What it costs to buy a cleaning business in Australia

Cleaning businesses in Australia list from $14,000 for a franchise round to $3 million for a managed commercial operation. Owner-run residential, window and carpet rounds sell for $50,000 to $160,000, staffed commercial cleaners with signed contracts for $260,000 to $1.1 million, and the price is set by how much of the revenue sits on transferable contracts.

There are 463 cleaning businesses on bsale, 101 on businessforsale.com.au and 244 in Victoria alone on anybusiness right now, and bsale's own article puts the average asking price across the category at $350,000. That average hides two completely different markets. One is a person with a van and a phone selling a round for about one year of their own wage. The other is a company selling a book of signed commercial contracts and the staff who service them, priced at two to four times earnings. Same category on the marketplace, different asset entirely.

What cleaning businesses sell for

A cross-section of live listings from the main Australian marketplaces on 25 September 2026, cheapest to dearest. Where the seller published turnover, profit, staff or vehicles we show it; roughly half do not.

Read the ratios and the two markets separate themselves. The Gold Coast residential round is $50,000 on $53,227 of net profit, Devonport is $60,000 on $66,000, Cotton Tree is $80,000 on $53,000: owner-operators are selling at 0.9 to 1.5 times one year of their own earnings, because the buyer is buying the job. Once staff and contracts are in the price the market switches to turnover and earnings multiples: the Brisbane multi-service business is $260,000 on $128,000 SDE (2.0 times), the Melbourne contract cleaner is $399,999 on $414,000 turnover (0.97 times revenue), the Sydney LINK listing is about 0.85 times revenue and the $6 million Melbourne operation is 0.5 times. The bigger the book, the lower the revenue multiple, because the margin thins as the labour bill grows.

How the price is built: contracts, earnings, vans

The businessforsale.com.au valuation guide puts established cleaning businesses at 1.5 to 2.5 times seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), which is the tax-return profit with the owner's wage, super and personal expenses added back, and it is blunt that a service business is never priced on gross revenue. Its bands are $30,000 to $80,000 for a solo residential operator, $100,000 to $400,000 for a mid-sized strata or residential fleet and $500,000 to $2.5 million plus for a B2B commercial contractor. The worked example is a $1.5 million revenue firm: $100,000 net profit, plus $110,000 owner's salary, $12,000 super and $18,000 personal expenses gives SDE of $240,000, at 2.3 times is $552,000, plus $80,000 of vans and equipment, $632,000 all up.

Miro Capital's April 2026 guide comes at it from EBITDA and lands in the same place: commercial cleaners with institutional contracts at 3 to 4 times EBITDA, residential at 2 to 3 times and often less if the owner is on the tools. Its bands are $20,000 to $80,000 for owner-run residential with no staff, $80,000 to $200,000 for a small residential outfit with two to five cleaners, $200,000 to $450,000 for a commercial business on $500,000 of revenue, $450,000 to $1.2 million on $1 million to $3 million of revenue with institutional contracts, and $1.2 million to $4 million plus for multi-site operators above $5 million. It reports commercial cleaning EBITDA at 10% to 18% of revenue and flags anything under 10% as a buyer's warning sign.

The example that matters is Miro's pair of $1.2 million revenue businesses. The one cleaning office towers and aged care under signed contracts sold for $620,000 in 11 weeks. The one with 20-plus cleaners in private homes sold for $180,000 after nine months. Same revenue, $440,000 difference, and the whole gap is contracts. Residential clients book the cleaner, not the company, and leave with them; a commercial contract is a fixed-term agreement that transfers with the business. That is why the Parramatta strata company advertised "100 per cent contracted revenue" as the headline and sold at $490,000 with no turnover shown.

Three things pull the number down in both guides: one client over 15% of revenue (the Sydney CBD listing has serviced the same shopping centre since 1990, which is a strength and a concentration risk at once), cleaners engaged as sub-contractors rather than PAYG employees, and handshake arrangements instead of signed agreements. Ask for the contract register with term, notice period and assignment clause on every line, and price only the revenue that survives a change of owner.

Franchise rounds: what a territory costs

The cheapest way into cleaning is a franchise territory, and the listings show why the numbers are so low. Jim's Cleaning puts a new territory at about $20,000 plus roughly $10,000 for equipment, training, uniforms and vehicle signage, so around $30,000 all in, with fees of about $700 a month plus $9 to $18 per lead and a $1,100 a week pay-for-work guarantee while the round fills. Jim's own worked example is a solo operator charging $45 an hour for a 40-hour week, about $1,800 a week of revenue and around $70,000 a year net. Resale territories with an established client base cost more: the Footscray Jim's Window and Pressure Cleaning franchise is $14,000, The Local Guys Cleaning territory in Hobart is $17,500 with a $2,000 a week income guarantee, and a V.I.P. Home Services region covering all of Newcastle and the Hunter is $299,000. Gutter-Vac's northern Tasmania territory is $120,000 on $209,500 of FY25 turnover, about 0.57 times revenue.

