Commercial Cleaning Cost Australia 2026
Office cleaning leads the Australian commercial cleaning market, and it is priced two ways: an hourly rate - $35-$65 for contract work in 2026 - or a rate per square metre per clean, 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 $45-$80 per hour with infection-control protocols built into the price.
Commercial Cleaning by city
Commercial Cleaning prices at a glance
| Service | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office cleaning (contract) | $35per hour | $48 | $65 |
| Regular contract rate | $2per m² per clean | $3 | $4 |
| Small office <100m², 2-3x/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 | $45per hour | $60 | $80 |
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Get free quotes →Prices include GST. National figures, August 2026.
Worked pricing scenarios
Three illustrative examples built from the Australia 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 1.5 hours at the typical contract rate of $48/hr = $216 a week, or about $940 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 $60/hr comes to roughly $1,040 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: $35-$65/hr or $2-$4/m² per clean, 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 $45-$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
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 $35–$65 per hour, or $2–$4 per square metre per clean — 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.