Find a trusted painter in Sydney

Lead paint and Sydney’s older houses

A lot of Sydney’s housing predates 1970, from Marrickville terraces to red-brick bungalows in Concord, and houses painted before then are likely to have lead in the older layers. It’s low risk under sound paint, but dry sanding, scraping or heat-stripping it fills the air and the garden with lead dust. A careful painter tests suspect areas first, wet-scrapes rather than power-sands, contains the work area and cleans up thoroughly, which matters most with young kids or a pregnancy in the house.

Heritage adds another layer. If your home is heritage listed, or sits in one of the inner suburbs’ conservation areas, ask council before changing the exterior colour scheme. Painters who work on period homes can usually suggest colours that suit the era.

Humid summers, mould and strata repaints

Sydney’s humid summers are hard on bathrooms with weak exhaust fans, and black mould on the ceiling is a familiar sight in older units. Painting straight over it doesn’t work. It has to be killed and cleaned, sealed with a stain-blocking primer and finished with a mould-resistant bathroom paint, and the ventilation needs fixing too or it’ll be back next summer.

Strata is the other Sydney special. In most blocks the outside walls, stairwells and balconies are common property, so repainting them is the owners corporation’s job and usually needs scaffolding or rope access. Inside your own unit, painting counts as cosmetic work under NSW strata law, so you can go ahead without the owners corporation’s approval.

Painting licences in NSW, and the interior exemption

Residential painting worth more than $5,000, including GST, needs a contractor licence in painting from Building Commission NSW. The exception is a stand-alone contract for interior painting, which has been exempt since 2015 unless it’s part of other home building work. So a $9,000 exterior repaint needs a licensed painter, while a whole-house interior on its own doesn’t. Check any painter on the Verify NSW licence check, and see our NSW licence checks page for the other trades.

What house painting costs in Sydney

Sydney is usually the dearest city in the country for painting. Repainting a single room typically costs $400–$1,000, a three-bedroom interior $3,500–$8,000, and a single-storey brick or rendered exterior $4,000–$12,000. Weatherboard and double-storey homes usually run $8,000–$20,000 outside because of the prep and scaffolding, and doing a two-storey house inside and out together can top $25,000. Painters charge around $65–$100 an hour, but most quote per job. The painter price guide breaks it down.

One painter, matched to your home

Tell us which rooms, walls or exteriors you want done and roughly where you live, and we’ll match you with one vetted local painter, licence, insurance, ABN and reviews already checked. You get one quote to look over without a queue of callbacks.

Painting a place in another city? Head to our painters page. Need an electrician or carpenter before the brushes come out? Browse Sydney’s other trades. Happy with the plan? Get a free quote.