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A complete industry guide for painters and decorators — market size, earning capacity, licensing, tools, finance, and where the trade is heading in 2026.
Painting and decorating is one of the most accessible trades to get into and one of the most fragmented — a huge number of small operators, low barriers to entry compared to licensed trades like electrical or plumbing, and a market that tracks closely with both renovation activity and simple wear-and-tear repaint cycles.
| Metric | Data | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Market size: |
The painting and decorating services industry in Australia is worth $9.6 billion in 2025, spread across 23,984 businesses nationally, with business numbers growing at a 2.6% CAGR over the past five years. (IBISWorld) |
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Highly fragmented market: |
No single operator dominates — the largest player, Programmed Maintenance, holds low market share concentration, meaning there’s genuine room for small and mid-sized painting businesses to compete on quality, reliability, and local reputation rather than going head-to-head with a national giant. |
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Steady underlying demand: |
Unlike some trades tied tightly to new construction, painting has a built-in repeat-business cycle — interior and exterior surfaces simply need repainting every 5–15 years regardless of what’s happening in the broader construction market. |
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Low barrier to entry, high barrier to differentiation: |
Because painting doesn’t require the multi-year licensed apprenticeship pathway that electrical or plumbing does in every state, the market is crowded with small operators — which makes licensing, insurance, and genuine finish quality a real point of difference for businesses trying to win higher-value work. |
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Why this matters for tradies: Painting is one of the easier trades to start a business in, but one of the harder ones to stand out in. The businesses winning consistent, higher-value work are the ones treating licensing, sustainable/low-VOC product knowledge, and finish quality as a genuine differentiator — not just turning up with a roller and a ute.
| Work Type | What It Covers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
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Residential interior painting |
the volume core of the trade: repaints, new-build interiors, feature walls, colour consultations. |
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Residential exterior painting |
weatherboard, render, brick, fascias and eaves; more seasonal and more dependent on surface prep and weather conditions than interior work. |
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New build painting |
working directly with builders on new residential and multi-unit developments; volume-driven, tighter margins, but a reliable pipeline through builder relationships. |
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Commercial & industrial painting |
offices, retail fit-outs, warehouses, factories, car parks. Larger jobs, longer timeframes, and increasingly specified around durability (scrubbable finishes, chemical and abrasion-resistant coatings) rather than colour alone. |
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Strata & multi-residential painting |
apartment blocks and common areas; recurring, contract-based work through body corporates and strata managers. |
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Decorative & specialty finishes |
limewash, mineral paints, Venetian plaster, colour drenching, and textured wallcoverings; a growing high-end niche as these finishes trend upward in residential design. |
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Wallpaper & wallcovering installation |
epoxy floor coatings, polyaspartic finishes, anti-corrosion and fire-rated coatings for industrial and commercial clients; a specialised, higher-margin niche. |
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Spray painting |
increasingly used commercially and industrially for precision, reduced overspray, and faster turnaround on large surface areas. |
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Where the margin actually is: Decorative/specialty finishes and commercial protective coatings carry meaningfully better margins than standard interior repaints, because they require specific product knowledge and technique that not every painter has. Strata and commercial maintenance contracts also provide steadier, more predictable revenue than one-off residential jobs.
| Role | Typical Annual Salary | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Employee painter (SEEK average) |
$80,000–$85,000 a year nationally, with some listings showing a broader $75,000–$85,000 range. (SEEK) |
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Broader market data |
average painter earnings sit around $77,000–$78,000 nationally, with Sydney running roughly 6% above the national average. |
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Entry-level |
typically $57,000–$60,000, reflecting the lower training barrier compared to licensed trades like electrical and plumbing. |
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Experienced painter (8+ years) |
commonly $90,000–$100,000, with specialised finish or commercial/industrial coating experience pushing higher. |
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Hourly rates |
qualified painters commonly bill in the $35–$50/hour range as employees; self-employed rates run higher, particularly for specialty finishes and commercial coating work. |
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Source: SEEK
earning potential scales sharply with specialisation — a generalist residential repainter earns closer to award-adjacent rates, while a painter offering decorative finishes, protective coatings, or commercial contract work can charge significantly more per job.
painting businesses are comparatively low-capital to scale (no expensive licensed equipment barrier like electrical or refrigeration), meaning owners who build a reliable crew and a strong builder/strata client base can grow revenue into the hundreds of thousands, with specialty and commercial-focused operators scaling well beyond that.
