UK Cleaning Business Price Index
The UK Cleaning Business Price Index sets out what UK cleaning businesses are listed and valued at, and this first edition is dated October 2026.
The UK Cleaning Business Price Index sets out what UK cleaning businesses are listed and valued at, and this first edition is dated October 2026.
Window cleaning rounds are currently being offered at about 4.5 to 12 times their monthly round value, against published rules of thumb of two to five times, while owner-run cleaning businesses generally sell for about 1.5 to 3 times a year's adjusted profit.
This table shows how large the UK cleaning, hygiene and waste industry is, using the British Cleaning Council's latest research, which counts facilities management, waste and landscaping firms as well as cleaners.
| Measure | Figure | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses in the UK cleaning, hygiene and waste industry | 78,915 | 2025 |
| Businesses in the UK cleaning, hygiene and waste industry | 77,535 | 2024 |
| People working in the industry | 1.51 million | 2025 |
| Value of the industry | Almost £72bn | 2023 |
The number of businesses in the industry rose by 1,380 between 2024 and 2025, according to the British Cleaning Council's 2026 research report, and the industry employs 1.51 million people. Because those figures take in facilities management, waste and landscaping as well, the number of businesses doing cleaning alone is smaller.
This table brings together the pricing ranges published for UK cleaning businesses, with the source and year of each.
| Trade | Priced on | Range | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window cleaning round | Monthly turnover | 2 to 5 times, occasionally up to 10 times | Cleaning Matters | 2015 |
| Window cleaning round | Monthly turnover | 3 to 5 times, with compact, well-priced rounds at 6 to 9 times | Window Cleaning Warehouse | 2022 |
| Window cleaning round, customers lost after sale | Share of customers | 5 to 10% commonly expected | Cleaning Matters | 2015 |
| Owner-run cleaning businesses | Adjusted profit (profit with the owner's pay and personal costs added back) | About 1.5 to 3 times | Saxon Vane general view | 2026 |
| Managed cleaning businesses with profit above about £250,000 | Profit after a full management team | Higher than owner-run businesses, case by case | Saxon Vane general view | 2026 |
The two rows marked as our general view are our view, based on published ranges and current asking prices, and they will be replaced by recorded figures as the index grows. Our page on what your cleaning business is worth explains adjusted profit with a worked example.
On the largest UK round marketplace, asking prices currently run from about 4.5 to 12 times the stated monthly round value. For a round with a stated monthly value of £3,000, that is an asking price of roughly £13,500 to £36,000, compared with £6,000 to £15,000 on the wider published range and £18,000 to £27,000 for compact, well-priced rounds. The top of the asking range sits above every published rule of thumb, and these are the figures sellers are hoping for rather than prices buyers have paid.
Our page of window cleaning rounds for sale explains how buyers check a round's customer list before agreeing a price against these figures.
An asking price is the figure a seller or their broker puts on a listing, and a sale price is what a buyer actually pays once they have checked the customer list or the contracts, allowed for customers or clients leaving, and agreed any amount to be held back until after the handover. Sale prices are rarely made public in the UK, so most figures quoted online for cleaning businesses are asking prices, and a buyer or seller who reads them as sale prices will usually expect too much. Every figure in this index is marked as one or the other, and asking prices will never be presented as what businesses sold for.
Each edition will carry its date, and figures from earlier editions will stay on record so changes over time can be followed.
For asking prices, we read public UK listings for cleaning businesses and window rounds and record the asking price, the stated monthly round value or profit, the trade and the region, leaving out any listing without a stated figure to compare against and counting a business only once if it appears on more than one site. Published ranges are taken from the trade sources named in the table, with the year each was published. Our own sales are added only after the money has reached the seller, using the price paid and the profit or round value the buyer relied on. If you would like to know where your own business sits in these ranges, ask us for a free valuation.
Owner-run UK cleaning businesses usually sell for roughly 1.5 to 3 times a year's adjusted profit, as our general view. Window rounds are priced differently, and UK trade guides (Cleaning Matters 2015, Window Cleaning Warehouse 2022) put them at two to five times their monthly round value, or six to nine times for compact, well-priced rounds. Larger managed businesses with profit above about £250,000 are priced higher.
Window rounds on the largest UK round marketplace are currently being offered at about 4.5 to 12 times their stated monthly round value. These are asking prices, and published rules of thumb put sale prices at two to five times, up to nine for compact rounds. The final price depends on what the buyer finds when they check the customer list.
Asking prices are what sellers hope to get, and buyers usually negotiate once they have checked the customers or contracts. Buyers also allow for customers leaving after the sale, commonly 5 to 10% on a window round. Part of the price is often held back until the handover has settled.
The index is updated every quarter, with this first edition dated October 2026, and our monthly email carries market notes in between. Each update will add asking prices against stated profit by trade and region, and our own completed sales. Earlier figures stay on record so changes can be followed.
The index gives you a fair starting range, though it cannot value a particular business. A proper valuation looks at your contracts or customer list one by one, including notice periods, client concentration and margins after wages. Our free valuation does exactly that.
A free valuation from us looks at your contracts one by one and comes back with a figure and the reasoning behind it.
