You've just received your building inspection report. Ninety pages, fourteen defects, detailed descriptions of cracking, water ingress, roof damage, and timber deterioration. Not a single dollar figure anywhere. Was that an oversight? Did you get the wrong inspector? Did you pay for a report that is missing half the information you need?

No. This is by design — and it catches almost every first-time buyer completely off guard.

Understanding why your report has no cost estimates, and knowing exactly how to get those figures quickly, is the difference between negotiating confidently and either overpaying for a damaged property or walking away from one you didn't need to walk away from.

Why there are no cost estimates: the AS4349.1 standard

Pre-purchase building inspections in Australia are governed by AS4349.1, the Australian Standard for inspection of buildings. This standard defines what a building inspector must inspect, how they must classify defects, and what must appear in the written report.

Cost estimates are explicitly not part of the standard. AS4349.1 requires inspectors to identify and describe defects — their location, their nature, their likely cause, and their severity. It does not require inspectors to estimate what those defects will cost to repair.

This is confirmed by state consumer protection agencies across the country. NSW Fair Trading guidance states that building inspectors are not required to provide cost estimates for rectification work. Consumer Affairs Victoria says the same. This is not a loophole or an industry quirk — it is a deliberate feature of the inspection framework.

The reasoning is sensible once you understand it. Building inspectors are not licensed tradespeople. A building inspector is qualified to identify that a roof has damage — to see it, categorise it, and describe it. They are not a licensed roofer qualified to assess the full scope of work required and price it accurately. An inspector who provides a cost estimate is operating outside their professional lane, and if that estimate turns out to be significantly wrong, they face real liability exposure.

The standard deliberately separates two distinct functions: the what (identifying and describing defects — the inspector's job) and the how much(estimating repair costs — a tradesperson's job). Both functions require professional expertise; they just require different expertise.

Some inspectors do include indicative cost ranges as a courtesy. Many don't. Neither approach violates the standard — both are within the rules. If your report has no dollar figures at all, your inspector is not cutting corners. They are simply delivering exactly what the standard requires.

Why this creates a serious problem for buyers

Understanding why there are no cost estimates is reassuring in one sense. But it does not solve your actual problem: you cannot negotiate without dollar figures.

“There's some cracking to the rear retaining wall” is not a negotiation. “The rear retaining wall requires structural assessment and likely full reconstruction at an estimated cost of $18,000-$28,000” is a negotiation.

Most conveyancers and solicitors handling your purchase are focused on legal compliance — title searches, contract terms, special conditions. Very few have the building knowledge or professional scope to advise on repair costs. The legal side of your transaction is covered. The cost side is a gap that most buyers are expected to fill themselves.

This is exactly where buyers get hurt. A property sells at market price. The buyer pays that price. Six months later, they discover the defects listed in the inspection report are going to cost $45,000 to rectify. A price reduction of $30,000-$40,000 was entirely achievable at the time of negotiation — if the buyer had known the numbers.

The cost estimate gap is not a minor inconvenience. It is a structural problem in the property buying process that costs Australian buyers real money every day.

Your three options for getting repair cost estimates

Once you understand the problem, the question becomes practical: how do you get the dollar figures you need, and how quickly can you get them? There are three realistic options, each with different trade-offs.

Option 1: Get trade quotes yourself

The most accurate method is to contact each relevant trade directly — builder, roofer, waterproofer, electrician, structural engineer — share the relevant pages of your inspection report, and request a quote for the work described. Getting 2-3 quotes per defect category gives you a reliable range.

The problem is time. Most tradespeople need to attend the property to provide a formal quote, and most won't attend without the vendor's co-operation. Arranging access, getting tradespeople to attend, and receiving written quotes typically takes 5-10 business days. If you're in a standard 5-business-day cooling-off period in NSW or a similar window in other states, that timeline does not work.

Trade quotes are the right approach for larger defects before exchange, when you have more time. They are not realistic as your sole strategy during cooling-off.

