What Does Eco Commercial Cleaning Cost in Australia?

The short answer on price

There is a persistent myth that switching to non-toxic cleaning means paying a green tax. On the great majority of commercial jobs, that is not true. The labour, the equipment access, the frequency and the square metreage are what set the price — not whether the disinfectant reverts to salt water or comes from a conventional chemical drum.

Across the Australian market, commercial cleaning generally lands in these ranges:

Basis	Typical range	Notes
Hourly rate	$35 – $65/hr	Varies by scope, site risk and award loadings
Per square metre	$2 – $6/sqm per month	Depends heavily on frequency and site type
Sydney / Melbourne	10 – 20% above national average	Higher labour and access costs in CBD towers

These are honest, general market ranges rather than a fixed schedule. Anyone quoting a firm number without walking your site is guessing.

Where the green premium actually applies

We charge at parity with conventional cleaning on standard scopes — general office cleaning, common areas, retail floors, ordinary washrooms. Our methods (electrolysed water, stabilised aqueous ozone, dry steam and disciplined colour-coded microfibre) are competitive on consumables and do not require exotic, high-cost inputs. Electrolysed water, for instance, is generated on site from water and a trace of salt, and reverts to salt water after use.

A premium of 10 to 15 per cent applies only where the site is health-critical or rating-critical. That covers work such as:

• Medical and allied-health precincts with disinfection-critical surfaces
• Aged care and childcare, where occupant vulnerability is high
• Buildings pursuing or maintaining a green rating that requires documented protocols and product evidence
• Sites with heavy VOC or indoor-air-quality obligations

The premium reflects extra dwell-time discipline, validated protocols, TGA-listed disinfectants retained for disinfection-critical tasks, and the documentation those environments demand — not a markup on the concept of being eco. On a straightforward office scope, you should expect to pay what you would pay any competent conventional contractor.

What actually drives your price

Four variables move the number far more than method choice.

Frequency. Daily servicing costs more in total than three-times-weekly, but the per-visit and per-square-metre efficiency usually improves with frequency because soil load is managed rather than fought. A site cleaned nightly rarely needs the periodic deep interventions that an under-serviced site does.

Scope. A vacuum-and-bins run is a different job from a scope that includes washroom sanitising, kitchen and breakout areas, glass, hard-floor maintenance and periodic works. Be precise about what is in and out. Vague scopes produce vague quotes and disputes later.

Site type. A medical fitout, a warehouse, a CBD office tower and a coastal hospitality venue have different risk profiles, access constraints and dwell-time requirements. Humid coastal sites, for example, carry more mould pressure, which changes the treatment and inspection regime. High-rise access and after-hours security add cost regardless of cleaning method.

Labour and location. Award rates, night and weekend loadings, and local labour markets are the biggest single input. This is why Sydney and Melbourne typically sit 10 to 20 per cent above the national average — it is a labour and access story, not a product story.

If you want a sense of how these variables play out in your city, our Sydney and Melbourne pages outline the typical site mix and access conditions we see there.

The cost that does not appear on the invoice

The cheapest quote is not always the lowest total cost, because conventional chemical exposure has a documented price attached.

The ECRHS study led by Svanes and colleagues (2018) found lung-function decline in people who clean regularly comparable to around 20 pack-years of smoking. The AIHW attributes between 9 and 15 per cent of adult-onset asthma to occupational exposure, and names cleaning as a high-risk occupation. Deloitte Access Economics has put the cost of asthma to Australian employers at $526.7 million a year. These are not marketing figures; they are the reason elimination sits at the top of the WHS hierarchy of controls.

From 1 December 2026, enforceable Workplace Exposure Limits replace the current Workplace Exposure Standards across roughly 700 reviewed chemicals. Eliminating hazardous substances from your cleaning program — rather than managing exposure to them — is the most durable way to stay ahead of that shift. Choosing methods with no hazardous residue is a compliance decision as much as a health one.

GECA-certified products are also deemed-to-satisfy for the Green Star Green Cleaning credit, WELL's Cleaning Products and Protocol feature targets hazardous-chemical reduction, and NABERS Indoor Environment tests for VOCs and formaldehyde. If your building is chasing any of these, an eco program can be a rating input rather than an afterthought.

How to compare quotes properly

Quotes are only comparable when they describe the same job. Use these checks:

1. Normalise the basis. Convert everything to the same unit — per square metre per month is usually the fairest. An hourly rate means little without knowing how many hours are proposed.
2. Match the scope line by line. Confirm frequency, inclusions, periodic works and consumables. A lower headline price often hides a thinner scope.
3. Ask what is used and why. For disinfection-critical tasks, a credible contractor will name TGA-listed products. Be wary of anyone claiming a service is "chemical-free" — that phrase is not defensible under ACCC guidance. Honest language is "no added synthetic chemicals" or "no hazardous residue".
4. Check the evidence for rating claims. If a quote promises Green Star or WELL support, ask for the product certifications and protocol documentation that back it.
5. Confirm the after-hours and access assumptions. Loadings and security requirements can quietly account for a large share of the gap between two quotes.

For scope-specific pricing context, it can help to look at how individual services are structured — for example electrolysed water cleaning, aqueous ozone cleaning and dry steam cleaning each suit different surfaces and risk profiles, which affects how a scope is built and priced.

A realistic budgeting approach

Start with your square metreage and target frequency, apply the $2 to $6 per square metre per month range as a sanity check, and adjust upward for CBD access, health-critical requirements or rating obligations. If someone comes in dramatically below that range, ask what has been cut. If someone applies a large eco premium on a standard office scope, ask why — on most jobs there is no basis for one.

The most useful number is the one that follows a proper walkthrough, because that is when scope, access and risk stop being assumptions.

Book a free site walkthrough

The fastest way to a real number is to have us look at your site. Our walkthrough and quote are free, we will price at parity with conventional cleaning on standard scopes, and we will tell you plainly if your site warrants the 10 to 15 per cent premium and why. Get in touch to arrange a walkthrough and a written, like-for-like quote you can compare with confidence.