Hiring a house cleaner: regular cleans, deep cleans and bond cleans

What house cleaning covers

Cleaners charge either by the hour or a fixed price per clean, and the type of clean sets the effort. A regular maintenance clean keeps a home that's never far from clean ticking over — floors, bathrooms, kitchen and dusting. A one-off deep clean goes further, into skirtings, the oven and detailed bathrooms. An end-of-lease or bond clean is the biggest job, worked to a real estate checklist and usually including the oven and inside windows.

Bathrooms are the slowest rooms, so home size — bedrooms and bathrooms especially — drives the hours more than floor area does. Extras like ovens, inside windows, walls and carpet steam cleaning are typically priced as add-ons rather than bundled in.

The first clean of a home that hasn't been professionally cleaned in a while takes longer, which is why it's often quoted higher than the regular visits that follow.

How the cost works

A regular fortnightly clean of a three-bedroom home sits in the low hundreds, a one-off deep clean lands higher, and an end-of-lease clean to an agency checklist is the dearest of the three. These are indicative bands; the estimate on this page adjusts for the hours and the type of clean.

The levers are home size, clean type and condition. Deep and bond cleans take two to three times as long as a regular clean, and a home that's been left a while needs extra time on the first visit. Frequency works in your favour — weekly or fortnightly regulars usually get a better rate than one-off bookings, and the price often drops once the home is at a maintained standard.

Choosing the right cleaner

House cleaning is an unlicensed trade, so judge on reliability and reviews — punctuality, trustworthiness in your home, and consistency matter more than any certificate. Confirm whether products and equipment are included in the hourly rate, since some cleaners bring everything and others expect you to supply it.

For an end-of-lease clean, ask two specific things: whether they offer a bond-back guarantee, and that they'll work to your agency's actual checklist. Hand them the checklist rather than assuming — it's the document the property manager will inspect against, and it's the difference between a clean that passes and one that costs you a re-clean.

Mistakes to avoid

Cleaning regrets are usually about mismatched expectations — the wrong clean type, or an unclear scope on a bond clean.

• Booking a regular clean when the job really needs a one-off deep clean first
• Not giving an end-of-lease cleaner the agency's checklist and asking for a bond-back guarantee
• Assuming products and equipment are included without confirming it
• Expecting the first clean to cost the same as ongoing visits — it usually takes longer
• Forgetting that ovens, inside windows and carpet cleaning are typically priced as extras
• Choosing on price alone for a home you're trusting someone to be in unsupervised