Vacate cleaning is the one cleaning job where the price has almost nothing to do with the size of the property and almost everything to do with its condition. A spotless four-bedroom house that has been maintained for three years is a shorter job than a two-bedroom flat where nobody has opened the oven door since the tenancy started.
That is why quotes vary so much, and why a firm price over the phone should make you suspicious rather than relieved.
What it costs in New Zealand
These are Waikato ranges for a standard vacate clean, excluding GST:
| Property | Typical range | Usual time on site |
|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bedroom unit | $200–$300 | 3–4 hours |
| 2-bedroom unit | $250–$380 | 4–6 hours |
| 3-bedroom house | $350–$550 | 6–9 hours |
| 4-bedroom house | $450–$700 | 8–12 hours |
| Carpet machine-clean | $40–$70 per room | Add 1–2 hours |
Auckland and Wellington typically run 15–25% above these. Smaller centres run slightly below.
The four things that actually move the price
The oven. This is the single biggest variable in vacate cleaning, and it is not close. A maintained oven is twenty minutes. A neglected one is two to three hours of caustic treatment, soaking racks, and scraping baked carbon off glass. If you do one thing yourself before the cleaners arrive, do the oven, or accept that it is a real line item.
Whether the property is empty. Cleaning around furniture means the marks underneath stay, and those are exactly what an inspection looks at. We would always rather come after the truck has gone. If you book us while you are still moving out, we will have to come back or scope around it.
Pets. Hair works into carpet edges, skirting gaps and curtain hems in a way that adds real time. Many tenancy agreements also require professional carpet cleaning specifically where pets were kept.
Mould and bathroom build-up. Silicone that has gone black cannot be cleaned back to white, it needs replacing, which is a landlord maintenance issue rather than a cleaning one. An honest cleaner tells you that instead of charging you for hours of scrubbing that will not work.
Why "from $199" quotes get revised
A price given before anyone has seen the property is a guess with a floor under it. The number that gets advertised assumes a well-maintained property, and the variation clause is in the terms. There is nothing dishonest about that in itself, but you should read it as a starting price, not a price.
We quote after seeing the property, or after a detailed conversation with photos if you have already moved out of the area. If a job turns out worse than described, we tell you before we start rather than after we finish.
What you should be getting for the money
At minimum, a vacate clean should cover the oven and rangehood, inside all cabinetry, the fridge and freezer if they stay, full bathroom descaling including shower screens and extractor covers, interior windows and their tracks, skirtings, door frames, switch plates, wardrobe interiors, and all floors.
What most quotes leave out, and what we include as standard, is a photo record of every room on completion. That is the part that matters when a deduction is disputed weeks later.
Full detail on what a vacate clean should include is in our end of tenancy cleaning checklist, and the bond side is covered in how to get your bond back.