Short answer: interiors run $20-$45 per m² of wall surface for walls only, or $60-$100 per m² of floor area at full scope with ceilings, trim and doors included. Exteriors run $30-$55 per m² of wall surface, and a typical family home exterior lands between $8,000 and $15,000. The long answer - including why painting guides disagree so wildly - is below.
Australian painting guides quote per-m² rates on two incompatible bases and rarely tell you which one they are using:
The wall area of a house is roughly 2.5-3.5 times its floor area, so the two bases land on similar whole-house totals. Neither is wrong - but comparing them directly makes one guide look three times cheaper than another. Every figure in this guide states its basis.
| Item | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Interior, full scope (per floor m²) | $60-$100 | hipages - primer + 2 coats, doors/walls/window frames included |
| Interior walls (per wall m²) | $20-$45 | service.com.au / TradieVerify - 1 undercoat + 2 top coats, walls only |
| Ceilings (per m²) | $15-$30 | Flat white - TradieVerify / AS Estimation |
| Doors, each incl. frames | $100-$250 | Airtasker ($120-$300) and TradieVerify ($80-$200) reconciled |
| Trim / skirting, per room | $150-$450 | Airtasker - treat as indicative; the second source confirms trim is priced separately but gives no figure |
| Job | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single room | $300-$920 | Airtasker typical; large living rooms and hallways can reach ~$2,200 (service.com.au) |
| Bedroom, walls only | $350-$850 | service.com.au / Maestro Painting |
| Bedroom, walls + ceiling + trim | $900-$1,400 | Standard 3.5 x 3.5 m bedroom, Sydney benchmark (Maestro) |
| Bathroom | $200-$400 | service.com.au / Airtasker |
| Living room | $900-$2,200 | service.com.au / Airtasker / Maestro |
| 2-3 rooms | $900-$2,800 | Airtasker |
| 2-bed unit, interior | $2,500-$3,500 | ServiceSeeking / Newline Painting |
| Small single-storey home (100 m²), interior | $4,000-$10,000 | Wide because scope differs: hipages' $6,000-$10,000 is full-scope; service.com.au's blended figures sit lower |
| Whole-house interior (task-market jobs) | $3,000-$11,000+ | Airtasker completed tasks - often partial scope or owner-supplied paint, so treat as a lower-bound reality check |
For an average ~230 m² home the published sources genuinely diverge - hipages quotes $14,150-$23,600 at full scope while service.com.au quotes $4,000-$11,000 for a walls-focused job. We have not averaged those into a fake middle number: the honest published range is $4,000-$23,600 depending on scope. When you get quotes, ask each painter to state exactly which surfaces are included - that is where the difference lives.
| Job | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Exterior (per wall m²) | $30-$55 | Reconciled central band; full published spread across guides is $15-$70 |
| Exterior (per floor m²) | $40-$70 | hipages house-size basis |
| Small single-storey home | $3,500-$8,000 | hipages / RemodellingPro - washdown, spot-prime, 2 coats at the lower end |
| Typical family home | $8,000-$15,000 | hipages exterior guide - moderate prep, quality paint |
| Large 4-bed home | $10,000-$20,000 | service.com.au / ServiceSeeking |
| Large home (400 m²) | $15,000-$28,000+ | hipages - premium paint and scaffolding at the top end |
| Hourly rate (small jobs) | $40-$70/hr | Typical; up to $100/hr for exterior/specialist work. Whole jobs are better priced per m² or as a fixed quote |
Prep is where cheap quotes quietly shrink. These add-ons come from Airtasker's interior painting guide - one published source, so treat them as indicative rather than cross-checked:
| Add-on | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| Basic cleaning + light sanding | Usually included; otherwise $100-$300 |
| Filling small holes and cracks | $100-$400 |
| Repairing damaged plaster / plasterboard | $300-$1,000+ |
| Treating stains, mould or water damage | $200-$800+ |
| Removing wallpaper or peeling paint | $400-$1,200 per room |
For context, paint itself runs about $30-$45 per litre, and Dulux's own coverage figure is roughly 16 m² per litre for wall paint.
