Paint is an important feature for attraction and decoration for many buildings. As such, these assets have become a crucial part of city development, rising in prices throughout the years.
In the UK, we have a variety of towns that contain painted buildings that allow them to stand out significantly. In this blog, we aim to highlight some of the most colourful and well-painted towns in the UK, and outline the potential costs of painting these towns in a specific way.
Cost of Paint for Buildings
Cost of paint application for buildings takes into account certain features of a property; such as size and the time it takes to complete, as well as other factors such as painting material, local prices, the current status of the property, and the type of paint job required (interior, ceiling or exterior). The average exterior house painting cost is around £25 to £45 per square metre in the UK, which can add up depending on the size and width of your home.
The table below shows the estimated costs for painting prices for specific housing properties, assuming all types of painting work needed (such as interior, exterior and ceiling paintwork):
| HOUSE TYPE | COMPLETION TIME | PRICE |
| Flat/2-bedroom apartments/houses | Less than 1 week | £1650 to £2150 |
| 3-bedroom apartments/houses | 1 week – less than 2 weeks | £2000 to £3200 |
| 4-bedroom apartments/houses | 7 – 10 days | £25000 to £3600 |
| 5-bedroom apartments/houses | 10 days – 2 weeks | £3500 to £4300 |
Now we have highlighted a base outline of the painting costs per house, we can now accumulate an estimated cost for each colourful town highlighted below.
Most Colourful Towns in the UK
The UK has some of the most brightly coloured towns in the world, enabling these towns to attract more tourists per year with their dazzling appearance.
Cobh, Ireland
Cobh, Ireland is a seaport town that contains a wide range of tourist attractions that acquire a high number of visitors every year. The architectural standard of the town also shows a wide variety of painting colours and materials that make this a relatively pricey town (in terms of the paint on the buildings).
Cost of building paintwork in Cobh
According to Google, Cobh is approximately 5.12 or 2.0 sq miles. Following the estimated costs of paint highlighted above (£25 per sqm), the number of buildings implemented within the city and the amount of space left over, we can quickly highlight that the cost of paint of Cobh, Ireland is around £90m. To provide a more fair estimation, we have also calculated in the paintings of older properties.
We can further target a more accurate approximation by analysing the colours used for the buildings at the front of the seaport (see image above). We can assume that these buildings use enamel paint, to get the desired colouration. Depending on the brand of paint used – assuming that the council uses a local or more iconic brand such as “Trade Paints”, we can easily conclude that the paint cost will be around £36.99 per can. Taking this into account, the overall cost of paint in Cobh would be around £96m to date.
Considering the popularity of the small town of Cobh, we can also assume that this location does rather well in terms of accumulating money from its tourist attractions, which can explain the high expenses for paint overall.
Portmeirion Village, Gwynedd
Portmeirion Village is considered a very picturesque coast of North Wales, often compared to the villages found in Italy. In a similar fashion to Cobh, Portmeirion Village also contains stunning architecture that takes advantage of various painting supplies, in order to capture a fairy-tale-like appearance.
Cost of building paintwork in Portmeirion Village
Portmeirion Village is around 70 acres in size, which can be translated to over 200,00 square meters. From this finding, we can identify a general basis of the overall price for painting the village, which is at around £7,000,000 (not counting other factors which can drastically change this figure).
Adding in another important factor, the amount of paint used can also either increase or decrease this number extensively. The architectural integrity of Portmeirion Village contains a variety of colourful buildings including the Belvedere and Lady’s Lodge. Assuming the coverage of this village found online, we can also assume that the income gathered from its tourists also grants it the location enough expenses for high-quality paint, which can add another £25 (per square meter) on average depending on the paint brand.
The total approximate value of paint for Portmeirion Village would equal around £120m.
Tobermory, Isle of Mull
Tobermory is the main town on the island of Mull, and was actually the setting of the popular children’s TV show, Balamory!
It is considered one of the more beautiful ports located in Scotland, due to the colourful houses which are often seen from afar.
Cost of building paintwork in Tobermory
Stripping back the rest of the buildings, it’s fairly simple to calculate an approximated cost due to the simplistic (yet beautifully painted) colours chosen on the port, as well as the other buildings found within the port.
Firstly, we consider the perimeter of the city. According to research, we found that the area is around 300 acres, the largest area so far on this list. If we focus that size down to only the main part of Tobermory (i.e. Eas Brae), then we can provide an average of 90 acres, putting our base price at £12m worth of paint so far – this is also considering the amount of paint that has been applied to these houses in its history.
Lavenham Village, Suffolk
Lavenham is located in Suffolk, at the heart of the county’s countryside. This location is also one of the few places in England where medieval architecture is preserved. For that reason, the buildings associated with Lavenhalm are painted luminously.
Cost of building paintwork in Lavenham Village
Over 300 buildings with historical interest and value, Lavenham is a brightly painted town that has strong historic links with America, luxury holiday cottages, and Medieval charm. Taking into account that in its past, Lavenham was considered the 14th richest town in Tudor England, thanks to its famous Lavenham Blue Broadcloth. First, we analyse the area and buildings.
Considering the number of buildings and the perimeter of this town (around 45 acres, the smallest size found on this entry), the price still competes with the rest of this entry due to the amount of colour and potential paintwork done over the years of this village.
Calculating from its potential area, the average paint price would be around £6m. But, taking into account the history of this village, we can easily bump this price up to £8m due to the amount of work done for its paint construction.
Portree, Isle of Skye
Portree contains a variety of colours, ranging from pink, blue, green and yellow houses flanking the water’s edge. In addition to the brightly painted houses, Portree also has a wide range of greenery surrounding the capital town, as it’s located in the centre of the island.