Painting a rental property in Hobart - a landlord's guide.
A rental repaint is a different calculation to your own home. You are not buying a finish you will enjoy - you are buying durability, turnaround speed, and a defensible position at the end of the next tenancy.
What the law requires, and what it does not.
Start with the most common misconception. Nothing in the Residential Tenancy Act 1997 requires a Tasmanian rental to be repainted at the end of a tenancy, and a tenant cannot be charged for one simply because they lived there. Tired walls are not a breach. What the Act requires is that the premises are kept in reasonable repair and meet the minimum standards - a different test entirely, about weatherproofing, structural condition and habitability rather than how fresh the hallway looks.
Fair wear and tear versus damage.
Fair wear and tear - not claimable. Scuff marks along a hallway. Fading near a north-facing window. Small nail holes where pictures hung. General dulling over a long tenancy. Marks around light switches and door handles. Try to take these out of a bond and the claim will not survive at the Residential Tenancy Commissioner. Damage - claimable. Crayon or marker over a wall. A hole punched through plasterboard. Paint applied by the tenant without consent. Marks well beyond what the length of the occupancy would explain.
Standardise everything you can.
Low sheen on walls, semi-gloss on trim. Low sheen is washable enough to survive a hallway and forgiving enough not to spotlight every set joint in a room. Flat looks good for a fortnight and then burnishes into a shiny patch the moment anyone wipes a mark off it, which on a rental means the first tenant leaves you a wall you cannot touch up. Semi-gloss on doors, frames and skirtings takes the knocks and cleans without polishing up. Ceilings stay flat white, because nobody scrubs a ceiling.
One colour across the whole portfolio. This matters more than which colour you pick. One neutral, held on file with the product name and code, means one tin on the shelf, touch-ups that actually match, and a two-hour patch-up between tenancies instead of repainting a full room because the corner you touched up now reads as a different colour. It also means the next property manager can order the right paint without ringing you. Where the rental is pre-1970 - most of the older weatherboard stock here - the finish decision sits behind the lead question in the next section, because preparation, not colour, is what drives that job.
Lead paint is a landlord problem, not just a homeowner one.
A great deal of Greater Hobart's rental stock - particularly the weatherboard through Glenorchy, Moonah and New Town - is pre-1970, which means lead-bearing paint under the current topcoat. This city has one of the oldest housing stocks in the country, so the odds are not marginal. Intact and painted over, that lead is stable and it is not an emergency. Deteriorating, flaking or being sanded, it is a genuine hazard, and the difference between owning that risk in your own home and in a rental is that you do not choose who lives there.
The position is simple and not expensive. Swab test before any preparation work, 280 to 480 dollars. Never allow open dry sanding on the property, by us or anyone else you engage. Any disturbance runs under AS 4361.2 controlled conditions with containment and HEPA extraction, at 45 to 95 dollars per square metre. Keep the test result on file. If the property is also heritage-listed, as a fair few inner Hobart rentals are, there is a second layer to check before external work - our heritage paint permit guide covers which system applies.
The vacancy maths on a three-bedroom Glenorchy rental.
Interior, done in the vacancy. Full three-bedroom repaint, walls and trim, 6,500 to 11,500 dollars in 2026 rates, five to seven working days in an empty house. At 550 dollars a week a seven-day vacancy costs 550 dollars in rent, and a fresh neutral interior typically re-lets faster and at the top of its band. The vacancy cost is noise against the job cost, and doing it around a tenant is slower, dearer and worse. Exterior, booked for the following November - not because it can wait comfortably, but because a Hobart exterior coated in a winter vacancy is a coating with no integrity, for the reasons in the best time to paint in Hobart. Single-storey weatherboard, 8,500 to 14,500 dollars, plus swab testing and controlled prep where the film has failed.
The decision that costs money is deferring the exterior again. That coating is at year eight with visible lichen. Push it to year twelve and you add carpentry and lead-safe removal, and the job goes from roughly 9,000 dollars to near 20,000 - the comparison is in paint failure warning signs in Hobart. Rates from the 2026 pricing guide; the work runs through our interior house painting process.
Common questions from Hobart landlords.
Do Hobart landlords have to repaint between tenancies?
No. Nothing in the Residential Tenancy Act 1997 requires a repaint at the end of a tenancy, and a tenant cannot be charged for one just because they lived there. What the Act requires is that the premises are kept in reasonable repair and meet the minimum standards - a test about weatherproofing, structural condition and habitability, not about how fresh the walls look. Paint becomes an obligation when it stops being decoration and starts being protection.
Can I charge a departing tenant for repainting in Tasmania?
Only for damage, never for fair wear and tear, and the line is drawn by the condition report rather than your opinion. Scuffs along a hallway, fading near a sunny window, small nail holes and general dulling are fair wear and tear, and a bond claim for those will not survive at the Residential Tenancy Commissioner. Crayon on a wall, a punched hole, or paint applied without consent are damage and are claimable. Dated entry photographs decide almost every one of these.
What paint finish should I use in a Hobart rental?
Low sheen on walls, semi-gloss on trim, and one standardised colour across your whole portfolio. Low sheen is washable enough to survive a hallway and forgiving enough not to spotlight every set joint, whereas flat burnishes the moment anyone cleans it. The standardisation matters more than the colour: one neutral means one product on the shelf, touch-ups that match, and a two-hour patch-up between tenancies instead of a full room.
Is repainting a rental property tax deductible in Australia?
Generally, repainting an already-painted surface to restore it is treated as a repair and deductible in the year you incur it, while painting something for the first time, or fixing defects that existed when you bought, is capital and depreciated instead. That is the shape of it, not advice - the distinction turns on your facts and is easy to get wrong. Talk to your accountant before you commit to a scope. We can give you an itemised invoice separating repair from improvement.
What do I need to know about lead paint in an older Hobart rental?
That it is probably there, and it matters more in a rental because you do not control who lives there. Much of the rental stock through Glenorchy, Moonah and New Town is pre-1970. Intact and painted over, lead is stable and not an emergency. Deteriorating or being sanded, it is a genuine hazard, and lead dust in a yard where a toddler plays is the scenario nobody wants. Swab test before any preparation, 280 to 480 dollars, and never allow open dry sanding.
Rental turnarounds across Greater Hobart.
Got a vacancy coming up? Book it before the tenant leaves.
Empty-house turnarounds in five to seven days, one standard colour held on file across your portfolio, itemised invoices your accountant can actually use.