Option 2: Ask your conveyancer or solicitor for ballpark figures

Some solicitors who specialise in property and have handled many defect-related negotiations will give you rough estimates based on experience. Most won't — it is outside their professional scope and they are not insured for building cost advice.

If you have a building-savvy solicitor with genuine construction knowledge, this can be a useful supplementary input. It is not reliable enough to anchor a formal negotiation for most buyers with most solicitors.

Option 3: Use a digital analysis service

Services like Report Decoded ($59) accept your building inspection PDF and return cost estimates for every defect within under 2 minutes. The analysis is based on current 2026 Australian trade rates across capital city and regional markets, and it returns plain-English explanations of each defect alongside the cost estimates.

Report Decoded also generates a negotiation letter you can send directly to the vendor's agent, with the defects and estimated costs already documented — removing the need to draft the letter yourself under time pressure.

The important limitation: AI-generated estimates based on trade rate data are not on-site quotes. They are accurate enough for negotiation purposes — typically within 20-35% of actual trade quotes for common defects — but you should treat them as a negotiation baseline and obtain formal trade quotes before exchange for any major defect. Use the AI estimates to establish the conversation and secure a price reduction in principle; use formal quotes to confirm the amount before you commit legally.

For buyers inside a cooling-off period with 2-4 days remaining, the under-2-minute turnaround from a digital service is often the only realistic path to getting cost data in time to act on it.

What do “further investigation recommended” items cost to assess?

Many inspection reports include items flagged as “further investigation recommended” rather than a clear defect description. This language means the inspector has identified something concerning but cannot fully assess it without a specialist — often because it requires invasive investigation, specialist equipment, or trade-specific expertise.

For these items, you need specialist assessment before you can get a repair cost quote. The most common specialists and their assessment fee ranges in 2026:

Each of these specialists can then provide a rectification cost quote as part of their assessment — or at minimum, you will have a clear picture of what you are dealing with before you commit to the purchase.

Using cost estimates to negotiate

Once you have cost estimates — whether from trade quotes, a digital analysis service, or a combination — the next step is presenting them formally to the vendor's agent in writing.

A strong negotiation request documents: the specific defects identified in the inspection report, the estimated cost to rectify each defect, the total estimated rectification cost, and a clear request — either a price reduction equal to the rectification cost, or vendor rectification prior to settlement.

Most vendors prefer price reduction over rectification. Organising and managing trades is time-consuming and stressful, and vendors who are already planning to move on have little appetite for it. A clean price reduction is usually the path of least resistance for everyone.

Real estate agents report that properly documented negotiation requests — with specific defects and dollar amounts — receive at least partial acceptance in the majority of cases. Vague requests (“the report found some issues, can we discuss the price?”) are far less effective. The documentation is not just about being professional — it is what makes the request credible and hard to dismiss.

Typical repair cost ranges for common defects (2026 AU)

To give you a rough frame of reference, the following are typical cost ranges for common defects identified in Australian building inspections. These are 2026 ranges for capital city markets — regional areas may vary:

These ranges are starting points. Your specific defects, your property's construction type, and your location will all affect actual trade quotes. Use these ranges to sense-check estimates you receive and to understand the scale of what you may be dealing with before you have specific numbers.

The bottom line

Your building inspection report has no cost estimates because the Australian Standard does not require them — not because your inspector did a poor job. The report gave you exactly what it was designed to give you: a clear, professional assessment of what defects exist and how serious they are.

Getting the cost figures is your job as the buyer, and it is a job worth doing carefully. A $59 digital analysis through Report Decoded gives you cost estimates within under 2 minutes — fast enough to use during cooling-off, detailed enough to anchor a real negotiation. For major defects, follow up with formal trade quotes before exchange.

The buyers who negotiate well are not the ones with the sharpest negotiating instincts. They are the ones who arrive at the conversation with specific, documented, credible numbers. Getting those numbers is now a straightforward step — and it is one most buyers skip entirely.