Painting rates in Australia run $20–$60 per square metre for interior work and $30–$80 per square metre for exterior work in 2026. The rate covers preparation, two topcoats, labour and materials on the measured surface, and where your job lands in the range comes down to surface condition, ceiling height and cladding. On whole-job numbers, that puts a 3-bedroom interior at $6,000–$11,000 and a single-storey exterior at $4,000–$18,000 depending on cladding.
These ranges hold across Australian capital cities. Our numbers come from quoting Melbourne homes, where we’ve painted since 1987 with $20M public liability, and this guide shows you what a per-metre rate actually includes, how to measure your own areas, and how the maths plays out on a real 3-bedroom house.
Key takeaway
Australian painting rates in 2026: interior $20–$60/m², exterior $30–$80/m², covering prep, two coats, labour and paint on measured walls and ceilings. Trim, doors, windows and gutters are priced per item on top. Use the rate to sanity-check quotes, not to build a price, because setup costs don't scale with area.
For whole-project prices rather than rates, see the house painting cost Melbourne guide. And if a painter has offered you an hourly rate instead of an area rate, read how much painters charge per hour before you agree to anything.
What are painting rates per square metre in Australia?
Interior painting costs $20–$60 per square metre and exterior painting costs $30–$80 per square metre in Australia in 2026, with the surface type setting where you sit in each range. Here’s the breakdown painters actually work from.
| Surface | Rate per m² (2026) | Why it sits there |
|---|---|---|
| Interior walls, good condition | $20–$35 | Wash, minor fill, two coats on sound plaster |
| Interior walls, repairs needed | $35–$60 | Cracks, patching, sealing, extra prep hours |
| Ceilings | $25–$45 | Overhead work is slower; stains need sealing |
| Exterior render (sound) | $30–$50 | Wash, crack repair, texture holds more paint |
| Exterior bare brick (first paint-out) | $35–$55 | Porous surface, sealer plus two topcoats |
| Exterior weatherboard | $45–$80 | Board-by-board scraping, sanding, priming |
The pattern to notice: preparation drives the rate, not the paint. Rolling two coats onto a sound wall is the cheap, fast part of any job. Every dollar above the bottom of the range is buying prep hours, filling, sanding, sealing, scraping, which is exactly where cheap quotes cut corners. Our guide to lowball painting quotes covers how that shows up.
Rates are broadly consistent across Australian capitals, with the top of each range more common in inner-city and heritage work and the bottom more common on new, sound surfaces. Regional labour can price a little lower but often adds travel.
Key takeaway: Interior $20–$60/m², exterior $30–$80/m². Condition and cladding set your spot in the range, and prep hours are what you’re paying for above the minimum.
What does a per-square-metre painting rate include?
A proper per-metre rate includes standard prep, primer where needed, two topcoats, labour and paint on the measured surface, and it excludes more than most people expect. This is where quote comparisons go wrong.
Included in a genuine rate:
- Washing/sugar-soaping, minor filling and sanding
- Primer, sealer or undercoat where the surface needs it
- Two topcoats of a named paint product
- Labour, drop sheets, masking and cleanup
Usually excluded and priced separately:
- Trim, doors, windows, skirting, gutters and fascias. These are priced per item, and on some exteriors they’re half the bill.
- Repairs. Plaster cracks beyond minor filling, rotten boards, drummy render.
- High ceilings and access. Above the standard 2.4–2.7m adds labour, and stairwells or double-storey exteriors can need scaffold or a platform.
- Colour changes. Dark-to-light usually needs a third coat, which no two-coat rate covers.
High ceilings add paintable area and slow the work. Standard per-metre rates assume 2.4–2.7m heights.
So when two quotes show different rates, the first question isn’t which number is lower. It’s whether the two rates cover the same scope. A $30/m² rate that excludes all trim can cost more overall than a $40/m² rate that includes it. Consumer Affairs Victoria recommends written quotes that itemise exactly what’s covered, and that advice earns its keep here.
Key takeaway: Never compare per-metre rates without comparing what they include. The rate covers walls and ceilings; trim, repairs, access and third coats ride on top.
How do you measure the paintable area?
Walls are perimeter times ceiling height minus openings, and ceilings equal the floor area. Two minutes with a tape measure lets you sanity-check any per-metre quote.
Worked measurement for a 4m x 4m bedroom with 2.4m ceilings:
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Wall perimeter | 4m + 4m + 4m + 4m | 16m |
| Gross wall area | 16m x 2.4m | 38.4 m² |
| Less door and window | roughly | -4 m² |
| Net wall area | ~34 m² | |
| Ceiling (= floor area) | 4m x 4m | 16 m² |
| Total paintable surface | ~50 m² |
Do that room by room and you have the number a per-metre quote should be built on. A standard 3-bedroom house works out to roughly 300–350 m² of interior walls and ceilings, and about 100–160 m² of exterior wall once windows and doors come off, the same figure we use in the exterior cost guide.
One honest warning: a painter who quotes off your phone measurements without seeing the surfaces is guessing at the prep, and prep is most of the price. Measurement tells you the area. Only an inspection tells you the rate.
Key takeaway: Perimeter x height, minus openings, plus the floor area for ceilings. Measure it once and you can check any quote’s arithmetic in your head.
