has one of those sales every week.

How to spend less without opening worse

1. Take over a former cafe. Exhaust, grease trap, plumbing and often the approvals come with the room. That is the difference between the two columns above.
2. Negotiate the lease, not just the rent. Ask for a rent-free fit-out period, a landlord contribution to the works, and a bank guarantee of three months, not six. Landlords with an empty shop say yes more often than you think.
3. Get the DA answer before you sign. A lease that starts before council approves is rent for nothing. Make the lease conditional on approval, or wait.
4. Buy the machine new, everything else used. Fridges, benches, ovens and dishwashers turn up on the secondhand market every week in Sydney.
5. Open with a short menu. Fewer lines, less stock, less waste, fewer staff. You can add dishes once you know what sells.
6. Keep three months of rent and wages in a separate account. It is not a contingency. It is the price of admission.

Before you sign anything

• Real rent from three comparable listings, not the agent's word. Then add outgoings.
• A written quote for the fit-out from a builder who has done cafes, with the exhaust and grease trap as separate lines.
• Confirmation from council of whether the site needs a DA or a change of use, and how long it takes.
• A weekly wage roster at award rates, with weekends at 150%.
• A break-even figure. Rent plus wages plus fixed costs, divided by your gross margin. If it needs 400 coffees a day on a side street, it is not a business.
• Proof that strangers want what you are about to sell. A market stall, a pop-up, a supper club, pre-orders. Anything where people you do not know hand over money before you have a lease. Your mum saying it is delicious is not proof. Strangers paying for it is.

Quick answers

Can I open a cafe in Sydney for $50,000? Yes, if you take over the lease of a small, fully fitted cafe that is closing, keep the equipment, and do the cosmetic work yourself. People I know have done the fit-out for under $15,000 that way. The catch is working capital. If the $50,000 is all you have, the first quiet month is where it goes wrong.

How long does it take to open a cafe in Sydney? Roughly three to six months if the site was already a cafe and no DA is needed. Six to twelve months for a shell that needs council approval and a full build, with builders allowing eight to twelve weeks on site. Council time is the part you do not control.

What licences does a cafe need in NSW? A food business notification to your council before you start, a certified food safety supervisor, public liability insurance, a music licence if you play music, an outdoor dining permit if you put tables on the footpath, and a liquor licence only if you serve alcohol.

Related guides

• What should rent be as a percentage of turnover?
• What percentage of sales should wages be?
• What is the average restaurant profit margin in Australia?
• Why is my cafe losing money?