Commercial Cleaning Cost Australia 2026
Office cleaning leads the Australian commercial cleaning market, and it is priced two ways: an hourly rate - $40-$65 for contract work in 2026 - or a rate per square metre per month, typically $2-$4. Once scope and frequency are agreed, most offices move to a fixed monthly contract.
Contract size is the biggest lever. A small office under 100m² cleaned two or three times a week costs $250-$600 a month; a medium office of 100-500m² on a daily schedule runs $800 to $2,500. Frequency, fit-out density and after-hours access move the number more than floor area alone.
Project work sits alongside the contract: end-of-lease and builder-handover deep cleans at $6-$12/m², vinyl strip and seal at $8-$15/m², and commercial carpet steam cleaning at $3-$6/m². Medical and specialised cleaning is a separate market again, at $55-$80 per hour with infection-control protocols built into the price.
| City | Typical range | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $46-$70/hr | ↑ +4.7% |
| Melbourne | $40-$70/hr | ↑ +4.5% |
| Brisbane | $40-$65/hr | ↑ +4.8% |
| Perth | $42-$64/hr | ↑ +4.1% |
| Adelaide | $37-$56/hr | ↑ +5.2% |
| Gold Coast | $39-$60/hr | ↑ +4.8% |
| Canberra | $43-$67/hr | ↑ +4.6% |
| Hobart | $35-$55/hr | ↑ +4.6% |
| Darwin | $48-$74/hr | ↑ +4.6% |
| Newcastle | $38-$58/hr | ↑ +4.7% |
| Geelong | $37-$57/hr | ↑ +4.5% |
| Sunshine Coast | $39-$59/hr | ↑ +4.8% |
| Wollongong | $43-$66/hr | ↑ +4.7% |
| Townsville | $43-$66/hr | ↑ +4.8% |
| Byron Bay | $42-$64/hr | ↑ +4.7% |
Commercial Cleaning by city
Commercial Cleaning prices at a glance
| Service | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office cleaning (contract) | $40per hour | $48 | $65 |
| Regular contract rate | $2per m² per month | $3 | $4 |
| Small office <100m², 1x/wk | $250per month | $400 | $600 |
| Medium office 100-500m², daily | $800per month | $1,600 | $2,500 |
| End-of-lease / deep clean | $6per m² | $9 | $12 |
| Strip & seal vinyl | $8per m² | $11 | $15 |
| Commercial carpet steam clean | $3per m² | $4.50 | $6 |
| Medical / specialised clean | $55per hour | $70 | $80 |
| Small office regular clean (<150m², 1-2 hrs) | $50per visit | $90 | $150 |
| Medium office regular clean (150-500m²) | $150per visit | $250 | $400 |
| Small office, 2-3 cleans a week | $140per week | $210 | $280 |
| Commercial window cleaning | $45per hour | $55 | $70 |
| Sanitary bin service (monthly exchange, per bin) | $25per unit | $30 | $45 |
| Commercial kitchen deep clean (small kitchen) | $280per visit | $400 | $560 |
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Get free quotes →Prices include GST. National figures, October 2026.
Worked pricing scenarios
Three illustrative examples built from the national bands in the table above - the arithmetic is shown so you can rebuild it for your own site. Access, height and after-hours factors position a job within its band; they are not separate line items here.
- 120m² office, three evening visits a week. 3 visits x 45 minutes at the typical contract rate of $48/hr = $108 a week, or about $468 a month - which is why it reconciles inside the small-office contract band of $250-$600 rather than being quoted hourly forever. After-hours access positions it toward the top of that band, not outside it.
- 400m² end-of-lease clean with carpets. 400m² at the typical deep-clean rate of $9/m² = $3,600, plus 180m² of carpet steam cleaning at $4.50/m² = $810 - about $4,410 all-in for a documented make-good standard.
- Medical suite, two 2-hour cleans a week. 4 hours a week at the specialised rate of $70/hr comes to roughly $1,215 a month with infection-control documentation included - the premium over the standard office rate is the protocol, not the polish.
- Annualising a small-office contract. The $250-$600/month band is $3,000-$7,200 a year - the number that belongs in a facilities budget line, and the baseline any re-tender has to beat.
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Get free quotes →Commercial Cleaning Costs by Sector
Scope and standard vary sharply by sector, and the rate follows.
- Offices and professional suites - the benchmark market: $40-$65/hr or $2-$4/m² per month, with waste, consumables and periodic details layered onto the base contract.
- Medical, dental and allied health - infection-control cleaning to documented protocols, colour-coded equipment and clinical waste handling at $55-$80/hr.
- Gyms, venues and hospitality - high-traffic amenities and overnight windows; pricing tracks the office hourly band with loadings for late finishes.
- Retail and showrooms - short daily cleans before trade, often quoted as a flat per-visit rate derived from the hourly band.
- Industrial and warehouse - amenities blocks and office pods within larger sites; access inductions add time before the first clean starts.
