Landscape tender pricing in Sydney

What we price

Five services, all priced per tender and all against your own rates: quantity takeoff, priced bill of quantities, tender submission, scope and contract review and variation pricing. Take one or take the lot. If you only want the measured quantities and intend to price them yourself, that is a common request and the fee drops accordingly. The services pages set out what each one covers and how the fixed fee works.

What is different about pricing a Sydney package

Tender formats in NSW differ from Victoria's, and where a builder issues their own pricing schedule we complete it in their format rather than handing you something they have to re-key.

Sandstone is the Sydney-specific risk. A shelf that sits just under the topsoil turns a routine excavation rate into the largest variation on the job, and the drawings frequently do not show where it starts. Rock excavation gets qualified explicitly, with the assumption written down, because the difference between a priced allowance and an excluded item is the difference between a variation you get paid for and an argument you lose.

Access and site constraint are the other Sydney premium. Inner-suburban and CBD-adjacent work carries handling, staging and out-of-hours conditions that a greenfield rate does not cover. Those conditions are usually buried in the preliminaries and the conditions of contract rather than the landscape specification, which is why they get read before the package is priced.

Where do landscape tenders in Sydney come from?

Landscape tenders in Sydney come through four channels. NSW Government work is published on buy.nsw, which has absorbed the old NSW eTendering system. Council work is advertised by each metropolitan council, on its own website or through portals such as VendorPanel, TenderLink and Tenders.net, and panel arrangements are common for recurring grounds and open space work.

Private commercial packages come from head contractors, mostly through EstimateOne or by direct invitation, and Commonwealth work in NSW goes through AusTender. The guide to finding landscape tenders in NSW covers each channel and how to set up alerts on it.

Which parts of Sydney carry the most landscape work?

Western Sydney carries the greenfield volume: the North West and South West growth areas, and the Western Sydney Aerotropolis around the new Western Sydney International Airport. That work is streetscapes, open space, riparian corridors and estate landscaping, usually with council dedication standards and an establishment period attached.

The established east, north and inner west produce smaller, harder packages: multi-residential common areas, podiums and rooftops, schools, and streetscape upgrades on live roads. Coastal and harbourside sites add salt exposure, which reaches into fixings, furniture, edging and plant selection, and it is worth checking the specification actually allows for it.

How does Sydney's ground change a landscape price?

Coastal and northern Sydney sit largely on sandstone, where rock close to the surface is the main excavation risk. Western Sydney is mostly shale-derived clay, which is slow to drain and shifts cost into subsoil drainage, soil improvement and a longer establishment period.

Neither shows on a landscape plan, so the geotechnical report and any site investigation are read before the excavation and soil lines are priced. Where they are missing, the ground assumption is written into the clarifications rather than absorbed into a rate.

Frequently asked questions

Where are landscape tenders in Sydney advertised?

NSW Government work is on buy.nsw. Councils advertise on their own websites and portals such as VendorPanel, TenderLink and Tenders.net. Private commercial packages come from head contractors, mostly through EstimateOne or by direct invitation, and Commonwealth work through AusTender.

Are you based in Sydney?

No. We are based in Melbourne and work Australia-wide. The takeoff is measured from the drawings, so the location of the project does not change how the work is done or what it costs.

Do you handle rock excavation allowances?

We measure and price what the drawings and the geotechnical information support, and qualify the rest. Where rock is likely but undefined, it is flagged as an assumption or an exclusion rather than absorbed into a rate.

Do you price Sydney council work as well as state work?

Yes. Council packages come through each council's own process rather than one portal, and they vary more in format than state work does. We complete whatever schedule was issued.