House Raising Cost in Brisbane (2026)

Costs at a glance

Ranges reflect quotes observed locally — not national averages, not advertised "from" prices.

Two approvals, and only one of them is Council's

Planning approval and building approval are separate decisions made by different people, and a raise needs the second one whatever the answer to the first is. Brisbane City Council states plainly that you need building approval before starting work on extensions, raising and renovations, and directs you to contact a licensed building certifier — in Queensland that is normally a private certifier you engage yourself, not a council officer.

On the planning side, the question is whether your site sits in the Traditional building character overlay, which covers a large share of Brisbane's pre-1946 housing. Council lists, among the minor building work that may not need planning approval in that overlay, both "enclosing under an existing building" and "raising a house where the new height does not exceed 9.5 metres". The catch is the definition of minor building work: City Plan's administrative definitions (schedule 1, table SC1.2.2.B) define it as building work that increases a building's gross floor area by no more than the lesser of 50 m² and an area equal to 5% of that gross floor area. Raising adds no gross floor area at all, so for the lift itself the 9.5 m height is the test. A full new lower level adds far more than either limit, so the build-under half generally falls outside that exemption and is assessed against the Traditional building character (design) overlay code, plus the (demolition) overlay code where the work involves demolition. Council's own summary of the overlay is that you will generally need planning approval for external extensions. On one project, then, the raise can be accepted development while the room underneath is an application — that is not a contradiction, it is two different tests. Check table 5.3.4.1 Prescribed accepted development for your address, and note that a neighbourhood plan area can add criteria on top.

On the building side the rules come from the Queensland Development Code. For an extension or renovation to an existing house, Council names MP 1.2 — Design and siting standards for single detached housing on lots 450 m² and over — and MP 1.1 for lots under 450 m². A separate part, MP 1.4 — Building over or near relevant infrastructure, is the one written for work over or near a sewer or water main, and it is worth raising with your certifier early: footings for a new lower level go into ground the old stumps never reached.

Why the lift height is usually set by a flood level, not by you

Brisbane City Council sets a minimum habitable floor level (MHFL) for property: the minimum level, in metres AHD, at which habitable areas of a development must be constructed. Council's own definition of a habitable area generally includes bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen, study, family and rumpus rooms. That one number, not your floor plan, decides whether the space you gain underneath can be bedrooms or has to be garage, laundry and storage.

Which flood the level comes from depends on the source. Council's defined flood event is the 1% AEP flood for creek and waterway flooding, the 2% AEP flood for overland flow, and the Residential Flood Level for Brisbane River flooding. The document that carries your property's levels for building and development purposes is the FloodWise Property Report; Council states explicitly that the Flood Awareness Map is for awareness only and does not guide planning or development applications, which is worth knowing because the two look similar. If your block is a Large Allotment or sits in an overland flow path, Council says it cannot supply an accurate MHFL for design purposes and recommends a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland determine it.

The practical consequence is that on a flood-affected block the lift height is an output, not a choice: the new floor either sits at or above the MHFL or the rooms below change use. That flows straight into the quote — how far the house goes up drives stair runs, stump and post lengths, how much of the services run has to be re-routed, and whether the street elevation still passes the character overlay. The Queensland Development Code part written for this situation is MP 3.5 — Construction of buildings in flood hazard areas. Get the FloodWise report before you brief a designer, not after the drawings exist.

There is no house-raising licence — and that is the useful part

Schedule 2 of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission Regulation 2018 lists every class of contractor's licence, and none of them is house raising, restumping or house removal. Raising a Queenslander and building in underneath is building work on a class 1 building, and the scope of work for Builder — low rise begins "Building work on a class 1 or class 10 building" (sch 2 pt 4 s 2(1)) with no floor-area limit attached to it. The 2,000 m² gross floor area cap in the next subsection applies to classes 2 to 9, and the three-storey limit people quote at you belongs to Builder — medium rise. For this job a low-rise builder is not a lesser builder and there is nothing to upgrade to.

What that licence does not carry is the work with its own class. Schedule 1 s 2 excludes work of $3,300 or less from needing a licence, but not where the work falls within the scope of certain classes, whatever it is worth — among them building design (sch 2 pts 11 to 13), plumbing and drainage (pt 18), drainage (pt 19), gasfitting (pt 36), site classifier (pt 51) and termite management — chemical (pt 56). A raise touches most of that list, so the familiar "$3,300 or more needs a licence" shorthand answers almost nothing here. Site classification is the one to notice: it is licensed at any value, and on Brisbane's reactive clay the site class is what the new footing design is built on.

