How to open a café in Australia: the costs, permits and timeline nobody puts on the menu

Almost everyone who has worked a coffee machine has, at some point, mentally redesigned a café. The counter would go there, the pastry cabinet would be lit properly, the playlist would be better. Turning that picture into a real café is a long list of decisions, approvals and invoices, most of which arrive well before your first customer. This guide walks through the sequence in the order it actually happens in Australia, with the money questions at each stage.

Step 1: Is the concept clear enough to find the right site?

Before you look at a single shopfront, get specific about what you’re opening. A takeaway-heavy coffee window near a train station needs a very different site from a 50-seat brunch café. Write down:

• Who your customers are and when they’ll come: early commuters, office workers, parents after school drop-off, weekend brunch crowds.
• What you’ll serve: coffee and pastries only, a short breakfast and lunch menu, or a full kitchen.
• How many seats and how much takeaway.
• Your trading hours and days.

This shapes everything that follows: the size of the site, the kitchen you’ll need, the equipment budget and even which award your staff will fall under. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists cafés mainly selling food and drinks to be consumed on the premises under the Restaurant Industry Award, and mainly take-away businesses under the Fast Food Industry Award.

Step 2: How do you choose a site and negotiate the lease?

The lease is the biggest early decision you’ll make, because it locks in your rent, your location and often years of commitment. Look for foot traffic at the times you’ll trade, visibility, access to services (water, drainage, power, gas and a route for exhaust if you’ll cook), and whether a café has operated there before. A former café can save money on services, but check what condition the old fit-out is really in.

Before signing, have a lawyer review the lease and work through our retail lease checklist. The terms most worth negotiating for a new café are:

• A rent-free fit-out period, so rent doesn’t start the day you get the keys.
• The lease term and options, long enough to recover your fit-out.
• The security (bond or bank guarantee) and how much cash it will tie up. See lease bonds and bank guarantees.
• Make-good obligations at the end.
• Permitted use, making sure it allows a café with cooking if you need it.

Step 3: What will the fit-out and equipment cost?

This is where most budgets go wrong. A café fit-out has layers: design and approvals, base building and services, counter and joinery, seating and lighting, bathrooms, kitchen equipment and coffee equipment. Each is often quoted separately, and each quote has exclusions.

Rather than trusting a single number, build a total cost to open:

Budget line	What to include
Design and approvals	Designer or draftsperson, council and building approvals, certifier
Builder or shopfitter	Base build, services, joinery, finishes
Coffee equipment	Espresso machine, grinders, water filtration, installation
Kitchen and display	Fridges, pastry cabinet, oven or sandwich press, dishwasher
Furniture and smallwares	Tables, chairs, cups, crockery, signage
Contingency	For surprises in the building
Bond and rent during the build	Security plus any rent before you trade
Pre-opening wages	Training shifts and soft opening
Opening stock	Coffee, milk, food, packaging
Trading buffer	Several weeks of running costs while the café builds a following

Our fit-out cost estimator walks through each line, adds GST timing and shows your funding gap. For the coffee set-up specifically, our page on coffee machine finance explains the choice between owning a machine and taking a roaster’s supply deal.

If you’d like to understand your funding options at this stage, you can check what’s possible for your café in about a minute, with no credit check at the first step.

Step 4: What registrations and permits will you need?

Business.gov.au notes that food businesses may need licences to prepare or sell food, sell alcohol, play music or videos, have outdoor dining and dispose of waste, and that most permits are administered by local councils and state or territory governments. The Australian Business Licence and Information Service (ABLIS) lets you search by location and activity. A typical café list includes:

1. Business registration: an ABN, a business name if you’ll trade under one, and a company if that’s your structure.
2. Food business registration or notification: in New South Wales, for example, food businesses notify either their council or the NSW Food Authority depending on the type of business; other states run their own systems, often through councils.
3. Development or planning approval if the site’s use is changing or you’re doing significant works.
4. Outdoor dining permit from council if you’ll use the footpath.
5. Signage approval in some council areas.
6. Trade waste approval from your water authority if you’ll discharge grease or food waste.
7. Music licensing if you play recorded music.
8. Liquor licence only if you’ll sell alcohol. See our guide to liquor licences for cafés and small bars.

