Commercial & body corporate painting prices, Cape Town 2026
What a commercial repaint really costs, per square metre.
Rates for complexes, offices, retail and warehouses, including ours. If you are comparing three tenders that all say the same total, this page tells you where the difference is hiding.
Complex or sectional title exterior repaint
from R105 per m²
Office and retail interior repaint
from R70 per m²
Warehouse and industrial walls
from R95 per m²
These are guidance ranges to help you budget, not a quotation. Every property is different. We give you one fixed price for the whole job after we have looked at it properly and written down what we found.
Commercial repaint tenders are almost never comparable. One is measured off a plan, one off a walk-around, one off a guess. One includes access, one adds it later. One says two coats and applies one and a bit. The totals look close enough for a trustee meeting to pick the cheapest, and the difference shows up three winters later on the elevation nobody looks at.
So here are the 2026 market ranges for commercial work in Cape Town, and here is where we sit in them, with the reason next to every rand.
The market, and us
What it costs, and what you get for the difference.
Complex or sectional title exterior repaint
Cape Town market
R60 to R120 per m²
Williams & Co
from R105 per m²
Every elevation measured and scheduled, condition photographed, cracks opened and sealed, primer, two full coats of Plascon, phased block by block with resident notices.
Office and retail interior repaint
Cape Town market
R25 to R80 per m²
Williams & Co
from R70 per m²
Worked after hours or in sections so the business keeps trading, furniture moved and protected, low odour systems, two full coats.
Warehouse and industrial walls
Cape Town market
R55 to R110 per m²
Williams & Co
from R95 per m²
Height access included in the rate rather than added later, dust and racking managed, coatings chosen for wash down and knocks rather than for a showroom.
Structural steel, roof sheeting and cladding
Cape Town market
R120 to R280 per m²
Williams & Co
from R240 per m²
Rust treated back to sound steel, correct primer for galvanised or rusted substrate, then a full coating build. Galvanised and rusted metal are not the same job and are not priced as one.
Commercial waterproofing, flat roofs and parapets
Cape Town market
around R250 per m²
Williams & Co
from R265 per m²
Rubber Sealant Liquid Rubber, all details reinforced, three coats to specified thickness. Quoted as its own line, never buried in a paint rate.
Asbestos roof encapsulation on outbuildings and sheds
Cape Town market
R200 to R320 per m²
Williams & Co
from R285 per m²
Sheets sealed in place: hand cleaned, primed, every bolt and lap reinforced. No cutting, no pressure washing, no removal.
Line marking, signage cut-ins, doors and steelwork items
Cape Town market
quoted per item
Williams & Co
quoted per item
Priced on what is actually there. Averaging these into a wall rate is how a tender ends up cheaper on paper than it is on site.
These are guidance ranges to help you budget, not a quotation. Every property is different. We give you one fixed price for the whole job after we have looked at it properly and written down what we found.
Where we stand
We are not the cheapest. That is the whole point.
Our rates sit at the top end of what Cape Town charges, not past it. We are not the cheapest, and we are not trying to be the most expensive either. What you are paying for at the top of the range is the part that never shows in a photograph: the wash, the crack repair, the primer, and the last coat that a cheap quote quietly leaves out.
Why the cheap quote is cheap
The savings all come out of the same place.
The area was never measured
A commercial rate means nothing without a measured area schedule per block and per elevation. Without one there is no way to check the tender, and no way to argue when the variation order arrives.
Access is priced later
Scaffold, boom lifts and rope access on a three storey block or a warehouse wall are a real cost. Left out of the tender, they come back as a variation once you are committed.
Waterproofing is smuggled into the paint rate
On most older Northern Suburbs schemes the real problem is water, not colour. A tender that does not itemise waterproofing has either ignored it or intends to paint over it.
Nobody wrote down the specification
Product, primer, number of coats, target thickness, colours. If those five things are not in writing, a guarantee has nothing to attach to and neither do you.
Worked example
A real job, priced line by line.
Four block sectional title complex in Durbanville, roughly 1,850 m² of exterior wall, plus parapets and box gutters leaking into two top floor units
Measure, condition survey and written scope
Area schedule per block and elevation, photographic condition report
included
High pressure wash and surface preparation
Full wash, chalking and failed coating removed back to sound plaster
R38,500
Crack repair, plaster patching and joint sealing
Cracks opened and filled, open joints resealed, failed plaster patched
R41,000
Plaster primer
Full primer coat to bare, patched and chalky areas
R33,000
Two full topcoats
Plascon exterior system across all four blocks, two coats at specification
R96,000
Access and protection
Scaffold and edge protection, resident parking and washing lines cleared per block
R34,000
Waterproofing, parapets and box gutters
Rubber Sealant Liquid Rubber, details reinforced, three coats, quoted as its own line
R58,000
One fixed price
R300,500
About R131 per m² for the painting, with the waterproofing priced separately so trustees can see exactly what it costs and vote on it on its own merits. You will also receive a tender near R210,000 for the same complex. It will not include the parapets, the access or the primer, and the leaking units will still be leaking.
What is not in the price
So the number stays honest.
- Structural work, balcony slab repairs, roof sheet replacement and electrical work, which belong to the right trade
- Asbestos removal, cutting or disposal, which is licensed work for a registered contractor
- Plaster repairs beyond patching, quoted once opened up
- Access to private balconies, courtyards and units where residents cannot be reached, quoted as a return visit
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Get your own number
Guidance only goes so far. Let us look at the property.
We come out, get onto the roof and the walls, photograph what we find, and send you one fixed price for the whole job.