What Affects Commercial Cleaning Costs in Australia
Six things move a commercial cleaning quote more than anything else:
- Frequency - daily service lowers the per-visit price but raises the monthly total; the $250-$600/month small-office band assumes 2-3 visits a week.
- After-hours and weekend windows - cleaning outside business hours attracts penalty loadings under the Cleaning Services Award, and most tenanted offices require it.
- Fit-out density - workstations, meeting rooms and kitchens clean slower than open floor; density is why two same-size offices quote differently.
- Consumables and waste - paper, liners and sanitary services are either itemised or loaded into the contract rate; check which before comparing quotes.
- Compliance tier - police-checked staff, site inductions and documented infection control (medical sites) all add cost per hour.
- Contract term - 12-month agreements price below month-to-month; exit clauses are the trade-off.
How Commercial Cleaning Is Quoted
Commercial cleaning is almost always tendered ex-GST as a monthly contract price, built up from a measured scope: floor area, fixture counts, frequency per zone and consumables. A serious quote follows a site walkthrough and states what happens to the rate if frequency changes; a per-hour-only quote for an ongoing contract is a red flag that scope hasn't been measured. Check three inclusions before comparing: consumables and liners, periodic work (windows, high dusting, hard-floor maintenance) and how public-holiday and after-hours loadings are treated. Contracts normally run 12 months with a 30-day exit; month-to-month is available at a premium. Insurance certificates, police checks and induction compliance should be attached, not promised.
How to Control Commercial Cleaning Costs
To keep a commercial cleaning contract honest:
- Tender on a measured scope - square metres, fixture counts and frequency - not a walkthrough guess.
- Split project work (end-of-lease at $6-$12/m², strip and seal at $8-$15/m²) from the recurring contract so each is comparable.
- Ask how award penalty rates are handled for after-hours cleans - a quote that ignores them is underpriced and won't survive.
- Review scope quarterly; offices routinely pay for frequencies they no longer need.
What a Compliant Commercial Cleaning Quote Includes — Cost in Australia
Use this as the tender filter: a quote missing two or more of these is not cheaper - it is incomplete. Ask for the missing items in writing and watch the price converge with the compliant quotes. One basis note before comparing: commercial quotes are typically presented ex-GST while the bands on this page include GST - normalise the basis first or every comparison that follows is off by ten percent.
- A measured scope: floor areas, fixture counts and frequency per zone - not a walkthrough guess
- How consumables, liners and sanitary services are treated (itemised or loaded)
- How Cleaning Services Award penalty loadings apply to after-hours and weekend cleans
- Periodic work (windows, high dusting, hard floors) listed with its own cadence
- Insurance certificates, police checks and induction compliance attached
- Contract term, exit clause and the rate-change trigger if frequency changes
There is no statutory cleaning-frequency regime - cadence is contractual. The practical rule: review scope quarterly against actual use, and re-tender or re-scope annually; offices routinely keep paying for frequencies the floor no longer needs.
Commercial cleaning rates — how the pricing actually works
Most people searching commercial cleaning costs hit the same wall: every quote uses a different unit. There are really only two pricing models — contract office cleaning at $40–$65 per hour, or $2–$4 per square metre per month — and every monthly figure you are quoted is one of those models multiplied out by frequency.
Worked through, the models land where the table above shows: a small office on two to three visits a week typically pays $250–$600 a month, and a medium office on daily service $800–$2,500 a month. Where you sit inside those bands is driven by fit-out density (desks and meeting rooms slow a clean), after-hours access requirements, and how much wet-area work the site carries.
One-off and periodic work prices per square metre instead: end-of-lease and deep cleans at $6–$12 per square metre, and hard-floor strip and seal at $8–$15 per square metre. These are the lines that surprise tenants at exit — budget them at contract start, not lease end.
To estimate your own site before asking for quotes: count cleanable square metres, choose a frequency, and run both models — the hourly rate against expected hours, and the per-metre rate against area. If a quote lands far outside both, ask which line item explains it. Specialised contract services — washroom and sanitary units, consumables, odour management — are priced per fixture and frequency as separate lines, not inside the general cleaning rate.
Commercial cleaning prices per visit, per week and per month
In Australia, most commercial cleaners price a regular office clean per visit. A small office under 150m², cleaned in one to two hours, costs $50–$150 a visit with $90 typical; a medium office of 150–500m² costs $150–$400 a visit, $250 typical. The hourly rate behind those visits is $40–$65 for contract office cleaning.
Per week, a small office cleaned two or three times costs $140–$280, $210 typical. Per month, a small office under 100m² on one clean a week is $250–$600, and a medium office of 100–500m² on daily service is $800–$2,500.
Two costs often sit outside the cleaning contract: a sanitary bin service at $25–$45 per bin, exchanged monthly, and window cleaning at $45–$70 an hour. Check whether a quote includes them before you compare it with another.