Start early. Approvals are often the item that sets your opening date, and every week of delay can mean a week of rent without takings.

Step 5: Who will be your food safety supervisor?

Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s Standard 3.2.2A has applied since December 2023. According to FSANZ, category one and two businesses, which handle unpackaged, potentially hazardous ready-to-eat food, must appoint a certified food safety supervisor before engaging in those activities. The supervisor’s certificate must have been obtained within the past five years, and they need to be reasonably available to advise and oversee food handlers. Food handlers also need appropriate training.

For most cafés making sandwiches, salads or anything with dairy, eggs or meat, this applies. Many owners get certified themselves before opening. Check with your council or state food authority for how it works where you are.

Step 6: How do you set up payroll, GST and your finances?

Get the money plumbing right before you open, not after.

• GST: the ATO requires registration within 21 days once your GST turnover reaches $75,000 or more, or is expected to. Many new cafés register from the start so they can claim GST credits on their fit-out and equipment through their BAS. Food GST is complicated in a café, so read our guide to GST on food before setting up your point-of-sale.
• Payroll and super: since 1 July 2026, Payday Super means super is paid with every pay run. According to the ATO, contributions generally need to reach the fund within seven business days of payday, or 20 business days for a new employee’s first contribution. Choose payroll software that handles this.
• Separate accounts: keep business and personal spending apart, and consider a separate account for GST and PAYG withholding so BAS time holds no surprises.
• Point-of-sale: set it up to code taxable and GST-free items correctly and to give you daily sales reports you’ll actually use.

Step 7: Hiring and training before you open

Hire before you open, not on opening day. You’ll want at least one experienced barista, a cook if you have a kitchen, and front-of-house staff who can handle a rush. Budget for paid training shifts and a soft opening for friends and neighbours, when mistakes cost less. Check award coverage and classifications carefully so your roster costs are real, including weekend and public holiday rates.

Step 8: Opening week and the first three months

Opening week is exciting and exhausting, and it’s rarely your busiest. Most cafés take time to build a following. That’s why the trading buffer in your budget matters: rent, wages and suppliers need paying while your regulars are still discovering you.

Use the first three months to watch your numbers weekly: takings, wage cost as a share of sales, food and coffee cost, and waste. Our seasonal trade planner helps you see whether you’ve opened into a busy or quiet season and how your cash will move over the year ahead.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A barista with years of experience in specialty cafés finds a former clothing shop on a busy suburban strip. The lease includes a rent-free fit-out period and a bond equal to several months’ rent. Her budget, built line by line, covers design and approvals, a modest fit-out with plumbing and electrical upgrades, a new two-group machine and grinders, a pastry cabinet, furniture, opening stock, training wages and eight weeks of running costs as a buffer. She contributes savings and funds the balance with a second mortgage over her home, keeping the buffer untouched until the café finds its rhythm.

How are new cafés usually funded?

Because a new café has no trading history, unsecured lenders have little to size a loan on. That’s why most new cafés are funded with a mix of the owner’s savings and property-secured lending. Property-secured business loans run from $20,000 to $5,000,000 via first mortgages, second mortgages or caveat loans over residential or commercial property. Once a café has traded for a while, unsecured and cash-flow options, typically $5,000 to $500,000 and sized on turnover, become available for equipment, refreshes and quiet months. Our page on café business loans covers both stages.

Ready to turn the plan into a café?

Opening a café is one of the most rewarding things you can do in hospitality, and one of the easiest to underfund. Owners who settle their funding before they sign the builder’s contract tend to open calmer and stay open longer. When you’re ready, tell us about your plans in a short enquiry. It takes about 60 seconds and there’s no credit check when you first enquire. We don’t hand your details to a crowd of lenders; one real person who understands cafés reviews your plan and calls you to talk it through. Please be as accurate as you can on the form, especially your total budget, your contribution and any property you own, so we can match you properly the first time.

See what your new café could qualify for →