Cost to open a cafe in Australia: what to budget and how much to borrow

Plenty of cafe dreams start with a coffee machine price and a lease inspection. The machine is the easy part to cost. What catches new owners out is everything that sits around it: the plumbing, the bond, the weeks of paying rent before the doors open, and the slow first quarter when regulars haven’t yet formed the habit.

This guide walks you through a cafe budget one line at a time, shows three illustrative versions (kiosk, small cafe, full-service), and then gives you a simple self-test for what’s worth funding with a loan and what you should save for. If you’re still at the “should I even start?” stage, our broader guide on the cost to start a business in Australia is a good first stop.

What does it cost to open a cafe in Australia?

Published estimates vary, and most come from fit-out firms, point-of-sale vendors and franchise sites, so treat every number as a starting point for your own quotes. Industry guides such as Lightspeed’s cafe cost breakdown put refurbishing a small to medium cafe at roughly $80,000 to $170,000, with larger venues well above $250,000. Melbourne fit-out firms quote anywhere from about $1,500 to $3,400 per square metre depending on how much kitchen is involved.

Three things move your number most:

• Size and kitchen. A 40 m² takeaway counter and an 80 to 120 m² dine-in cafe with a cooking line are different businesses. Extraction, grease traps and gas work can lift costs fast.
• The state of the shell. Taking over a former cafe with services already in place can save tens of thousands. A blank shop in a strip needs everything.
• New or second-hand equipment. Kitchen and coffee gear is often 40 to 60 per cent of the fit-out spend.

The six budget lines every cafe needs

Work through these in order. If a line is blank in your spreadsheet, you haven’t got a quote yet.

1. Fit-out and shopfront. Joinery, flooring, lighting, plumbing, ventilation, signage, furniture. Get at least two written quotes, and ask whether the landlord offers a fit-out contribution or rent-free period.
2. Equipment. Coffee machine and grinders, fridges and coolroom, oven, dishwasher, extraction. Industry guides list a commercial coffee machine at about $3,800 to $10,000 or more, and lead times can run around ten weeks, so order early or your rent clock ticks with nothing to sell.
3. Bond and lease costs. The security deposit, legal review of the lease, and outgoings paid in advance. A lease is a big commitment: our guide on commercial rent explains why the terms matter as much as the weekly figure.
4. Licences, insurance and set-up. Council food business registration, a food safety supervisor course, public liability and workers’ compensation cover, POS system, website, uniforms.
5. Opening stock and consumables. Coffee, milk, food, packaging and cleaning supplies for the first fortnight or two.
6. The buffer. Three months of rent, outgoings, wages, super and stock, so that a slow start doesn’t force bad decisions.

Three illustrative budgets

These are examples to show how the lines fit together, built to sit inside the ranges industry guides publish. They aren’t quotes. Your lease, suburb and menu will change them.

Budget line	Takeaway kiosk	Small cafe	Full-service
Fit-out and shopfront	$35,000	$80,000	$160,000
Equipment	$30,000	$60,000	$110,000
Bond and lease costs	$8,000	$15,000	$25,000
Licences, insurance, set-up	$7,000	$12,000	$20,000
Opening stock	$5,000	$8,000	$15,000
Three-month buffer	$25,000	$45,000	$90,000
Total	$110,000	$220,000	$420,000

Notice that the buffer alone is bigger than many people’s whole equipment budget. That’s deliberate. A cafe can look perfect and still run short, because the first months of takings rarely cover the first months of costs.

Don’t underestimate wages and super

Hospitality wages are where the buffer goes fastest. Weekend and public holiday penalty rates apply, casual staff carry a loading, and award minimums went up again from 1 July 2026 after the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review (reported at 4.75 per cent for award rates). Check the current rate for your award, which is usually the Restaurant Industry Award or the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, on the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides page before you build the roster.

There’s also a timing change. Under Payday Super, which started on 1 July 2026, super needs to reach your employee’s fund within 7 business days of payday, rather than quarterly. A new employee’s first payment gets a longer window. The ATO’s Payday Super page has the detail. In practice, it means payroll cash needs to be set aside every pay run rather than sitting in the account until the end of the quarter. If you’ve never run payroll, build super in as a weekly cost in the buffer.

