Commercial Painting Cost Australia 2026
Commercial painting in Australia is priced per square metre of wall and ceiling area, from a straightforward interior office repaint through to exterior facade work, warehouse and factory coatings and specialist protective systems. The biggest cost levers are the surface prep, how the painters access the work and whether the job has to run after hours around an operating business. Pick your city below for local pricing, or see the national job-by-job breakdown underneath. Figures are $15-$45/m2.
| City | Typical range | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $15-$45/m2 | ↑ +4.1% |
| Melbourne | $15-$45/m2 | ↑ +3.9% |
| Brisbane | $15-$45/m2 | ↑ +4.2% |
| Perth | $14-$41/m2 | ↑ +3.5% |
| Adelaide | $12-$36/m2 | ↑ +4.6% |
| Gold Coast | $13-$38/m2 | ↑ +4.2% |
| Canberra | $14-$43/m2 | ↑ +4.0% |
| Hobart | $12-$35/m2 | ↑ +4.0% |
| Darwin | $16-$48/m2 | ↑ +4.0% |
| Newcastle | $12-$37/m2 | ↑ +4.1% |
| Geelong | $12-$36/m2 | ↑ +3.9% |
| Sunshine Coast | $13-$38/m2 | ↑ +4.2% |
| Wollongong | $14-$42/m2 | ↑ +4.1% |
| Townsville | $14-$42/m2 | ↑ +4.2% |
| Byron Bay | $14-$41/m2 | ↑ +4.1% |
Commercial Painting by city
Commercial Painting prices at a glance
| Service | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site inspection / colour and spec consultation | $200per job | $350 | $500 |
| Interior commercial repaint (walls & ceilings) | $10per m² | $20 | $30 |
| Exterior commercial repaint (facade & render) | $25per m² | $45 | $60 |
| Warehouse & factory wall painting | $15per m² | $30 | $45 |
| Structural steel & metalwork coating | $15per m² | $30 | $45 |
| Protective / industrial coating system | $35per m² | $80 | $300 |
| Intumescent / fire-rated coating | $45per m² | $90 | $130 |
| Surface preparation (wash, sand, patch, prime) | $8per m² | $15 | $25 |
| High-access work (EWP / scaffold loading) | $500per day | $900 | $2,000 |
| After-hours / night-shift painting loading | $350per day | $600 | $900 |
| Line marking & epoxy floor coating (adjacent) | $30per m² | $35 | $35 |
| Repaint cycle / maintenance contract | $2,000per project | $8,000 | $30,000 |
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Get free quotes →Commercial Painting Costs by Sector
Offices & Corporate
Walls, ceilings, common areas and tenancy refreshes across multi-tenant towers and owner-occupied buildings in Australia. Most work runs after hours or in stages around staff, and protecting fitout, flooring and IT drives the rate as much as the painted area does.
Retail & Shopfronts
Shopfront facades, interiors and signage backing for strip shops and shopping-centre tenancies in Australia. Centre trading hours force night and early-morning work, and landlord and centre presentation standards lift the surface prep and finish expected.
Warehouses & Industrial
Factory walls, ceilings, structural steel and plant rooms in Australia, where reach, dust control and durable coatings dominate the cost. Protective and industrial systems, high-access equipment and adjacent line marking and epoxy floor coating are commonly scoped together.
Strata & Apartment Common Areas
Lobbies, corridors, stairwells, car parks and external render across Australia strata buildings. Committee approvals, staged access around residents and consistent repaint cycles for the whole scheme shape both the program and the cost.
What Affects Commercial Painting Costs in Australia
Commercial painting quotes in Australia swing on the surface prep, the access method and the after-hours requirement far more than on painted area alone. Here are the main drivers.
Surface preparation & substrate
Washing, sanding, patching, rust treatment and priming are often the largest hidden cost. A sound, previously painted surface is far cheaper than degraded render, bare steel or a substrate needing remediation before any topcoat goes on.
Access & height
How the crew reaches the work is a major lever. Elevated work platforms, scaffold and rope or height loading for upper levels, atriums and facades add equipment, time and safety cost over work done at ground level.
After-hours & staged access
Operating offices, retail centres and warehouses force night, weekend and staged shifts so trading continues - a real multiplier over an empty building, plus extra setup, protection and pack-down each shift.
Coating system & specification
A standard decorative repaint sits well below protective, industrial, anti-graffiti or intumescent fire-rated systems. The specified product, number of coats and durability required move the rate sharply.
Compliance & site requirements
Site inductions, safe work method statements, height and confined-space controls, fire-rated certification and environmental or dust controls all add documentation and time, especially on industrial and healthcare sites in Australia.
Scale, repaint cycle & maintenance
Larger areas and multi-building or strata schemes attract better per-m² rates, and an ongoing repaint cycle or maintenance contract is usually priced more keenly than a one-off mobilisation.
How to Control Commercial Painting Costs
Our Methodology
Commercial pricing on this page is compiled from Australian commercial contractors, suppliers, published commercial rate guides and peak industry data. We cross-reference ranges from multiple sources and adjust for city-specific factors. Our guides are produced independently; no contractor can influence a published figure. All prices are GST-inclusive estimates and will vary with your specific site. Read our full methodology →
Painting a whole commercial building — exterior costs that scale
The searches that land here most often ask one blunt question: what does it cost to paint a commercial building? The honest answer is a method, not a number — commercial painting prices per square metre by surface type, and the whole-building figure is those bands applied to your measured areas.
Exterior work is where budgets are won and lost. Facade and render repaints run $25–$60 per square metre, but preparation is its own line at $8–$25 per square metre — wash-down, sanding, patching and priming — and its share grows with the age of the substrate and the height of the building. A neglected facade can carry as much prep cost as paint cost.
Inside the envelope, warehouse and factory walls band at $15–$45 per square metre and standard interior repaints at $10–$30 per square metre. Where compliance enters — structural steel needing fire ratings — intumescent coating is its own specialist band at $45–$130 per square metre, and it belongs in the budget as a separate certified line, not buried in the general rate.
To estimate a whole building: measure each surface class, apply its band, then add access. Elevated work platforms and scaffold are quoted separately from the painting rate — on multi-storey exteriors they can rival the paint line itself, and our scaffolding cost guide covers those numbers.