How to Open a Pilates Studio in Australia (2026)
The Short Answer
A reformer Pilates studio in Australia typically charges $50 to $90 a week and needs 100 to 200 sqm fitted with 6 to 10 reformers. Capacity is fixed maths: reformers multiplied by classes per week is your total weekly spots. Most founders spend $50,000 to $90,000 on equipment for a studio this size, and the real constraint on growth is qualified instructor availability, not floor space or reformer count.
A reformer Pilates studio is a different business to a traditional gym, even though the fit-out steps look similar on paper. You are not selling floor access, you are selling a seat in a class at a set time, and that changes almost every number in your plan: how big a space you need, what equipment you buy, and what actually caps your revenue. This guide walks through the reformer studio model the way VERVE sees it across real Australian fit-outs, from pricing and capacity through to the instructor supply problem that most business plans leave out.
What Makes a Reformer Studio Different
Reformer Pilates sits in a higher price band than open-gym access, typically $50 to $90 a week, because members are paying for a coached, small-class experience rather than unsupervised floor time. That price supports a much smaller footprint than a full gym: a studio can be commercially viable at 150 to 200 sqm where a strength and cardio facility would need double that. The trade-off is that a reformer studio has a hard ceiling on revenue that a big open gym doesn't, because every session has a fixed number of reformers and a fixed number of minutes in the day.
Most studios run on class packs, memberships, or a mix of both, but the underlying unit of sale is always the same: one person, one reformer, one class. That's worth sitting with before you sign a lease, because it means your growth options are limited to more reformers, more classes, or a higher price, not just more foot traffic.
The Capacity Maths: Reformers Multiplied by Classes a Week
Every reformer studio has a revenue ceiling you can calculate before you buy a single machine. Weekly class spots equal the number of reformers multiplied by the number of classes you run each week, since a class is generally capped at one person per reformer. The table below shows how that plays out at three common studio sizes, using an average of two visits a week per member to translate spots into a rough member number the studio could support.
| Reformers | Classes per week | Weekly class spots | Roughly this many members (2 visits/week average) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 30 to 35 | 180 to 210 | 90 to 105 |
| 8 | 38 to 42 | 300 to 335 | 150 to 170 |
| 10 | 45 to 50 | 450 to 500 | 225 to 250 |
These are illustrative ranges, not a promise, and the real number moves with class length, studio opening hours and how many of your slots you can actually fill. But the maths itself doesn't move: if you want more revenue from the same reformer count, you either extend your opening hours to run more classes, or you raise price. Adding reformers without a plan to fill the extra classes just adds idle equipment.
Sizing the Room: 100 to 200 sqm Works
Most reformer studios in Australia open somewhere between 100 and 200 sqm. That's enough for six to ten reformers with proper walkway space between machines, a small reception and change area, and usually a mat zone for warm-up or floor-based add-on classes. Bigger isn't automatically better here: a reformer studio relies on a tight, energetic room, and an oversized space with too few reformers just reads as empty. Get your reformer count and class model settled first, then let that number tell you the sqm you actually need, rather than leasing on square footage alone.
Flooring matters more in a reformer studio than in most gym types, because the room is used barefoot or in grip socks and needs to handle a moving carriage without excessive noise transfer. A rubber flooring product such as our EPDM rubber flooring works well in the surrounding mat and reception areas alongside the reformers themselves.
Choosing Your Reformers and Fit-Out Partner
Reformer choice is one of the few equipment decisions in a studio fit-out where you genuinely need to test the feel of the machine, not just read a spec sheet. VERVE stocks two reformers built for Australian commercial use: the VERVE Flow Pilates Reformer and the VERVE Vibe Pilates Reformer. Both are held in stock rather than built to order, which matters when your opening date is set and you're trying to avoid a freight delay eating into your first weeks of trading.
Working with one partner from design through to delivery and installation, on one invoice, removes a lot of the coordination risk in a studio build. You can see and test reformers in person at our Gold Coast showroom, 4 Dalton St, Upper Coomera QLD, or call 1300 1947 48 to talk through a fit-out before you commit to a floor plan.
See Your Reformer Studio Before You Build It
Send us your floor plan and most founders have renders back within a week, then a video walkthrough and as many layout changes as it takes.