The pattern:Painting pays noticeably less than the licensed trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC) at the employee level — it’s the trade with the lowest barrier to entry, and wages reflect that. The real earning lever here is specialisation and business ownership: a painter who builds skills in decorative finishes, commercial coatings, or a strata maintenance client base can out-earn a generalist by a wide margin.
Painting licensing is generally less complex than electrical, plumbing, or gas fitting — there’s no national or ARCtick-style federal layer — but every state still requires a licence once job value crosses a threshold, and the thresholds vary meaningfully state to state.
| Qualification | What It Unlocks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Complete a Certificate III in Painting and Decorating (CPC30620) |
typically a three-to-four-year apprenticeship through TAFE or an RTO, combining trade training with supervised on-the-job hours. |
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Apply for a state trade or contractor licence |
once you plan to take on work above your state’s threshold. |
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Renew periodically |
(commonly 1, 3, or 5-year licence terms depending on state). |
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| State | Regulator | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
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NSW |
NSW Fair Trading |
Licence required for residential building/trade work (including painting) valued over $5,000 in labour and materials (incl. GST) |
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QLD |
Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) |
Licence required for work valued over $3,300 (incl. GST) |
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VIC |
Victorian Building Authority (VBA) |
Painting is licensed as a subclass of the Domestic Builder licence; registration required for residential work valued over $10,000 |
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SA |
Consumer and Business Services (CBS) |
SA doesn’t issue a dedicated painter’s licence, but a building work contractor’s licence is recommended/required for work above $12,000 |
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WA |
Building Services Board |
Registration required for larger-scale projects |
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In several states, refrigerated air conditioning work is regulated as plumbing/mechanical services — meaning electricians who want to install split systems and ducted RAC typically need additional mechanical services training and state registration (e.g. VBA registration in Victoria) on top of their electrical licence.
Queensland maintains its own additional requirements for refrigeration mechanic work, particularly for commercial applications.
WA licenses air conditioning and refrigeration work through the Building Services Board as part of its broader electrical licensing framework.
Regardless of state, the ARCtick licence is required everywhere refrigerant is handled — it’s the one constant across all jurisdictions.
Penalties for unlicensed work are significant: fines for unlicensed building/trade work (including painting above the threshold) range up to $22,000 for individuals and $110,000 for companies in NSW, with other states applying similarly steep penalties. Contracts for unlicensed work above the threshold are also generally unenforceable — meaning an unlicensed painter can’t legally recover payment through the courts if a dispute arises.
No national mutual recognition for building licences: unlike electrical and plumbing, which have somewhat better interstate arrangements, a painting/building licence generally doesn’t transfer automatically between states — moving states typically means a fresh application with the new regulator, not a simple transfer.
Painting has a comparatively low equipment barrier to entry compared to licensed trades — which is exactly why the market is so crowded.
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Brushes, rollers, extension poles, scrapers, filling knives, sanding blocks |
$300–$800 |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Sanders (orbital/detail), heat guns, drop sheets, masking tools |
$500–$1,500 |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Airless sprayer, HVLP spray gun kit |
$1,500–$6,000 |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Ladders, extension ladders, trestles, scaffold/mobile platform hire |
$800–$4,000 (plus ongoing hire costs for larger jobs) |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Respirators, safety harnesses (for height work), eyewear, coveralls |
$300–$800 |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Trowels and tools for limewash/Venetian plaster/textured finishes |
$500–$2,000 |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Respirators, safety harnesses (for height work), eyewear, coveralls |
$3,000–$10,000+ |
| Equipment | Approx. Price |
|---|---|
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Van or ute with racking for ladders and materials |
$30,000–$70,000+ |
Total starter kit for a newly licensed painter: roughly $3,000–$8,000 in hand tools, prep equipment, and basic access gear before the vehicle — noticeably lower than electrical, plumbing, or HVAC. A fully equipped solo operator with a van, spray equipment, and safety gear is typically looking at $40,000–$80,000 all-in, still well below the licensed-trade equivalents.
Cash flow: Painters relying purely on one-off residential jobs tend to see more volatility than those with a mix of builder-pipeline new-build work and recurring strata/commercial maintenance contracts.
