How Much Is a Painting Business Worth in Australia?
A painting business in Australia is typically worth between 1.5x and 3x its annual EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation). For a small owner-operator business generating $80,000–$120,000 in profit, that puts the value somewhere between $120,000 and $360,000. For a larger business with multiple crews, $250,000+ in EBITDA, and a solid commercial contract book that doesn't depend on the owner to win or deliver work — you might see $625,000 to $750,000 or more. The exact multiple depends on a handful of factors that separate a real business from a job wearing a company name.
Painting businesses trade at lower multiples than most other trades. That's not a slight — it's just the market reflecting what it sees: low barriers to entry, high owner dependency, and earnings that can disappear when the owner does. Understanding why is the key to knowing what you're actually buying.
This is covered in more depth in Module 4 of the Playbook.
What the multiple range actually looks like
Most painting businesses I see listed in Australia fall into one of three buckets.
The owner-operator, on the tools every day. Revenue $400,000–$700,000, EBITDA somewhere between $80,000 and $150,000 once you've added back the owner's wage and stripped out personal expenses. Multiple: 1.5x to 2x. Rationale: if the owner leaves, the business likely shrinks. You're buying a job with a bit of goodwill attached, not a standalone business.
The managed small business, 3–8 painters, some admin. Revenue $700,000–$1.5 million, EBITDA $150,000–$300,000. The owner quotes, manages relationships, and handles complaints, but doesn't swing a brush every day. Multiple: 2x to 2.5x. This is the most common acquisition target — and the most common source of post-settlement disappointment when the buyer realises the owner was doing more than anyone documented.
The systemised operation with commercial contracts. Revenue $1.5 million+, EBITDA $250,000+, multiple crews, job management software, recurring commercial maintenance clients. Multiple: 2.5x to 3x, occasionally higher. These are genuinely hard to find and usually priced accordingly.
For comparison: painting multiples are lower than valuing a plumbing business, where licensing barriers and recurring maintenance work push multiples higher. They're roughly similar to what a landscaping business is worth at the commoditised end, though landscaping with recurring maintenance contracts also trades at a premium.
What drives a painting business's value up
Most sellers present their painting business as if the multiple should be at the top of the range. Most aren't. Here's what actually gets you there.
Recurring commercial work. A painting business with contracts to repaint commercial premises, strata buildings, or government facilities on a schedule is worth meaningfully more than one that relies on finding new homeowners every month. Recurring is the operative word — not "commercial" per se, but "repeating". A body corporate contract that re-engages every 18 months is better collateral for a buyer than a string of one-off residential jobs, no matter how profitable the one-offs were.
Crews that function without the owner. This is the single biggest value driver — and the one most sellers underestimate. If the painters know what to do each morning without a call from the boss, if the quoting doesn't live entirely in one person's head, if jobs get delivered and invoiced without the owner's daily involvement — the business is worth more. A good rule of thumb: take a two-week holiday and see what breaks. If the answer is "everything", the multiple reflects that.
Job management systems. Businesses running Fergus, ServiceM8, or even a clean Airtable setup — where jobs flow from quote to invoice with minimal friction — command better prices because buyers can see what they're inheriting. Chaotic operations aren't just a management problem; they're a valuation discount.
Strong gross margins. The ATO benchmarks net profit margins for painting services at 10–25%. Businesses at the higher end — typically those doing less subcontracting and more direct employment — are worth more per dollar of earnings, because the earnings are more predictable.
What drags the value down
A broker told me last month about a deal where a painting business listed at 2.5x EBITDA fell apart during due diligence — not because the numbers were wrong, but because the buyer couldn't find a single documented process. Quoting, crew allocation, materials ordering, invoicing: all in the owner's head or a stack of WhatsApp messages. The multiple dropped to 1.75x to reflect the transition risk. The seller was genuinely surprised.
Common value-killers in painting businesses:
Owner on the tools full-time. The business isn't worth the EBITDA multiple — it's worth the EBITDA multiple minus whatever it costs to replace the owner's labour. If the owner is billing 40 hours a week of productive work at $80 an hour, that's $160,000 of labour you need to add back before you start applying a multiple.
