Every figure below comes from a Portuguese price page or marketplace that publishes it openly. None of them is a quote, and none of them came from asking a cleaning business what it would like to charge you.
Indication from public price pages, not a quote. The hourly figures come from spicandspan.pt, idealista.pt and zaask.pt; the monthly figure from viplimpezas.pt; the after-renovation figure from Zaask, Habitissimo, lipclean and fixhomeservicios. All read in August 2026.
Read the two hourly figures together. The same hour of the same work is advertised at €8–15 in the Portuguese-language market and at €16.90 in the English-language segment. That gap is not a mistake and it is not a quality difference — it is a language and a channel difference. Knowing it exists is the most useful thing on this page, because it tells you the range you are actually negotiating inside.
Two flats of identical size routinely get quotes that differ by half. These are the reasons, roughly in order of how much they matter.
The figures on this page are a sanity check, not a target. Here is how to put them to work without turning the conversation into a haggle.
Ask every business the same three questions: how many hours, what is included, and does the price carry IVA. Two quotes that differ by a third usually differ by an hour and an oven, not by greed.
'Deep clean' means nothing consistent. 'Five hours with two people, including the oven and the inside of the fridge' means something you can hold somebody to and compare against the next quote.
The lowest published hourly figure in this market is what an individual charges informally, with no invoice and no cover if something breaks. It is a real price for a real arrangement — just be clear about which one you are buying.
Because they are two different sales channels. Businesses that advertise in English are reaching an audience that finds them through search, expects written communication and pays by transfer, and they price for that. The measured gap in this market is roughly €8–15 an hour against €16.90. You are allowed to shop in either, and asking in Portuguese is free.
Not proportionally. A large open apartment with three surfaces can be quicker than a small one with two bathrooms, a galley kitchen and a balcony, because time is spent on edges, corners and fittings rather than on open floor. This is why quoting by square metre is a starting point and not an answer.
Hourly suits a regular arrangement where the work is predictable and you trust the pace. Fixed suits one-off jobs with a defined outcome — a handover, a post-renovation clean — where you care about the result and not about the clock. Mixing them, by agreeing a fixed price and then adding tasks, is where arguments start.
IVA is quoted differently by different businesses, so ask. Products are sometimes yours to supply. Travel is normally absorbed but not always, especially outside the city. And every figure here describes labour — nothing on this page includes equipment hire, waste removal or repairs.
You will certainly be offered it, and for a registered business it should be your choice rather than a condition. If you want an invoice with your taxpayer number on it — worth having, particularly for a rental property — say so before the work rather than after, when it becomes an awkward conversation.
Usually yes, and it is the one negotiation almost everybody skips. A business planning routes values certainty highly. Offering the same day and time every week for six months is worth more to them than arguing over a euro an hour, and it is the version of this conversation that tends to work.
Your price depends on the floor, the lift, the surfaces and how often. Send those four things and get an actual figure from a business that would do the work.
Free, no obligation, and no pressure to accept whatever comes back.