Painting is comparatively low-capital to set up compared to other trades — but vehicle, spray equipment, and access gear still add up, and a growing business quickly needs more than a ute and a ladder.
The most common structure is a chattel mortgage
| Finance Type | Best For |
|---|---|
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Chattel Mortgage |
you own the asset from day one, the lender holds security over it, and GST-registered businesses can typically claim the GST credit on the full purchase price in the next BAS. Equipment loans generally run 2–5 years and can also refinance existing gear (a van, spray equipment, or an access platform) to release equity or reset terms. |
The $20,000 instant asset write-off lets eligible small businesses (turnover under $10 million) deduct the full cost of assets under $20,000 — spray equipment, ladders and access gear, and (for many one-tonne-plus utes) work vehicles — in the year they’re first used, rather than depreciating over several years. Following the May 2026 Federal Budget, this threshold is proposed to become permanent from 1 July 2026, though this is not yet law and should be confirmed with your accountant. The threshold applies per asset, so an airless sprayer, a set of extension ladders, and a work van can each be written off separately in the same year if each is under $20,000.
Work vehicles are usually financed separately from tools, either as a low-doc business car loan or bundled into the same chattel mortgage. Lenders typically weigh ABN trading history and bank statement conduct more heavily than payslips — a better fit for sole traders and recently-established contractors than standard bank lending.
For bigger moves — hiring a crew, taking on a large commercial contract that requires upfront materials spend, or buying an established painting business — unsecured or secured business loans and lines of credit are the usual route, assessed on turnover and trading history.
Getting a home loan as a sole trader or company director typically means low-doc or alt-doc lending — using BAS statements, an accountant’s letter, or 12 months of business bank statements instead of the two years of tax returns a PAYG applicant would provide.
(This is general information, not financial or tax advice — always confirm current thresholds and eligibility with your accountant or the ATO before making a purchase or finance decision.)
Tradie Daily connects Australian Painting & Decorating with 50+ lenders for equipment finance, ute loans, business loans, and more. Fast approvals — built for tradies who mean business.
Answers to some of the most asked questions by our clients.
It depends on the job value and your state. NSW requires a licence for residential work over $5,000, Queensland over $3,300, and Victoria requires registration for work over $10,000 (as a subclass of the Domestic Builder licence). South Australia doesn’t issue a dedicated painter’s licence, but a building work contractor’s licence is recommended above $12,000. Always check the current threshold with your state regulator.
Penalties are significant — fines up to $22,000 for individuals and $110,000 for companies in NSW, with other states applying similarly steep penalties. Contracts for unlicensed work above the threshold are also generally unenforceable, meaning you can’t legally recover payment through the courts if a client disputes it.
Painting has one of the lowest equipment barriers of any trade. Budget roughly $3,000–$8,000 for hand tools, prep equipment, and basic access gear before a vehicle. A fully equipped solo operator with a van, spray equipment, and safety gear is typically looking at $40,000–$80,000 all-in — notably less than licensed trades like electrical or plumbing.
Painting doesn’t carry the same licensed, multi-year regulated apprenticeship barrier as electrical or plumbing in most states, which means more people can enter the trade and the market is more crowded and price-competitive at the generalist end. The clearest way to lift earnings is specialisation — decorative finishes, commercial protective coatings, or building a recurring strata/commercial client base — rather than staying a generalist residential repainter.
Not automatically. Unlike electrical and plumbing, which have somewhat better interstate mutual recognition arrangements, building and painting licences generally don’t transfer between states — moving usually means a fresh application with the new state’s regulator.
A broader 2026 design trend toward warmth, texture, and individuality in interiors — limewash, chalky mineral finishes, and plaster-like textures are a defining look this year, alongside renewable-fibre wallcoverings. These finishes command a premium over standard flat paint, making them a worthwhile skillset to add.
Yes, particularly because of the low capital barrier compared to licensed trades — but the market is crowded, so differentiation matters more here than almost anywhere else. Painters who get licensed, build a strong visual portfolio, and specialise in higher-margin work (decorative finishes, commercial coatings, strata contracts) consistently out-earn generalist operators competing purely on price.
Disclaimer: This guide covers residential, commercial, and decorative painting work across the Australian market as of 2026. Licensing requirements and thresholds change — always confirm current details with your state regulator or accountant before making licensing or purchasing decisions.