What’s proving the most potent weapon in the battle against graffiti artists defacing people’s homes? The answer is surprising: art.

A Sydney council has been experimenting with matching the owners of graffiti-targeted homes with mural artists to paint their walls with vivid designs to keep the vandals at bay – and is celebrating startling success, with other councils around Australia planning to copy its scheme.

“It’s been fantastic!” says retired nurse Robert Fielden​ whose house on Newtown’s Lennox Street used to be hit continually by taggers and graffiti – including someone daubing the words ‘Kill Cops!’ in red paint. He then took part in the Inner West Council program to have artist Sid Tapia paint an astronaut with a reflection of the earth in his visor on one wall.

“Since then, there’s been a 99.9 per cent reduction in graffiti on that wall,” he says. “The picture looks great and there are always people coming to look and take photos. I think it’s a fabulous initiative!”

The latest home owner to sign up for “Perfect Match”, bringing together property owners with artists whose work they like, is architect and designer Eberto Escandon. The three-storey block of nine units where he lives, on Station Street, Marrickville, is constantly being tagged, with cleaners having to be paid regularly to clean off the scrawls.

So he and fellow apartment owners were shown samples of images and asked to say which they liked. They loved the work of artist Joel Moore, known as Mulga, and asked him to come up with a design for the façade, 13.7 metres by 6.7 metres high. He mocked up an image of a black cockatoo, a regular visitor to the neighbourhood, in pink sunglasses and a pink bowtie, holding a waratah.

“We loved his design and he started work on it on Tuesday,” says Escandon, 40. “When he’s finished it’ll also be coated with an anti-graffiti paint and we believe such a beautiful image will really deter vandals. We’re keen to make our building look as nice as it can.”

Mulga, 35, a professional artist, says he loves the scheme, whereby the council pays the artists a negotiated fee for their work.

“It’s a bit harder doing such big work, rather than small paintings, but I’m really enjoying it,” he says. “The end result is really satisfying and hopefully people will just also enjoy the painting and leave it alone.”

Victoria Johnstone, arts and cultural development co-ordinator of the Inner West Council, says the council is playing “cupid” to about 52 property owners and artists and is receiving between 10 and 15 calls a week from councils across Australia interested in the scheme. The City of Sydney Council is thinking of introducing it too.

“It’s our original idea and it’s proving a really terrific program,” Johnstone says. “I’m not saying the artworks have never been bombed, but generally the taggers leave them alone and don’t come back. We’ve found it really enhances neighbourhoods and improves community well-being.”

That’s certainly been the experience of University of NSW researcher Bridget Haire​, 49, who had a mural of a native finch painted on her terrace house on Denison Street, Camperdown, by artist Thomas Jackson.

“Since he did that, we’ve had no graffiti at all,” she says. “And it’s such a beautiful picture. There’s a little boy who walks past every morning who talks to it, which is gorgeous and people seem to just love it.

“Having art around on the streets like this really enlivens the whole neighbourhood and makes it so much more vibrant. I’d recommend it to everyone!”