Two more classes turn up as subcontractors. Foundation work (piling and anchors), sch 2 pt 35, covers excavating and installing support, underpinning, piling and site dewatering — routine on a sloping block. Carpentry, pt 16, covers erecting subfloor framing. None of this changes who your contract is with; it changes what to ask. Take the licence number, check the class on the QBCC register, and ask which licence covers the drainage and which covers the termite system before day one rather than after.

A raise is a level 2 regulated contract — what that gives you

Any domestic building contract priced at or above $20,000 is a level 2 regulated contract — the QBCC Regulation 2018 s 45 prescribes $20,000 as the level 2 amount — so every raise-and-build-under is one. The contract must be in writing, dated and signed, and must state the contractor's name as it appears on the licence, the licence number, a description of the work, the plans and specifications including those required to carry out the work under any development approval, the start date, the date for practical completion, the statutory warranties, and a conspicuous notice of your right to withdraw (QBCC Act 1991 sch 1B s 14).

The money rules are the ones to memorise. On a level 2 contract the deposit is capped at 5% of the contract price; 10% is the level 1 figure, which covers regulated contracts priced between $3,300 and $20,000 (sch 1B s 6 sets that floor), and 20% applies only where more than half the contract price is off-site work (sch 1B s 33). After that, a progress claim must be directly related to the progress of the work at the building site and proportionate to the value of the work done (s 34) — so the payment schedule should track the stages below, not the calendar. You have five business days to withdraw after receiving your signed copy of the contract (s 35), and the contractor must give you a commencement notice within ten business days of starting on site (s 16).

Warranty cover attaches to the job, not to the licence, and the threshold is the regulated amount, which the QBCC Act defines as $3,300 (s 67WC(3)). Support-structure work sits squarely inside the scheme: the Regulation prescribes building work for the installation, repair or replacement of support structures for a residence as primary insurable work, and gives replacement of a stump as its worked example (s 27(f)). QBCC's own A-Z guide of insurable building work states that restumping over $3,300 is primary insurable work, with premium payable on the whole contract value. A raise quoted with no premium line is a raise with no cover.

The order of work, and the two approvals people find out about late

The sequence on a raise is fairly fixed, and it is worth knowing because your progress payments have to track it. Site classification and engineering come first, then the approvals; then the house is jacked and held on temporary supports; then the new stumps, posts or piers and their footings go in; then the lower floor slab or framed floor; then framing and enclosing the new level; then services; then termite management; then linings and finishes. Anything that changes the lift height — a flood level, an overlay condition — has to land before the engineering, because it changes every stage after it.

The plumbing approval catches people out because the category is defined by exclusion. The Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 s 6 splits plumbing and drainage work into permit work, notifiable work, minor work and unregulated work; the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 s 4 then defines permit work as any plumbing or drainage work that is not one of the other three. Schedule 1 part 2 of that Regulation lists what is notifiable, and most of a build-under's plumbing is on it. Item 3 covers extending, altering, replacing or removing sanitary plumbing for an existing building, with no building-class limit at all. Items 4 and 9 are narrower: sanitary drainage other than a combined sanitary drain, and installing or relocating a fixture, each for an existing class 1 or 10 building or structure, an extension to an existing class 1 building, or a structure for one. Notifiable work is lodged by your licensed plumber after the fact; permit work needs a permit issued before it is carried out, and carrying it out without one is an offence (Act s 66). Part 1 of that schedule pulls work back out of notifiable where it involves a combined sanitary drain, trade waste, or a performance solution. Ask your plumber in writing which category your job falls into.

Termite management is the other one. Under the NCC 2022 Housing Provisions Part 3.4, a termite management system for a class 1 building must comply with AS 3660.1 (or be tested to section 5 of AS 3660.3), and a durable notice must be permanently fixed to the building in a prominent location recording the system installed, the date, the life expectancy of any chemical, and the inspection recommendation. That notice is the thing to ask for at handover: it is the only part of the termite system you can see afterwards. Note that chemical termite management is a licensed class at any value (QBCC Regulation 2018 sch 2 pt 56), so it should appear as its own line with its own licence number.