What you are paying for is lead flow and a brand, not goodwill you can resell freely: a franchise business has to be sold through the franchisor's approval process, which Miro notes shrinks the buyer pool and usually costs a franchisee a turn of the multiple at exit compared with an independent. The franchise costs guide covers the fee structures in more detail.

Carpet, pressure and window: the van is most of the price

In the mobile specialties the plant sets the floor. A 2017 Hyundai iLoad with a Sapphire 370 truckmount was listed on Gumtree at $50,000 for the van and machine alone, and the Tamworth carpet cleaning business at $19,000 is essentially the equipment, chemicals and a work-ready vehicle with a client list thrown in. The Gold Coast pressure cleaning business on businesssales.com.au values its pressure gear, trailer and hoses at $55,000, includes a 2012 Nissan Atlas light truck, and has turned over more than $150,000 for three years with the owner finishing by midday; it is being sold to offers. So a mobile round at $60,000 to $160,000 is typically $30,000 to $55,000 of depreciating plant plus $30,000 to $100,000 for the customer base, and the Whyalla window and pressure business is honest about it by listing at $120,000 to $160,000 plus stock and vehicles on top.

Where these rounds earn a real multiple is repeat commercial work: strip shops, body corporates and restaurants on a monthly pressure clean or fortnightly windows. The South East Melbourne exterior maintenance business asks $299,000 on $300,000 of turnover, a full 1.0 times revenue, because its window, pressure, gutter and solar panel work is scheduled and recurring. The Gold Coast builders cleaning business at $790,000 is the other end: a $1.35 million pipeline across 250-plus projects a year, priced on the order book rather than on recurring clients, which is worth more to a buyer already in construction and less to anyone else. Compare it with a trades business purchase, where the same order-book question decides the price.

What the tax returns say the margins are

The ATO's small business benchmark for building and industrial cleaning services, from 2023-24 tax returns and updated 16 March 2026, gives you the margin sanity check before you believe a listing.

Two things fall out of that. A solo operator turning over $80,000 with 42% expenses keeps about $46,000 before tax, which is exactly why the Gold Coast, Devonport and Cotton Tree rounds all show $50,000 to $66,000 of net profit and sell for about that much. And a $1 million commercial cleaner running at the 77% average keeps $230,000 before the owner's wage, which at the 2.3 times SDE in the marketplace example is a $500,000 business; run it at 85% expenses and the same turnover is worth $350,000. Labour is 35% to 56% of turnover above $250,000, so a payroll schedule by site, with award classification and whether each cleaner is PAYG or ABN, tells you more than the profit line. The Melbourne contract cleaner advertising a 45% gross margin on $414,000 is well inside the benchmark; a seller claiming 30% net on $1 million is not.

Vehicles are the other line to check. The benchmark says 3% to 5% of turnover for the bigger operators, so the Melbourne north business running 15 vehicles on $6 million is spending roughly $180,000 to $300,000 a year on them, and a buyer needs to know how many are owned, how many are leased and what is left on each contract, because the finance either transfers or gets refinanced at settlement.

Financing a cleaning business purchase

Lenders split a cleaning business into plant, contracts and the rest. Vans, truckmounts, scrubbers and pressure units are resaleable, so they write on a chattel mortgage or equipment finance up to what a valuer gives them, and a sole trader buying a $19,000 to $60,000 round is often better served by ABN vehicle finance on the van plus cash for the client list. Goodwill cannot be repossessed, so lenders want signed, assignable contracts with term left, no client over 15% of revenue, and two years of BAS that match the listing. Contracted commercial revenue is the closest thing to security a cleaning business has.

A staffed commercial cleaner at $260,000 to $1.1 million is usually funded with a buyer deposit of 30% to 50%, a secured business loan against the buyer's property at major bank rates typically between 7.5% and 9.5% p.a. (July 2026, RBA cash rate held at 4.35% on 12 August 2026), the vehicles on chattel mortgage and, on larger deals, vendor finance or an earn-out tied to contract retention through the first renewal. Buyers without property use non-bank unsecured facilities at 12% to 25% p.a. A $30,000 franchise territory is a startup in the lender's eyes; the new-ABN guide covers that.

Approval is subject to lender assessment. To get a number from Ventas, send the listing, two years of financials and BAS, the contract register with terms and notice periods, the payroll by site, the vehicle list with any finance on it, and whether you own property. Start at business acquisition finance.

This is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Figures are indicative market data from the sources listed, not Ventas offers, and move with the market. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a professional. All finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This article is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Ventas Asset Lending is a finance broker, not a lender. Approvals are subject to lender assessment. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a qualified professional, including your accountant for any tax questions.