Owner-run contract cleaners usually sell for roughly 1.5 to 3 times a year's adjusted profit, while larger firms with a manager in place and profit above about £250,000 sell for more against their profit. What you should pay depends mostly on how secure the contracts are, how widely the turnover is spread across clients, and who runs the rota day to day.
What comes with a commercial cleaning business
Most of what you pay for is the contracts, which are usually written agreements to clean a site on set days for a monthly fee, with a notice period that lets either side end the arrangement. With those contracts come the cleaners who work on them, often part-time and spread across early morning and evening shifts, along with the supervisors or area managers who cover sickness, check standards and keep clients happy. You also take on equipment, any vehicles, the accreditations clients ask for when they tender, and the payroll and scheduling systems that hold it together.
Labour is by far the largest cost in contract cleaning, so profit depends on wages being priced correctly into each contract, especially now the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour from 1 April 2026 and employer National Insurance has been 15% on earnings above £5,000 since April 2025.
What to check in a contract cleaning business
This table shows the main areas we would expect a buyer to examine, what a healthy business looks like in each, and the warning signs.
| Area | What a healthy business shows | Warning signs |
|---|
| Contracts | Written contracts for every site, with fees, hours and scope | Handshake arrangements or contracts long expired |
| Notice and change of control | Reasonable notice periods and no right to end the contract on a change of owner | Change-of-control clauses on the largest contracts |
| Client concentration | No single client above about 15 to 20% of turnover | One client providing a third or more of the work |
| Type of work | Mostly regular daily or weekly cleans | Heavy reliance on one-off deep cleans or builders' cleans |
| Management | A supervisor or operations manager running the rota | The owner covering shifts and holding every client relationship |
| Staff | Low staff turnover, correct pay, right-to-work checks on file | Pay below the legal minimum, missing records or open disputes |
| Accreditations | BICSc training, ISO 9001 or 14001, SafeContractor or CHAS held by the company | Certificates lapsed or held in the owner's own name |
| Pricing | Recent wage rises passed on to clients | Contracts priced on wage rates from two or three years ago |
Buying cleaning contracts on their own
Buying contracts on their own is an asset purchase, so each contract usually needs the client's consent to move across to you, either by assignment or by a fresh agreement in your name, and the cleaners who work mainly on those contracts transfer to you on their existing terms under the TUPE regulations. The seller must give you employee liability information about those staff at least 28 days before the transfer, and you should check it carefully against payroll, since you inherit their length of service and any claims attached to their employment. TUPE also applies when a client moves its cleaning from one provider to another, known as a service provision change, so a contract you win at tender can bring staff with it in the same way.
How commercial cleaning companies are priced
Owner-run contract cleaners are usually priced on adjusted profit, meaning a year's profit with the owner's own pay and personal costs added back, and they often sell for roughly 1.5 to 3 times that figure, so a firm with £120,000 of adjusted profit would typically be priced between £180,000 and £360,000. Businesses with an operations manager in place and profit above roughly £250,000 after paying for that management are priced at higher levels against their profit, and applying those higher levels to an owner-run firm's adjusted profit is the commonest way buyers overpay.
Within the range, buyers pay more for written contracts with sensible notice periods, regular recurring cleans, a broad client base with no client above about 15 to 20% of turnover, a supervisor running the rota, low staff turnover and clean books.
Funding and structuring the deal
Most purchases combine the buyer's own cash with bank lending, which may be on ordinary terms or under the government-backed Growth Guarantee Scheme, and part of the price paid to the seller over an agreed period after the sale, known as deferred consideration. Where a large contract is up for renewal or carries a change-of-control clause, a common answer is to link part of the price to that contract still being in place a set time after the sale, so the seller shares the risk of losing it. In a share purchase the company keeps its contracts and stays the cleaners' employer, while in an asset purchase consent and TUPE apply as described above, and your solicitor will advise which suits the business you are buying.
Office cleaning businesses for sale
Office cleaning businesses for sale tend to follow a pattern of their own, which a buyer should understand before putting a price on one. Office contracts are usually cleaned early in the morning or in the evening, five days a week, by part-time cleaners who often stay on the same building for years, and each contract is normally a monthly fee built from the hours on site and the hourly wage, so a contract priced before the National Living Wage reached £12.71 an hour on 1 April 2026 may now carry a much thinner margin than its turnover suggests.
Buyers look at how closely the offices sit together, since a cluster in one town lets a supervisor cover several sites and fill gaps in the rota, and at whether any clients have cut their cleaning back to fewer days or fewer hours as their own staff spend less time in the office. Periodic work such as carpet cleaning, window cleaning and washroom services sold to the same office clients adds to the value when it is billed regularly. Many offices sit in managed buildings where a managing agent tenders the cleaning, so check who each contract is actually with and when it next comes up for renewal.
Buying through us and registering early
We send registered buyers an anonymous summary first, share the name and sales pack once you agree to our confidentiality terms, arrange meetings with the owner, take offers to the seller and stay involved with both solicitors until the money is paid. A typical sale takes 6 to 9 months from first valuation to money in the seller's account, mostly spent on due diligence and contract consents. Many contract cleaners are sold to larger cleaning companies nearby looking to fill their rotas or add sites, so if that describes you, or you are a first-time buyer with funding in place, register as a buyer and we will tell you about new businesses before they reach the portals. You can also browse all cleaning businesses for sale or read our guide to buying a cleaning business.
Questions buyers ask
Can I buy office cleaning contracts without buying the company?
Yes, buying contracts on their own is an asset purchase and is common among established cleaning firms adding nearby sites. Each client usually has to agree to its contract moving to you. The cleaners who work mainly on those contracts transfer to you under TUPE on their existing terms.
Do I have to keep the cleaners on after buying?
Yes, the cleaners transfer on their existing terms and dismissing someone because of the transfer is automatically unfair unless there is an economic, technical or organisational reason involving changes to the workforce. Changes to terms purely because of the transfer are also usually void. Take advice before planning any restructuring.
What if a big client has a change of control clause?
A change-of-control clause lets the client end the contract when the business changes hands, so it is a real risk to price in. Ask the seller whether the client can be approached before the sale goes through, and consider linking part of the price to that contract still being in place afterwards. The seller's relationship with the client is usually the best protection.
How much does a commercial cleaning business cost?
Owner-run contract cleaners usually sell for roughly 1.5 to 3 times a year's adjusted profit, so £100,000 of adjusted profit typically points to a price between £150,000 and £300,000. Managed businesses with profit above about £250,000 sell for more against their profit. Each listing above shows its asking price and the profit behind it.
What makes a contract cleaning business worth more?
Written contracts with sensible notice periods, regular daily or weekly cleans and no client above about 15 to 20% of turnover all support a higher price. A supervisor running the rota, low staff turnover, accreditations held by the company and clean books add to that. Wage rises already passed on to clients are another strong sign.
