How Much Does It Cost to Paint a House in Perth?

Painting a house in Perth typically ranges from around $7,000 for a full interior repaint of a small home to $40,000+ for a large double-storey exterior. The price is driven by size, surface condition, access and exposure, not the paint on the tin. We quote from a walkthrough, so the price we give is the price you pay.

There is no single number, and any painter who gives you one over the phone is guessing. What a job actually costs comes down to a handful of things you can see for yourself once you know what to look at. This guide breaks them down, gives indicative Perth ranges, and explains the one factor most quotes get wrong on the coast.

What you are actually paying for

Most of a paint job's cost is not paint. It is preparation: washing, stripping failed coating, filling, sanding, priming and sealing. On a sound, well-maintained home that work is quick. On a home that has been left, or was painted badly last time, it is most of the job. Two houses the same size can be thousands apart for this reason alone, which is why an honest quote comes from looking at the surfaces, not the floor plan.

Interior vs exterior

These are priced differently and it helps to think of them separately.

Interior is driven by the number and size of rooms, ceiling heights, how much filling and sanding the walls need, and the finish you choose. A single room is often a day; a full interior is typically several days to a week.

Exterior is driven by the size of the home, the number of storeys (access and scaffold change the price quickly), the cladding type, and how exposed the home is. Exterior is where the coastal factor below matters most.

What drives the price

In rough order of impact:

1. Size: wall area, not house size on paper.
2. Surface condition: sound paint is cheap to recoat; peeling, chalking or salt-damaged surfaces need real prep.
3. Storeys and access: a two-storey or steep-block home needs scaffold or height access.
4. Cladding: render, weatherboard, brick and fibre cement each prep differently.
5. Finish and number of colours: more cutting-in and more coats cost more.
6. Exposure: see below. This is the one most Perth quotes ignore.

Indicative Perth ranges (2026)

These are indicative Perth market ranges for 2026. Salt Coast quotes from a walkthrough; use these to set expectations, not as a fixed price.

• Whole home: add the interior and exterior rows together.
• Double-storey adds roughly $800 to $2,500 for scaffold or elevated access.
• Surface condition is the wildcard: a sound home that needs a recoat sits at the low end; a peeling, salt-affected or long-neglected exterior that needs real prep sits at the high end.

Treat these as a starting point. The honest version of this number comes from a walkthrough, because surface condition alone can move it by thousands.

Why a coastal home is quoted differently

This is the part a standard Perth quote gets wrong. A home near the coast is a harder brief than one ten kilometres inland, and pricing it the same way is how you end up repainting in three years instead of ten.

Salt settles into the surface and draws moisture back into the film. WA's UV breaks coatings down faster than almost anywhere. And wind drives both into every west and south-facing wall. Australia even has a standard that grades how corrosive a location is, AS 4312. The closer you sit to breaking surf, the higher the grade, and the more preparation and the better the coating system the home needs.

It shows up in how often you repaint, too. Coastal Perth homes in suburbs like Cottesloe, Scarborough and Fremantle often need repainting every four to six years, where a sheltered inland home might stretch past ten. So a coastal exterior carries a little more prep and a coating specified for salt and UV. It costs marginally more up front and far less over the life of the home, because it does not fail early. A cheaper coastal quote almost always means the exposure was ignored.

How to read a painting quote

• Fixed, not "from". A real quote is a fixed price off a walkthrough. "From $X" is a hook, not a price.
• Prep should be itemised. If the quote does not describe the preparation, you do not know what you are buying.
• Coatings named. The system and number of coats should be stated, especially on the coast.
• Variations in writing. The only time the price should change is if you change the scope, agreed in writing first.

Keeping the cost down without cutting prep

The two cheapest levers are honest ones: maintain the home so the next repaint is a recoat rather than a strip-and-redo, and wash salt off between repaints so coatings reach their full life. That is the whole logic of a maintenance plan, where a regular wash and a timely touch-up cost a fraction of stripping peeled paint. Cutting prep to save money does the opposite, it just brings the next full repaint forward.