Square metre rates vs room rates: which should you use?
Per-metre rates suit large open areas and exteriors, while flat room rates suit standard bedrooms and bathrooms, because setup time is fixed per room, not per metre. Apply the wrong model and the numbers mislead you.
Take that 50 m² bedroom from above. At $30/m² the arithmetic says $1,500. But Melbourne painters quote a standard bedroom at $650–$950 flat, because the per-metre model assumes every metre takes equal effort, and it doesn’t. Masking, drop sheets, cutting-in and cleanup take the same time in a small room as a big one. Per-metre maths overstates small rooms and understates big open-plan spaces.
Where per-metre rates genuinely work:
- Exteriors, where wall area dominates the cost and prep scales with the metres, especially weatherboard
- Long hallways and open-plan living areas with big uninterrupted surfaces
- Commercial and body corporate work quoted off floor plans
Where room rates work better: standard bedrooms ($650–$950), bathrooms ($400–$700) and living rooms ($800–$1,500). The full comparison, with worked examples for both models, is in our per square metre vs per room pricing guide.
Key takeaway: Rates for big simple areas, room prices for standard rooms. Whichever the painter uses, judge the quote on the whole-job total, not the unit price.
Worked examples: a 3-bedroom house at 2026 rates
A 3-bedroom full interior lands at $6,000–$11,000 and a single-storey exterior at $4,000–$18,000 when you run the real areas through 2026 rates. Here’s the maths laid out.
| Job | Approx. area | Rate applied | Where the quote lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3BR interior, walls only | 200–240 m² walls | $20–$30/m² | $4,500–$6,500 |
| 3BR full interior (walls, ceilings, trim) | 300–350 m² + trim per item | $20–$35/m² blended | $6,000–$11,000 |
| 3BR exterior, rendered single storey | 100–160 m² walls + trim per item | $30–$50/m² | $6,000–$12,000 |
| 3BR exterior, weatherboard single storey | 100–160 m² walls + trim per item | $45–$80/m² | $10,000–$18,000 |
Notice that whole-house interior work prices in the lower half of the $20–$60 range. That’s the multi-room efficiency: one setup, one paint order, weeks of continuous work. The top half of the range belongs to single rooms, repairs and difficult surfaces. These totals line up with our 3-bedroom interior cost guide and the whole-job tables in the exterior cost guide, which is the point: rates and job prices should tell the same story, and when they don’t, one of them is wrong.
A repainted Essendon exterior. On jobs like this, trim and detail priced per item make up a large share of the total above the wall rate.
Also notice what the exterior rows show: the same house at the same size can double in price on cladding alone. Weatherboard prep is board-by-board handwork, and that’s rate, not rort.
Key takeaway: Run area x rate as a sanity check, then expect the real quote to sit near it with trim and extras on top. A quote wildly above or below your arithmetic needs explaining.
How we quote against these rates
We measure and inspect every job in person, then give a fixed written quote with the prep scope, the Dulux products, the coat count and the GST-inclusive total. The per-metre rates on this page are the sanity check; the inspection is the price. We’ve quoted Melbourne interior and exterior painting this way since 1987, carry $20M public liability, and hold 5.0 star Google reviews.
Want a whole-job price, not a rate?
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Frequently asked questions
What are painting rates per square metre in Australia?
Interior painting rates in Australia run $20–$60 per square metre and exterior rates run $30–$80 per square metre in 2026. The rate covers preparation, two topcoats, labour and materials on the measured surface. Where you land in the range depends on surface condition, ceiling height, cladding type and paint quality.
What does a per-square-metre painting rate include?
A proper rate includes standard preparation (wash, fill, sand), primer or sealer where needed, two topcoats, labour and paint on the measured walls and ceilings. It usually excludes trim, doors, windows, gutters and fascias (priced per item), plus repairs, high-access equipment and colour changes needing a third coat. Always ask what the rate covers before comparing quotes on it.
How do I calculate the paintable area of a room?
Measure the room’s perimeter and multiply by ceiling height, then subtract openings. A 4m x 4m bedroom with 2.4m ceilings has 16m of perimeter, giving 38.4 m² of wall, less about 4 m² of doors and windows, so roughly 34 m² of wall. The ceiling adds the floor area, another 16 m², for about 50 m² of paintable surface.
Is it cheaper to pay per square metre or per room for painting?
Neither is automatically cheaper. Per-metre rates suit large open spaces and exteriors, where area drives the cost. Per-room prices suit standard bedrooms and bathrooms, because setup and cutting-in time is fixed per room regardless of size. Applying a per-metre rate to a small bedroom usually overstates the cost, which is why painters quote small rooms at flat rates of $650–$950 instead.
How much does it cost to paint a 3-bedroom house using per-square-metre rates?
A 3-bedroom house has roughly 300–350 m² of paintable interior surface, and whole-house work prices in the lower half of the interior range, landing a full interior at $6,000–$11,000 in 2026. The exterior has around 100–160 m² of wall. At $30–$80 per square metre plus trim priced per item, a single-storey exterior runs $4,000–$18,000 depending on cladding.
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Free on-site inspection and a fixed-price written quote, no obligation. Painting Melbourne homes since 1987.
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