Does painting before you sell add value on the Sunshine Coast?

Worth it when the paint looks tired or the colours are loud

A pre-sale repaint is worth doing when a buyer would notice the paint itself. That means walls and trims that look worn in photos or at the open home. Here's when we'd tell a vendor to go ahead.

• Scuffed and marked walls. Hallways, kids' rooms and the main living area cop the most wear, and they're the rooms that end up in the photos.
• Faded or flaking trims outside. Peeling fascias and window frames are some of the first things a buyer sees from the street.
• Strong or dated colours. A bright feature wall or a dark room can be hard for a buyer to look past.
• Patched walls after you've packed up. Filled holes from picture hooks and TV brackets show until they're painted over.

Some houses don't need it. Here's when we'd tell a vendor to keep the money.

• The paint is clean and recent. A light, tidy paint job won't look much different once it's redone.
• You're selling it as a renovator. Buyers who plan to rip out the kitchen are unlikely to pay more for new paint.
• There isn't time to do it properly. A rushed job, or one done between showers, can look worse than the old paint.
• The money should go on a real defect. A leak or a cracked wall still needs fixing, and paint won't hide it from an inspector.

What to paint first: the parts a buyer sees first

On a tight budget, paint in the order a buyer meets the house. Outside, that's the street side. Inside, it's the entry and the main living area. Where the budget won't stretch to the whole house, we put the front of the house first, because that's what the listing photos and the drive-by see.

1. The front of the house: front walls, front door, fascias, gutters and the window trims you can see from the street.
2. The entry, hallway and main living area, where people walk in at an open home.
3. The kitchen walls and the main bedroom.
4. Any room with a strong colour, heavy marks or patched holes.
5. Ceilings with water stains, but only once the leak behind them is fixed.

Eaves, fascias and gutters on their own are the smallest exterior job in our estimate, at $1,500 to $4,500. That makes them a good place to start if a full exterior is out of reach. For a whole-house job, see how our exterior house painters work.

What pre-sale painting costs: about $500 for a room, up to $25,000 outside

Pre-sale painting on the Sunshine Coast runs from about $500 for the walls of one room to $25,000 for a full weatherboard exterior, going by our own instant estimate. These are our standard repaint figures for a single-storey house in good condition. They include GST and they're rounded to the nearest $100.

A few things push those numbers up. A house in poor condition adds 25% to 40% for the extra prep. Two storeys add 20% to 40%. Dark colours add 15% to 30%, because they need more coats. Run the instant estimate to see your own range, then book a free site visit for a firm price. The full breakdown is in our guide to what it costs to paint a house.

Colours for a sale: light neutrals, tested on your own walls

For a sale, we'd go with light neutral colours on the main walls. They suit most buyers' furniture, and they keep rooms looking bright in photos. Save the bold colours for your next house.

Test before you buy the paint. Dulux suggests ordering a colour sample first, and it says colour stickers are a good way to see how the light in your space changes a colour. That matters here, because the same white can look quite different on a shady wall and a sunny one. Put the sample on the actual wall and look at it in the morning and the afternoon.

Outside, pick colours that sit well with the roof and the rest of the street. Our exterior house colours guide walks through choosing a full scheme.

Paint won't hide defects from a building inspection

Fresh paint makes a house look better, and that's all it does. Queensland buyers are told to check under the surface. The QBCC tells buyers to get a building and pest inspection before they buy, and to make the contract depend on being happy with the results.

According to the QBCC, a pre-purchase building inspection looks for obvious defects such as a leaking ceiling, weak or cracked walls, mould problems and drainage issues. Painting over a water stain or a crack doesn't fix what caused it. Fix the cause first, then paint.

Since 1 August 2025, Queensland sellers have also had to give buyers key information about the property before the contract is signed, under the seller disclosure scheme. What goes in your disclosure statement is a question for your solicitor or conveyancer. A painter can't advise you on it.

Older homes: test for lead and asbestos before anyone sands

If your house was built before 1970, the Queensland Government says lead-based paint has probably been used. It warns that sanders and grinders on lead paint make a lot of contaminated dust that can be breathed in or swallowed. So a quick pre-sale sand and paint on an older house needs a lead test first.

Asbestos is the other one. The QBCC says most homes built before 1990 contain some asbestos, and the buyer's inspector will point out where it might be. Queensland's asbestos guide lists wall cladding and the area under the eaves as places it was used outside. It also says never to use high-pressure water blasters on asbestos materials.

On older houses we test first where the age calls for it. If lead or asbestos turns up, you get the plan before anything is disturbed. Read more in our guides to lead paint in pre-1970 homes and painting asbestos eaves and fibro.

Timing: work back from the photo day

Plan the painting around the listing photos. Our pre-listing repaints mostly finish in three to seven working days. A full exterior runs five to ten working days, and hard access, like a second storey or a sloping block, is what stretches it. Rain can push the dates out too. Dulux tells painters to hold off on Weathershield when rain is forecast, so leave a few spare days before the photographer comes.

If your agent is running the sale, they can deal with us directly. We invoice the vendor or the agency, or split it, and we send a before-and-after photo pack when we finish. Agents can see how that works on our page for agents and property managers.

Whoever you hire, check the licence. In Queensland, building work valued over $3,300 needs a QBCC licence, and painting and decorating is one of the licensed trades. Ours is QBCC licence 1281728. We usually quote inside a business day, and we work right across the Coast. See the suburbs we cover, including Caloundra.