Request Your Free DesignInstructor Availability Is the Real Constraint
Equipment and floor space are the easy part of a reformer studio. The number that actually caps how fast you can grow is qualified reformer instructors, and in most Australian cities that pool is small. A studio that has funded ten reformers but can only roster enough instructors to run 25 classes a week is leaving revenue on the table that no amount of extra equipment will recover.
- Budget for instructor recruitment and cross-training before you finalise your class timetable, not after.
- Build a casual instructor pool early, even if you don't need the extra hours yet, so a roster gap doesn't force you to cancel classes.
- Check pay and rostering against the Fitness Industry Award with your accountant or a workplace relations adviser before you set instructor rates, since award coverage applies to fitness instructors as well as gym staff.
This is worth planning properly rather than assuming it will sort itself out. Our gym staffing guide covers rostering and award obligations for fitness businesses in more depth.
The 2026 Trend: Strength Plus Pilates Hybrids
A growing number of Australian founders are pairing a strength floor with a reformer Pilates room in the same building, rather than picking one format. It widens who can join, since strength members and reformer members are often different demographics, and it spreads revenue across more than one class type instead of leaning entirely on instructor supply for a single format. One couple on Tasmania's north-west coast converted a 400 sqm shed into a 24/7 gym with a reformer studio and a sauna recovery zone on a $200,000 equipment budget, a good example of how a hybrid layout can widen revenue per member without doubling the site.
If you already run a strength gym and are weighing up whether to add a reformer room, our guide to adding reformer Pilates to an existing gym walks through the sqm, capacity and staffing changes involved.
Budget and Timeline
For a 150 to 200 sqm studio, expect to spend $50,000 to $90,000 on equipment, with reformers making up most of that figure. On top of equipment, budget for building fit-out beyond the machines ($20,000 to $80,000 depending on how much work the shell needs), bond and rent in advance (commonly three to six months), council and certification costs ($2,000 to $10,000), and insurance ($2,000 to $5,000 a year). Confirm exact insurance requirements with a broker, since public liability and professional indemnity cover for instructor-led classes is not optional.
From a signed lease to opening day typically takes 8 to 16 weeks when design, equipment ordering and building works run in parallel rather than one after another. Our cost to open a gym guide and gym business plan and break-even guide cover the full budget and cash flow picture in more detail. You can also run your own numbers for free through the financial planner tool or the equipment package recommender, both free, sign up with your email.
Get Your Free 3D Gym Design
Send us your floor plan and most founders have renders back within a week, then a video walkthrough and as many layout changes as it takes.
Request Your Free DesignFrequently asked questions
How many reformers do I need to open a Pilates studio?
Most Australian founders open with 6 to 10 reformers. Six is enough to test a location and build a class timetable without overcommitting on equipment spend, while ten supports a fuller weekly timetable from day one. The right number depends on how many classes you can realistically staff, not just the size of the room.
What's a realistic weekly price for reformer Pilates in Australia?
Reformer Pilates typically prices at $50 to $90 a week, well above open-gym access, because members are paying for a coached class rather than unsupervised floor time. Where you sit in that band depends on your location, class size and how established the studio brand is locally.
Do I need a bigger space than a normal PT studio?
A reformer studio generally needs more room than a PT studio, because reformers themselves are large pieces of equipment and need clear space to operate safely. Most reformer studios work in 100 to 200 sqm, compared with 80 to 150 sqm for a typical PT studio.
What's the difference between the VERVE Flow and VERVE Vibe reformers?
Both are commercial-grade reformers built for Australian studio use and held in stock. The right choice for your studio comes down to feel, finish and budget, which is best tested in person at the VERVE showroom on the Gold Coast or discussed with our team on 1300 1947 48.
How long does it take to open a reformer studio?
From a signed lease to opening day typically takes 8 to 16 weeks, assuming design, equipment ordering and any building works run in parallel. Studios with a simpler fit-out and in-stock reformers tend to land at the shorter end of that range.
Can I run reformer Pilates in a mixed gym instead of a standalone studio?
Yes, adding a reformer room to an existing strength or group training gym is a common way to widen revenue per member without opening a second site. It does require its own sqm allocation, its own instructor pool, and usually its own class timetable, so treat it as a genuine second business line rather than an add-on.
What's the biggest risk in a reformer studio business?
Instructor availability, not equipment or floor space. A studio can be fully fitted out and still underperform if there aren't enough qualified reformer instructors to run the classes needed to fill the timetable, so recruitment and rostering deserve as much planning as the fit-out itself.