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A single-chair practice in Paddington or a six-surgery group in Carindale: valued on what the surgeries reliably earn, with per-surgery sales used as a test of the answer and not the source of it.
Brisbane dental practices are valued on future maintainable earnings. The principal dentist's drawings are reset to a market wage for the clinical days worked, one-off items are removed, and the result is capitalised. Comparable sales expressed per surgery test that figure, and chairs, imaging and fit-out at current market value set the floor.
Most requests come when ownership is about to move. An associate at a two-surgery practice in Ashgrove wants to buy in and both sides need a figure they trust. A corporate dental group has written to a specialist practice on Wickham Terrace. A principal in Wynnum is retiring and selling to the dentist who has run the hygiene programme for years. Separating spouses need the practice valued at a fixed date for a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Brisbane. A lender wants a valuation before it refinances the fit-out of a new surgery in Springfield. Or the practice is moving into a new structure and the ATO will expect the transfer to be at market value.
Many owners also have the practice valued well before any deal, because the valuation shows which levers move the price. Chair utilisation, the proportion of fees earned by hygienists and therapists rather than dentists, the mix of general and higher-value work, and how much production would leave with the principal all shift the number, and each can be improved in the years before a sale.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. A settled patient base returns for recalls and treatment year after year, which gives earnings regular enough to capitalise, and a Brisbane buyer prices a practice the same way: on what the surgeries will continue to produce, not on the cost of the equipment.
In most cases the method is capitalisation of future maintainable earnings. Sustainable earnings are derived from three to five years of normalised results, then divided by a capitalisation rate that reflects the chance of that income surviving a change of owner.
A discounted cash flow is used where the practice is part way through a change: a new surgery being fitted out in Chermside, an associate being recruited to take over the principal's production, or a cycle of chair and imaging replacement falling within the forecast years. A DCF can show each of those year by year, which a single multiple cannot.
Comparable sales, expressed as an earnings multiple or a value per surgery, show whether the income result sits where similar practices in similar Brisbane suburbs have actually sold. A broker's rule of thumb based on gross fees is a cross-check at most, because it ignores the profit and risk that separate two practices of the same size.
Chairs, OPG and intraoral imaging, sterilisation equipment and fit-out are restated to what they would sell for today rather than their written-down book value. A chair that has been fully depreciated still has a market price, and the total of those assets forms the floor beneath the conclusion.
Valuers disagree most often in the normalisation schedule, so each adjustment appears in the main body of the report with its reason, not in an appendix. In a dental practice the recurring ones are:
Brisbane's dental market has distinct parts, and each affects value. Specialist and referral practices are concentrated in the CBD and along Wickham Terrace in Spring Hill, where rents are high and most patients arrive by referral. Established suburban practices in Indooroopilly, Ashgrove, Carindale and Chermside are often multi-surgery, with long tenancies and patients who have stayed for decades. The bayside suburbs around Wynnum and Manly show similar loyalty with fewer competitors per catchment. The growth areas of North Lakes, Springfield, Logan and Moreton Bay are where new practices open and where corporate groups buy to build scale.
This is why the suburb shapes the comparable set more than the number of chairs. A three-surgery practice in Springfield and one in Ashgrove may bill similar fees yet warrant different capitalisation rates, because population growth, the supply of dentists, rent and dependence on one practitioner all differ. Practitioner registration is national, through Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia, so it does not change at the Queensland border. The premises often do vary: when the principal owns the rooms through an SMSF or a family trust, the rent in the accounts is seldom a market rent, and the practice and the property must be separated before either is valued.
The sector continues to grow. Health care and social assistance businesses rose 6.7 per cent nationally in 2025 to 2026, and Queensland recorded a net increase of 19,244 actively trading businesses across all industries in that year (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). A larger pool of practices provides more sales evidence, and more buyers for practices with several clinicians and a secure lease.
Each report sets out at the start the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information relied on, and states its limitations. It then records every approach considered, the method chosen under each, all normalisation adjustments with their reasons, and reconciles the results into a range, describing the weighting in words.
When someone challenges the figure, the reconciliation does the work. If a report cannot explain why the income approach was preferred, or why the multiple sits at that point in the comparable range, it will not hold up against a second expert in the Supreme Court of Queensland, where expert evidence is governed by Chapter 11 Part 5 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld), or in a conference of experts in a family law matter at the Brisbane registry. Our reports are prepared under APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and signed by a certified valuer who will explain and defend the conclusion.
Which assumption in this report is a reviewing expert most likely to attack, and what is your answer? A valuer who has to stop and think has not finished the report.
An Indicative valuation is a sensible first step when you want your own view before talking with an associate or replying to a corporate group. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits an associate buy-in, the admission of a new partner or a bank application. A Detailed report is the level for a family law property settlement in the Brisbane registry, a dispute between principals, or any matter where a second expert will review the work.
The audience decides. The more likely the opinion is to be tested by a court, a lender, the ATO or another expert, the more complete the report has to be.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.