What should you fund with a loan, and what should you save for?

Here’s a coach’s rule of thumb: match the money to what it buys. Things that last for years can be spread over years. Things that pay this month’s bills need cash behind them.

Cost	Sensible funding	Why
Coffee machine, fridges, kitchen gear	Equipment finance or a loan, over the life of the gear	It earns for years, so spreading the cost keeps cash free
Fit-out	Savings plus a loan, plus any landlord contribution	A large one-off with a long useful life
Bond and legals	Savings	Needed on day one, and not usually financed
Opening stock	Savings or a short-term facility	Turns into takings quickly
The buffer	Your own cash first	It’s the safety net. Borrowing to hold a safety net costs you twice

Be honest about one thing: a brand new cafe has no trading history. Unsecured business funding is sized on turnover and bank statements, so a lender has little to read. That doesn’t mean you’re locked out. A property-secured business loan (from $20,000 up to $5,000,000) can be based on property you own, and a person looking at your whole situation can sometimes find a structure a form-filler can’t. But it does mean your own contribution matters, and the more you’ve saved, the more options you’ll have.

If you’re ready to see what could fit, check your options here. It takes about a minute, and it won’t touch your credit file.

The cafe self-test: are you ready to commit?

Answer yes or no to each question:

1. Do you have at least two written quotes for fit-out and one firm quote for the coffee machine?
2. Have you read the whole lease, including outgoings, make-good and what happens at renewal?
3. Can you name your break-even: how many coffees and meals a day cover rent, wages and stock?
4. Do you have a food safety supervisor lined up, and do you know which food business category you fall into under Standard 3.2.2A?
5. Is your buffer in cash, not in the hope that a loan will cover it?
6. Could you pay the repayments on any borrowing in your quietest month, not your best?

Six yes answers mean you’re in good shape. Two or three noes are normal at this stage. They tell you what to fix before you sign, which is exactly what a coach would do. For a deeper look at stretching your cash, try our cash runway guide.

A worked example (illustrative)

Take an owner planning a small cafe on the numbers above: $220,000 in total. They’ve saved $90,000. The landlord has offered a fit-out contribution worth $15,000. That leaves a gap of about $115,000.

They decide the $60,000 of equipment is the right thing to finance, since it lasts for years. The rest of the gap, about $55,000, would need to come from a loan against property or a second source. But look what’s left in cash: $90,000 covers the bond, set-up and stock ($35,000) and most of the buffer ($45,000), leaving a little breathing room.

If they’d spent all $90,000 on the fit-out and borrowed to cover wages instead, they’d have been paying loan repayments and wages from takings that haven’t arrived. Same total spend, much worse position. The order matters as much as the amount.

You can also use the 2-minute funding profile to see which options match your stage, and our fit-out premises hub and equipment goal page for the product side.

Tax: a short note for equipment

The $20,000 instant asset write-off became permanent for small businesses from 1 July 2026, so equipment items under the threshold may be claimed in the year you start using them if your turnover is under $10 million. Items above it are depreciated. Your accountant will know how it applies to your fit-out, but it’s worth asking before you buy, not after. The ATO page has the current rules.

Opening a cafe? Let’s work out what’s worth funding

A cafe is one of the most personal businesses you can start. It’s also one where the money is front-loaded: you pay for the room, the gear and the wages long before the regulars turn up. A budget that’s honest about the buffer and clear about what to borrow against gives you the best chance of still being open in year two.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on yours, we’d love to help. Our enquiry takes about 60 seconds, and there’s no credit check when you enquire, so asking won’t affect your credit score. We won’t send your details to a pile of lenders, so your phone won’t light up with calls. A real person reads your answers, thinks about your lease, your savings and your plans, and rings you to talk it through.

One request: please fill the form in accurately, including what you’ve saved, what the lease says and what you want to buy. That’s how we can match you with the right option the first time.

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