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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Whether the centre is a long day care service in Dapto, a converted house near North Wollongong or a purpose-built site at Shellharbour, buyers price it from what similar centres have sold for, then test that figure against the earnings its rooms can sustain.
A childcare centre in the Illawarra is usually valued against recent sales of comparable centres, shown per licensed place and as a multiple of earnings. That evidence is adjusted for the occupancy the centre holds across a year, its quality rating and its lease, and the result is tested by capitalising earnings once a salaried director stands in for a working owner.
Most instructions follow a transaction or a disagreement. A corporate operator has approached the owner of a centre in Dapto with an unsolicited offer. A couple who built a centre together at Albion Park Rail are separating and need the business valued at a fixed date. One of two co-owners wants to buy out the other. A lender asks for a figure before funding a second site. Or an accountant is moving several centres into a new group and the ATO will look for market value.
Many owners ask well before they intend to sell. Likely buyers are groups and investors that have reviewed hundreds of centres, so a seller with no evidence-based figure negotiates from behind. Valuing early also shows what is holding the price down while there is time to fix it: empty places in one room, a lease close to expiry, a Working Towards rating, or educator costs inflated by agency cover.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach carries the most weight. Operators, private owners and property investors buy long day care centres across the Illawarra and the rest of New South Wales often enough that recorded sales are better evidence than a forecast.
Each guideline sale is screened for licensed places, occupancy, quality rating, lease term left, catchment and whether the property sold with the business. It is then shown per licensed place and as a multiple of maintainable earnings.
Three close matches say more than twenty loose ones. A newly built centre on a long lease in a growing western Illawarra estate tells you little about an older converted house near the Wollongong CBD with two years of lease remaining, even if both sold in the same quarter.
Earnings are capitalised only after the owner's hours are costed at a qualified director's salary. A centre that looks profitable because the owner draws no wage is exposed at this stage.
Outdoor areas, equipment and fit-out are valued at what they would realise today. The building counts only where the owner holds it, and a freehold is a separate interest that investors price on rental yield and operators on trading.
Two valuations of one centre usually diverge at normalisation, so each adjustment in our reports sits beside its reason. For Illawarra childcare centres the usual ones are:
Location changes how a buyer reads a centre. Newer housing in the western Illawarra, around Albion Park Rail, Shellharbour and Dapto, draws purpose-built centres on long investor leases, and a new opening nearby can take enrolments before the estate fills. Established areas such as Fairy Meadow and North Wollongong have smaller centres on tight sites. Centres near Wollongong Hospital and the University of Wollongong can draw working parents with fixed hours. Kiama and the southern Illawarra have a smaller population base, so a single new centre there is easier to see in the occupancy figures.
Childcare is regulated nationally and in New South Wales. A service needs approval from the state regulator and is assessed against the National Quality Standard, while the Child Care Subsidy that families receive is paid by the Commonwealth. A buyer will check the service approval, the current rating, any conditions or compliance history, and the qualifications of the educators that ratios depend on. Council development consent can also cap the number of children on a site, whatever the building could physically hold.
Licensed places are a ceiling, not an outcome. A centre approved for 80 places that fills 58 is valued on the 58 it can hold, with credit for the gap only where nearby supply and local growth make filling it likely. Demand around the sector keeps building: health care and social assistance, the ABS division that includes child care services, grew by 6.7 per cent nationally in 2025 to 2026 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). For a seller that means more sales to compare against, and for a centre in a growth estate it can mean a new competitor nearby.
The report states the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the records relied on, and flags any gaps. It then takes each approach in turn with the method used, lists every normalisation adjustment with its reason, and reconciles the results into a range whose weighting is explained in plain English.
If the figure is challenged, the reasoning is all that remains. An opposing expert looks first for an unexplained choice, such as why sales were preferred to capitalised earnings or why the centre sits at a particular point among them. That scrutiny can arrive in a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, in a dispute between co-owners heard in the District Court at Wollongong, or in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, and expert evidence in those courts is governed by the Expert Witness Code of Conduct in the court rules. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a certified valuer who is ready to defend them.
Which assumption would the other side's expert challenge first, and what is your answer? A valuer who can reply straight away has done the groundwork.
An Indicative valuation is a sensible first step when an operator has made contact and you want your own number before responding. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a sale to an unrelated buyer, a co-owner buying in or a lender funding another site. A Detailed report is needed for a property settlement, an owners' dispute or any matter where an opposing expert will examine the work.
The reader sets the depth. If a court, a lender, the ATO or another valuer could test the figure, the full reasoning should be on paper.
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.