The #1 driver. Every pricing method starts from area - per m², per room or per house - so a 235 m² home costs roughly double a 120 m² home at the same scope.
Walls only ($300-$750/room) vs walls + ceilings ($450-$950/room), plus trim at $150-$450/room and doors at $100-$250 each. Scope explains most of the gap between any two quotes.
Peeling paint, cracks, plaster damage, mould and wallpaper all add labour before a top coat goes on. Tradie advice is consistent: preparation is everything, and the cheapest quote usually cuts it.
The standard system is 1 undercoat + 2 top coats. A colour change lifts wall rates from the $20-$35 band to $25-$45 per wall m², and dark-to-light changes need extra coats.
High ceilings add 10-25%; stairwells and split levels 20-40% on that section; decorative cornices 15-35%. Outside, a second storey usually means scaffolding.
Timber and weatherboard need more prep than brick or render and price higher. Premium, low-VOC and gloss finishes cost more in materials and in application care.
The job: interior only, 3-bed single-storey house, 150 m² floor area, walls + ceilings + trim (6 doors), standard ceiling height, surfaces in fair condition (some cracks to fill), same colour family, standard trade paint, owner moves the furniture.
Step 1 - base. Walls + ceilings + trim prices at $45-$75 per floor m²: 150 x $45 = $6,750 low; 150 x $75 = $11,250 high.
Step 2 - adjustments. Standard ceilings and no stairwell: no uplift. Fair-condition prep (filling small holes and cracks): +$100-$400, indicative from Airtasker. No colour change, owner moves furniture: $0.
Guide estimate: $6,850 - $11,650
Sanity check: hipages' full-scope interior for a 100 m² home is $6,000-$10,000 and for a 235 m² home is $14,150-$23,600 - a 150 m² home landing at $6,850-$11,650 sits proportionally between them. It also sits sensibly above service.com.au's walls-focused figures, because this scope includes ceilings and trim. Try your own numbers in the painting calculator - it runs this exact method.
NSW: you need a contractor licence for residential painting work valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials (including GST) - note the often-quoted $200 threshold is decades out of date. Since 2015, stand-alone contracts for internal paintwork are an exception unless the painting is part of other home building work. The qualification is CPC30620 Certificate III in Painting and Decorating, and unlicensed work over the threshold can attract fines of $22,000 (individual) or $110,000 (company).
QLD: a QBCC licence is mandatory for painting work valued over $3,300. QBCC's own defect data is a good reason to comply - internal paint application is the #1 reported defect type in Queensland homes.
Other states and territories: rules vary and we have not published figures we could not verify against an official source. WA requires painters to register as painting contractors above a low value threshold - check the current figure with WA Building and Energy, and check your own state's fair trading or building authority for its current threshold before you sign.
All figures in this guide are guides, not quotes. Painting quotes swing with scope and surface condition more than almost any other trade - get the scope in writing (which surfaces, how many coats, what prep) before you compare prices.
Prices cross-checked against hipages (house painting, exterior and calculator guides), service.com.au, Airtasker, TradieVerify, ServiceSeeking, Maestro Painting, Newline Painting and RipperQuote; licensing per NSW Government and QBCC official pages - October 2026.
Short answer: interiors run $20-$45 per m² of wall surface for walls only, or $60-$100 per m² of floor area at full scope with ceilings, trim and doors included. Exteriors run $30-$55 per m² of wall surface, and a typical family home exterior lands between $8,000 and $15,000. The long answer - including why painting guides disagree so wildly - is below.
The biggest drivers are paintable area, scope included, condition and prep and colour change and coats. Each one is worked through with prices in the guide above, and the calculator prices them for your job.
Use the free calculator linked from this guide - it prices your job with the same installed ranges used here, in about 30 seconds. It is a guide range, not a quote: your contractor confirms a fixed price after seeing the job.
No - they are researched guide ranges, cross-checked across at least two published sources, not quotes. Prices move with your area, the condition of the site and the scope you choose. Get itemised quotes in writing, and check the tradesperson's licence with your state building authority before you book.
The calculator runs the floor-area method from this guide - pick your scope honestly and it will show you where your job lands.