Clinic fit-out finance for medical and health practices

A clinic fit-out is where clinical vision meets building reality. The floor plan that looked simple on the designer’s screen now needs plumbing to every hand basin, power and data to every room, a compliant sterilisation flow, an accessible bathroom and enough soundproofing that patients can speak freely. Every one of those is a line on the builder’s quote. Fit-out finance pays for it in a way that keeps the practice solvent while the work happens and while the appointment book fills.

What does a clinic fit-out actually cost?

We don’t publish average fit-out costs, because they vary enormously with the size, location, condition of the base building and type of practice. What we can do is list what belongs in the budget, because the items left out are the ones that cause trouble later.

Category	Typical items
Building works	Demolition, partitions, ceilings, doors, flooring, paint
Services	Plumbing to basins and treatment areas, electrical, data cabling, air conditioning
Clinical areas	Sterilisation room, treatment room, procedure room requirements
Compliance	Accessible bathroom, fire services, building approvals, certification
Joinery and fixtures	Reception desk, consulting room joinery, storage, signage
IT and communications	Network, phones, practice software set-up, screens
Professional fees	Designer, project manager, certifier, council fees where they apply
Furniture	Waiting room, staff room, consulting chairs
Contingency	For surprises once walls open up
Working capital	Wages and rent from handover until income covers costs

The fit-out and equipment calculator walks you through each line, then shows your total funding need, what could be property-secured and how many months your cash buffer would last.

How are builders usually paid?

Fit-out contracts commonly use progress claims: a deposit, then payments at agreed stages, with a final payment at practical completion. That matters for finance because:

• the money needs to be available when each claim falls due, not all at once
• delays push later claims out, but rent may already have started
• variations add cost part-way through, so a contingency is essential

Ask your builder for a payment schedule before you finalise finance. Lenders like to see it, and it tells you when cash is actually needed. Our guide to the clinic fit-out timeline sets out the usual stages from lease to first patient.

Secured or unsecured for a fit-out?

Property-secured business loans from $20,000 to $5,000,000 suit most full fit-outs. They can be first mortgages, second mortgages or caveats over residential or commercial property. Because the property carries much of the risk, they also work for new practices with no trading history.

Unsecured, cash-flow and line-of-credit options for trading practices, typically $5,000 to $500,000 measured against your turnover and statements, suit refurbishments, a single new room or finishing touches once the main works are funded.

If you have a builder’s quote and a lease, a 60-second enquiry is enough for us to say which structure fits.

What about GST on fit-out costs?

Most fit-out costs include GST. The ATO’s page on GST-free sales says you can still claim credits for the GST included in the price of purchases you use to make GST-free sales, and it lists some medical, health and care services among GST-free items. For a GST-registered practice, that often means GST on the fit-out can be claimed back. The timing matters for cash flow: you pay the GST to the builder now and claim it through your BAS later. Your accountant can confirm how it applies to your practice.

Negotiating the lease with the fit-out in mind

The lease and the fit-out are linked. Before you sign, it’s worth asking:

• Is there a landlord contribution or rent-free period? Either can reduce what you need to borrow or ease the early months.
• What are the make-good obligations? You may have to remove the fit-out at the end of the lease.
• Is the term long enough? A lender funding a fit-out wants the practice to be there long enough to use it. A long term with options helps.
• What base building works will the landlord complete? Services to the tenancy, bathrooms and air conditioning can shift costs between you and the landlord.

business.gov.au’s advice on choosing a business location is a useful checklist for the wider decision.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A psychologist and an OT are opening a shared allied health clinic in a former retail space. The quote covers partitions, soundproofing, an accessible bathroom, air conditioning, data and joinery, plus designer fees. They add a contingency and three months of wages and rent to cover the period after handover. One partner has home equity. A second mortgage could fund the fit-out and buffer, leaving their existing home loan untouched.

Fit-out and equipment together?

Clinical equipment often has a different working life from the fit-out, so it’s common to fund them separately. See medical equipment finance and dental equipment finance.

See if your fit-out qualifies

You’ve found the space and pictured the rooms. The next step is making sure the money is ready when the builder is. Enquiring takes about 60 seconds with no credit check. We keep your details to ourselves instead of broadcasting them to lenders, and a real person who has seen plenty of clinic builds will call you.

Please answer the form accurately, including the project cost, your state and whether property is available as security. It helps us get to the right answer on the first call.

See if my fit-out qualifies →