Make Good Southbank | Office, Retail & Hospitality Make Good

The short answer

A Southbank make good often happens in a mixed-use building, with apartments, offices and shops sharing lifts, loading bays and services. That means owners corporation or building rules on work hours, noise and access, on top of your lease. Food and hospitality tenancies near the river also have exhaust, grease-trap and cool-room items to remove or make safe.

Last reviewed 28 October 2026

Key takeaways

01Many Southbank buildings mix apartments, offices and retail, so noise and work-hour rules can be stricter than in an office-only tower.
02Ask the building or owners corporation manager for their works rules before you get quotes.
03Cafés, restaurants and bars have specialist make-good items: exhaust hoods, ductwork, grease traps, cool rooms and gas.
04Licensed trades are needed for electrical disconnection and any asbestos removal in older buildings.

Southbank sits across the Yarra from the CBD and has changed from an industrial area into a dense mixed-use precinct. Office towers, apartment towers with shops at street level, the arts precinct and the riverfront restaurants all sit within a few blocks. If you are leaving premises here, the main thing to plan around is that you probably share your building with people who live in it. This page covers what that means for your make good. For the Victorian rules that apply everywhere, see our Melbourne make good overview.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your lease decides your make-good obligations.

What kinds of premises do tenants leave in Southbank?

Premises	Where you typically find it	Make-good issues to expect
Office floor in an office tower	Southbank Boulevard, City Road, Freshwater Place and the riverfront	Building-manager approvals, base-building services, lift and dock bookings
Office or consulting suite in a mixed-use tower	Lower floors of residential towers	Owners corporation rules, residents' quiet hours, shared lifts
Ground-floor shop, café or gym	Street level of apartment towers	Shopfit removal, signage, floor finishes, plumbing
Restaurant or bar	Southbank Promenade and around Southgate	Kitchen exhaust, grease trap, cool rooms, gas, bar joinery
Older low-rise building	Pockets left from Southbank's industrial past, and nearby St Kilda Road	Asbestos register checks, older wiring and services

How do owners corporation and building rules affect a make good?

In a building with apartments, the rules about when and how you work are often set or enforced by the owners corporation and its building manager, not only by your landlord. Expect rules on:

Work hours. Noisy work may be limited to certain weekday hours, and weekend or night work may not be allowed at all because people live upstairs. This is the opposite of many CBD office towers, where noisy work is pushed to after hours.
Lifts and loading. Shared goods lifts may need booking, with protective padding. Some buildings only have a small loading bay off a side street.
Waste. You usually cannot use the building's bins. Your contractor must take all waste away.
Common property. Anything outside your tenancy, such as corridors, risers and the façade, may be common property. Removing signage or cabling from common areas may need owners corporation consent.

Ask the building manager for the house rules or works guide before you get quotes. A contractor who has seen them will price more accurately.

Southbank is also split between two councils, the City of Melbourne and the City of Port Phillip. If you need a planning permit, for example to change a shopfront, enter your address in VicPlan to see which council and planning controls apply.

What has to come out of a Southbank restaurant or café?

Food and hospitality tenancies are common along the river, and they carry the most specialist make-good items:

Kitchen exhaust hood and ductwork, which may run up through the building to the roof
Grease trap, which needs pumping out and either removal or a clean, as the lease requires
Cool rooms and freezer rooms, including refrigeration plant
Gas fittings, which must be disconnected and capped by a licensed gasfitter (Energy Safe Victoria says to use a licensed gasfitter for any gas work, including disconnecting appliances)
Bar and servery joinery, tiled wet areas and floor waste changes

Before removing anything, check whether the landlord wants it kept. Some landlords prefer the next food operator to inherit a working kitchen, which can reduce your make good if agreed in writing. The VSBC notes that retail make good "typically" means removing the fit-out and repairing damage above fair wear and tear, but your lease wording decides.

Which licensed trades will my Southbank make good need?

Electricians. Making old circuits and cabling safe is electrical work. Victoria's Electricity Safety Act 1998 requires a licensed electrician, working for a registered electrical contractor (ss 30, 38).
Gasfitters. Any kitchen, heater or hot-water gas supply needs a licensed gasfitter to disconnect and cap it.
Asbestos removalists. In buildings older than the 2003 ban, whoever controls the workplace reviews the asbestos register first. A licensed removalist takes out anything likely to be disturbed, apart from limited small-scale non-friable work (OHS Regulations 2017, regs 240–250).
Building surveyor. The Building Regulations 2018 (Sch 3, item 4) exempt many internal alterations to commercial buildings from a building permit. That exemption is lost if the work touches structure or an essential safety measure, such as fire doors, exit signs or sprinklers. A registered building surveyor can tell you which side of the line your job falls on.

Is my Southbank shop lease a retail lease?

Possibly. Victoria's Retail Leases Act 2003 covers premises used mainly for retail sales or retail services, with exceptions such as occupancy costs above $1,000,000 a year (ex GST) or a listed-company tenant. Cafés, restaurants and many service businesses can fall within it. If yours does, disputes go to the Victorian Small Business Commission for mediation before VCAT. Source: Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) ss 4, 86–87. See our Melbourne overview for more, and our retail make good page.

How do I plan a Southbank make good?

Read the make-good, alterations and repair clauses, and find any consent letters
Ask the building manager for the house rules, work hours and lift booking process
Ask whether the building has an asbestos register
Confirm in writing which kitchen or fit-out items the landlord wants left
Get at least two quotes on the same scope, stating work hours and waste removal
Book a joint final inspection and get written sign-off

How MAKE GREAT helps with a Southbank make good

Send us your lease, your floor plan, photos and, if you have them, the building's house rules. Our lease check produces a first read of your make-good clause. That read is preliminary: someone on our team checks it before any contractor sees the brief, and it is not legal advice. Independent contractors who have passed our checks (business details, insurance, licences) then quote on one shared brief, including work hours and kitchen items. The contract is between you and the contractor you pick.

How we are paid: Free for tenants. If you hire a contractor through us, they pay us a referral fee. Nobody can pay to rank higher. MAKE GREAT is not a builder and does no building work.

Nearby: Melbourne CBD and Docklands. Ready? Use Get my make-good quotes.

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General information only, not legal advice. Get advice from a property lawyer about your own lease.

Frequently asked questions

Who sets the work hours for a make good in a Southbank apartment-and-office building?

Usually the building's rules, which in a mixed-use building may be set or enforced by the owners corporation and building manager. Your lease may also refer to them. Residents living above means quiet hours can be stricter than in an office-only building.

What has to come out of a restaurant or café at the end of a Southbank lease?

It depends on the lease. Common items are the kitchen exhaust hood and ductwork, grease trap, cool room, gas fittings, bar joinery and wet-area finishes. Some landlords want these left for the next food operator, so confirm in writing before removing anything.

Can I leave my kitchen equipment for the next tenant?

Only if the landlord agrees. Leaving items the lease says must be removed can be treated as a failure to make good. Get any agreement to leave equipment in writing, ideally listing each item.

Do Southbank make goods need a building permit?

Many internal alterations to commercial buildings in Victoria are exempt from a building permit, but not where the work affects structure, safety or an essential safety measure, such as fire doors, exit signs or sprinklers. A registered building surveyor can confirm for your job.

Are offices on St Kilda Road treated the same as Southbank?

The approach is similar: check the lease, the building rules and any asbestos register. In an older office-only block, residents are less of a factor, but asbestos checks are more likely to matter if the building was finished before 2004.

Sources

Primary sources we checked when writing this page. Laws and guidance change, so check the current version.