The most common question I get after budget is timeline. And like budget, the honest answer is: it depends.
But unlike budget, I can actually give you a useful framework here without needing to know everything about your project first. Let me break it down the way I actually think about it.
If your unit has no wet works (no hacking, tiling, brickwork), you're looking at 2.5 to 3.5 months, depending on the size of your unit. If there are wet works involved, budget for 4 to 6 months. The reason the range shifts so much has as muchto do with the size of the job, as the house rules.
Most condos only permit hacking and noisy work for half a day, usually between 9am to 1pm. And during that early phase of renovation, there's very little else that can run concurrently — you can't tile a floor that hasn't been hacked yet, you can't run wiring through walls that aren't ready. So the whole project is essentially held hostage to a four-hour window every morning.
This is something a lot of homeowners don't account for when they get their first timeline estimate. The work itself isn't slow. The rules are.
For landed, the first question is whether your title is strata or individual.
Strata-titled landed — think gated developments, cluster homes, link villas — often carry the same management rules as condos. Restricted hours for noisy work, permit requirements, the same half-day hacking window. So the timeline considerations aren't that different from a condo.
Individual title landed is where you get more breathing room. Work hours are more flexible, and the project can move at a pace that actually reflects the scope of work. That said, the bigger variable for landed isn't the title — it's the age of the house.
A new development moves reasonably quickly. But a full renovation of an older landed house — one with extension work, structural changes, decades of surprises inside the walls — is at least 6 months or more. Older homes have history, and it has a way of showing up in the midst pf progress, in the form of outdated wiring, pipes routed by someone who had their own logic, or waterproofing that was done in 1997.
If someone quotes you 3 months for a full reno of an old landed house with extension, ask more questions.
There are two categories. Things within your control, and things that aren't.
Within your control: changes to the design or scope after work has started. This is by far the most common reason timelines extends. A decision that feels small halfway through the project— moving a partition, adding a feature wall, changing the tile selection — almost always creates a ripple effect. Work stops, materials are reordered, subcontractors reschedule. Two weeks gone, sometimes more.
I'm not saying don't change your mind. Renovations are long and you'll see things on site that you didn't anticipate during the design phase. But every change when works has started costs not just time, but money. The earlier you make changes, the less damage.
Outside your control: neighbours. In shared buildings, noise complaints happen even when you're working within permitted hours. Someone's mother is unwell, a newborn just arrived, school exams. These situations can slow or pause work entirely, and there's often nothing you or your contractor can do except wait.
If a client comes in with a timeline I think isn't feasible, I'll say so upfront. I'll explain what rushing actually costs — not just in money, but in quality and decision-making under pressure. And if we can't align on a realistic timeline, I won't take the project. Not even if they offer to pay more.
This isn't me being difficult. It's me protecting the outcome. A renovation done in a rush is one where corners get cut — sometimes by the contractor, sometimes by the client who approves things too quickly just to keep moving. Either way, you live with the result for the next ten years.
The timeline conversation is one of the most important ones to have before work starts. Get it right there, not after the jackhammer shows up.
