Guide
What actually decides the price of an end of lease clean
Two quotes for the same flat can differ by hundreds, and it is rarely because one cleaner is greedy. It is usually because the two quotes cover different amounts of work. Knowing which factors move the number is the difference between comparing quotes and comparing numbers.
The factors, roughly in order of how much they move the price
- How long since the property had a thorough clean. A flat cleaned monthly needs far less than one that has not been done properly in a year, even at the same size.
- Bedrooms and bathrooms. Bathrooms in particular multiply the work — limescale, glass, grout and the areas behind and around the fittings.
- The oven and the extractor filter, which are the slowest items in the job and the first thing an inspection looks at.
- Carpets, if they need steam cleaning rather than vacuuming.
- Access: stairs, no lift, nowhere to park, or a building that restricts when work can happen.
What a cheap quote usually leaves out
When a price looks too low for the property, it is usually because the oven, the carpets, the inside of the cupboards or the windows have been excluded — or because the quote was given without anybody seeing the place. Any of those can turn into a revised price on the day, which is the version that ends in an argument.
The useful question when comparing quotes is not which is cheapest. It is what is included, and whether the figure was given after seeing the property or the photographs.
A sourced range, where we have one
For Australia we publish a real band, taken from sourced figures rather than estimated: roughly 360 to 520 for a two-bedroom move-out clean, and about 55 to 65 an hour for regular work.
For every other market we publish nothing, because we have no sourced figure and a number we invented would be a claim rather than a guide. That is a deliberate absence, not an oversight — a made-up range is worse than none, because people budget against it.
Per job or per hour
For an end of lease clean, per job is the sensible shape. The job is defined by a checklist rather than by a clock, so an hourly price pays a cleaner for being slow and penalises them for being fast, which is the wrong incentive on the one clean where thoroughness is the whole point.
Hourly makes more sense for regular work, where the scope is predictable and the same cleaner returns.
Questions people ask
End of lease cleaning in Australia
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Practical advice rather than an inspection standard. The standard that matters is whatever your tenancy agreement and entry report say.