Short answer
Check the licence first — architects & building designers need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 422 Australian architects & building designers in this directory, only 38.6% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 4.3% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Architects & Building Designers handle house design, extensions, renovation plans, planning and building approvals, and drawings a builder can price. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Architects & Building Designers are licensed for some work and not others
The word architect is protected: only a person registered with the architects board of their state may use it, and each board publishes its register. Building designers and draftspeople do similar work without that title, and are themselves registered or licensed in some states (Queensland and Victoria among them) and not others. Both can produce approvable plans; the difference is the register you check.
Each state's architects registration board publishes a search by name. For building designers, Queensland's QBCC and Victoria's building regulator run registers; elsewhere check the ABN and the professional body.
What 422 Australian architects & building designers actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For architects & building designers:
| What we checked | Architects & Building Designers | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 38.6% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 46.4% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 4.3% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 89.7% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 100% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 15 | 39 |
What goes wrong with architects & building designers
- Someone trading as an architect who is not on the state architects register
- Plans drawn without the planning overlays or building rules that apply to your block, so approval fails
- A fee based on a percentage of a build cost nobody has estimated
What to ask before the work starts
- Are you a registered architect, or a building designer, and what is the registration number?
- Have you checked the planning controls that apply to this property?
- What is the fee for each stage, and what do I own at the end of each?
A architect or building designer who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median architect or building designer in this directory has 15 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the architects & building designers are
Melbourne (91), Sydney (78), Brisbane (30), Perth (18). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best architect or building designer in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do architects & building designers need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. The word architect is protected: only a person registered with the architects board of their state may use it, and each board publishes its register. Building designers and draftspeople do similar work without that title, and are themselves registered or licensed in some states (Queensland and Victoria among them) and not others. Both can produce approvable plans; the difference is the register you check.
- How do I check an architect or building designer's licence?
- Each state's architects registration board publishes a search by name. For building designers, Queensland's QBCC and Victoria's building regulator run registers; elsewhere check the ABN and the professional body.
- What percentage of Australian architects & building designers have a verifiable ABN?
- 38.6% of the 422 architects & building designers in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should an architect or building designer have?
- The median architect or building designer here has 15. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare architects & building designers near you
422 architects & building designers, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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