When an owner repaints their own home, the conversation is mostly about colour and finish. When a landlord repaints a rental between tenants, it is about something else: the place has to photograph well for the listing, it has to survive the next tenancy without looking tired a year in, and the work has to fit into the gap between the outgoing tenant handing back the keys and the next one picking them up. Get the brief right and a rental repaint is one of the most straightforward jobs there is. Get it wrong and you pay for a fashionable finish that marks the first time someone leans a bike against it.
Call Jimmy — 0432 077 782A rental is lived in hard. Furniture gets moved in and out at least twice a tenancy, kids and pets brush along the hallway, and the walls get wiped by whoever is doing the end-of-lease clean. The finish that suits that life is the one that can be cleaned without leaving a shiny patch or taking the paint with it.
That usually means a quality low-sheen wall paint rather than a dead flat matt. Matt looks soft and hides small flaws, which is why it is popular in owner-occupied homes, but most matt finishes do not take repeated scrubbing well, and a spot that has been scrubbed often ends up looking different from the wall around it. A low sheen hides almost as much and takes the wiping. Doors, frames and skirtings go in a harder semi-gloss or gloss enamel, because those are the surfaces that take the knocks.
Very few rentals need every surface repainted at every changeover. Ceilings in living areas and bedrooms often only need a wash or nothing at all, while the hallway, the walls behind the couch and the bed, the door frames and the area around light switches carry most of the marks. A good rental quote is scoped room by room and surface by surface, so the landlord can see what each part adds and decide what is worth doing this time.
The one trap is patching. Touching up a mark on an older wall rarely blends in, even with the same colour, because the old paint has faded and the new paint has a fresh sheen. Under a listing photographer's lights a row of touch-ups can look worse than the marks did. Where a wall is past touching up, repainting it from corner to corner is what makes it disappear.
Most of the work on a rental is preparation. Picture hooks, adhesive strips that pulled off a layer of paint, a door handle that has punched through the plasterboard behind it, and the occasional bigger hole all need filling, sanding and spot priming before the walls are painted, or every repair shows through the new coat.
Bathrooms and laundries need a look for mould. Painting straight over it seals it in and it comes back through the new paint. The mould has to be treated and the surface cleaned first, and if the room has no exhaust fan or the fan does not work, that is worth raising with the landlord, because no paint will fix a room that never dries out.
Between tenancies the property manager is usually juggling the outgoing inspection, cleaners, carpet cleaning, any trades, the listing photos and the first open for inspection. The painting needs to slot into that order, and the order matters: paint goes on before the carpet clean and before the photographer, not after. A good painter will agree the dates with the agent up front, collect and return keys through them, and tell them early if the preparation turns out to be bigger than it looked.
An empty property is also the easiest kind of job to paint. With no furniture and no household working around the crew, rooms can be masked and worked through one after another without packing up each evening, which is a large part of why a vacant rental can be turned around more efficiently than a lived-in home.
One neutral wall colour throughout, with one trim colour, is the sensible default for a rental. It photographs evenly, it suits whatever furniture the next tenant brings, and it means any future touch-up or repaint is quick to match. Write the colour names and sheen levels down somewhere the property manager can find them; it saves guesswork next time.
Ask for photos of the finished rooms as well. Alongside the agent's condition report, a set of dated photos of freshly painted walls is useful evidence at the end of the next tenancy if there is any disagreement about marks or damage.
Not usually. Many changeovers only need repairs, a clean and a repaint of the rooms that took the wear, typically the hallway, the main living area and the door frames. A full repaint makes sense when the walls are past touching up, the colour scheme is dated, or the property is being relisted and needs to photograph well.
A quality low-sheen wall paint for the walls, because it can be wiped clean without leaving shiny patches, and a semi-gloss or gloss enamel for doors, frames and skirtings, because those take the knocks. Flat matt looks good in an owner-occupied home but most matt finishes do not stand up to repeated cleaning.
Yes. Most rental repaints are organised through the agent: they arrange access and keys, and the painting is scheduled around the outgoing inspection, the cleaners, the carpet clean and the listing photos. The landlord still approves the written quote and the scope.
On an older wall the existing paint has faded and lost some of its sheen, so fresh paint in the same colour rarely blends in, and under listing photos a row of touch-ups can stand out more than the marks did. Small repairs are fine on newer paint; on older walls repainting the whole wall from corner to corner gives an even result.