and disclosure
How we are paid
A cost index is only worth reading if you know who is funding it. So this page says it plainly, near the top, rather than in a footer nobody scrolls to.
The disclosure
AE Index refers projects to a partner building company and is paid a fee on work that proceeds. We do not charge homeowners. The estimator, the reports and the Index are free because the referral is what funds them.
That is a conflict of interest, and pretending otherwise would undermine the only thing this site has to offer. Here is how we handle it.
What we do about it
The rates are not ours
Square-metre rates come from the Archicentre Australia CostGuide 2026, published independently of us. We cannot quietly inflate a number to make a referral more valuable, because the source is public and you can check it.
Our own adjustments are labelled
Location, access, heritage and building-age adjustments are our judgement, not published data. They appear as separate lines in every estimate, with our name on them, and the reasoning is published on the Index.
No obligation follows an estimate
You can run an estimate, download the report and never hear from us. The report includes the questions to put to any builder, including ones we have nothing to do with.
We publish what goes wrong
Completed projects are published with the actual outcome against the range we predicted, including where we were wrong. An index that only reports its wins is marketing, not data.
Who does the building
AE Index is not a building company and does not hold domestic building registration. Construction is carried out by a builder from our verified network, who holds the registration, the domestic building insurance and the contract with you. Your contract is with them, not with us — and you should read it as carefully as you would any building contract.
What verified actually means
Every directory in this industry calls its builders trusted. Almost none of them say what was checked. Ours means five specific things, and a builder who fails any of them is not in the network:
- Current domestic builder registration, confirmed directly with the Victorian Building Authority — not taken on the builder's word
- Domestic building insurance current and sighted
- Two completed projects contacted directly, chosen by us rather than supplied as testimonials
- Fixed-price contracts with a written variations policy we have read
- Re-checked annually, and removed on any lapse
You can verify the first one yourself in about a minute — builder registrations are public and searchable on the Victorian Building Authority website. We would rather you did.
Why this exists
Australian residential renovation runs on withheld information. Builders will not quote without drawings, drawings cost thousands, and homeowners commit to a design before anyone tells them whether the project is affordable. Meanwhile the most common complaint in the sector is the price moving after signing.
Publishing cost data does not fix that. It does mean you walk into the first conversation knowing roughly what you are dealing with, which is a materially better position than most people currently start from.
No email required to see your range
Eight questions, the full calculation shown, and the number on screen before we ask you for anything.
Last updated 28 July 2026