Residential repaint as the core product. Residential repaint is highly seasonal, easily disrupted by rain, and won by whoever quotes lowest or turns up first. There's nothing wrong with it as a revenue source — it just doesn't underpin a high multiple because it's not sticky. If 80%+ of revenue is residential repaint with no recurring clients, expect a buyer to price accordingly.
Customer concentration risk. One builder, one developer, one strata manager accounting for 30%+ of revenue is a red flag in any trade business. In painting it's more common than you'd think — a business that grew on the back of one developer's work looks great until that developer switches, pauses projects, or just decides to try a different contractor.
Unlicensed or undocumented workers. In states where licensing matters (NSW, VIC, QLD all have specific requirements), a business that has cut corners here is carrying legal risk that accrues to the buyer in a share sale — and causes complications in an asset sale too. Check the financials and the payroll records carefully.
Residential vs commercial: how it affects the price you'll pay
This distinction matters more in painting than in most trades.
Residential repaints — the bread and butter of most small painting businesses — are one-off engagements. You win the job, do the work, collect the money, then start again. There's no contract that brings the customer back. The business's revenue pipeline is essentially empty at the start of every month.
Commercial painting — body corporates, aged care facilities, schools, hotels, retail chains — often involves scheduled maintenance programs. The building gets painted every three to five years, and if you did a good job last time, you're the first call. That's a meaningful difference in earnings quality.
A painting business with $300,000 EBITDA driven by residential repaint might trade at 2x. The same EBITDA driven by commercial maintenance contracts might trade at 2.5x–3x. Same profit, different multiple. The buyer is paying for certainty, not just size.
How to check if the numbers are real
Painting businesses are particularly susceptible to informal cash arrangements — not always maliciously, but because the industry has historically operated that way. Subcontractors paid in cash, small jobs invoiced loosely, materials bought personally and claimed. None of this makes the business worthless, but it does mean the reported figures need verification.
The standard approach — cross-referencing the P&L against BAS lodgements, bank statements, and tax returns — catches most of it. For a practical walkthrough of how to check the financials before you buy, that article covers the specific reconciliation steps in detail.
The other number worth scrubbing is the owner add-backs. Sellers will add back everything they can get away with — personal phone, car, travel, their spouse's wage for services rendered. Some of these are legitimate normalisation adjustments; others are wishful thinking. Understanding how to value a small business in Australia gives you the framework for separating real EBITDA from inflated figures.
Want the full normalisation framework? Grab the free EBITDA Normalisation Checklist — it walks you through every common add-back category and which ones actually hold up under buyer scrutiny.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a painting business make in Australia?
A small owner-operator painting business typically generates $80,000–$150,000 in annual profit after the owner's wage. A managed business with multiple crews can produce $200,000–$400,000+. Revenue across the industry ranges from $300,000 to several million depending on size and market segment.
What is the average profit margin for a painting company?
The ATO benchmarks net profit margins for Australian painting businesses at 10–25%. Well-run businesses doing direct employment rather than heavy subcontracting typically sit at the higher end. Thin margins below 10% usually reflect poor quoting discipline or high subcontractor reliance.
Do painters make good money in Australia?
As employees, painters earn $65,000–$90,000 depending on experience and location. As business owners, the picture varies enormously — a sole operator might clear $80,000–$150,000 after tax, while an owner of a systemised multi-crew business can earn considerably more through profit distributions.
Is painting a good business to buy in Australia?
It can be — particularly if you find one with commercial contracts, documented systems, and crews that don't depend on the owner. The risk is paying a business multiple for what is effectively a labour hire arrangement with a van. The due diligence question isn't "is it profitable?" but "does it keep being profitable without this specific person?"
The bottom line
A painting business in Australia is worth 1.5x to 3x EBITDA — with most owner-operator businesses sitting at the low end of that range. The multiple moves on two things more than anything else: how recurring the revenue is, and how much the business depends on one person to function.
If you're buying, don't pay a systemised-business multiple for an owner-operator arrangement. If you're selling, the work to increase your multiple happens eighteen months before you list — not in the week you call the broker.
For more on finding businesses worth buying in this range, the Leveraged Worker newsletter covers deals, structures, and lessons from the Australian acquisition market each week.
And if you want the full module on valuation — including how to normalise EBITDA, what multiples apply across different trade industries, and what due diligence flags to watch for — that's Module 4 of the Playbook.