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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A single-chair surgery in Helensburgh and a five-surgery group in North Wollongong are priced on the same thing: what the chairs reliably produce once the principal is paid a proper wage. Per-surgery sales are a test of that answer, never the source of it.
A dental practice in the Illawarra is valued on future maintainable earnings. We replace the principal's drawings with a market wage for the clinical days they work, take out one-off items, and capitalise what is left. Sales of comparable practices expressed per surgery check the result, and chairs, imaging and fit-out at current market value set the floor beneath it.
The trigger is almost always a change of hands. An associate at a two-surgery practice in Fairy Meadow is ready to buy half the business, and both dentists want a price they can rely on. A corporate group has approached an orthodontic practice in the CBD. A principal in Shellharbour is easing out after decades and selling to the associate who has kept the recall book full. A separating couple needs the practice valued at a set date for a property settlement. A lender wants support for a new surgery in the growing western Illawarra, or the business is moving into a new entity and the transfer has to be at a market value the ATO will accept.
Many principals ask for a valuation years before they plan to sell, because it shows which parts of the practice move the price. Chair utilisation, the share of fees generated by hygienists and oral health therapists, the balance between routine and complex treatment, and how much of the book would leave with the principal all change the figure, and each can be worked on well before a buyer appears.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach comes first. Patients who return for recalls and follow-up treatment each year give a practice earnings steady enough to capitalise, and a purchaser in the Illawarra reasons the same way: they pay for what the surgeries will go on producing, not for what the equipment once cost.
Where the practice is mid-change, a discounted cash flow takes over. A surgery being fitted out in Albion Park Rail, an associate brought in to absorb the principal's patients, or chairs and imaging due for replacement within the forecast period can each be shown in their own year, which a single multiple cannot do.
In the ordinary case the method is capitalisation of future maintainable earnings. Three to five years of normalised results yield a sustainable earnings figure, and a capitalisation rate that reflects how likely the income is to survive a change of owner turns it into a value.
Sales of comparable practices, as an earnings multiple or a price per surgery, show whether the earnings result agrees with what similar practices have changed hands for. A broker's percentage of gross fees is only a rough guide, because it ignores the profit and risk that separate two practices of the same size.
Dental chairs, panoramic and intraoral imaging, sterilisation equipment and fit-out are taken at what they would sell for today, not at written-down value. A chair fully depreciated years ago can still be resold, and the total of these assets forms the minimum under the conclusion.
Valuers most often diverge on the normalisation schedule, so each adjustment is set out in the body of the report with its reason, not tucked into an appendix. In a dental practice the regular ones are these.
Dentistry across the region splits into several markets, each with its own value drivers. Specialist and referral practices cluster around the CBD and North Wollongong, where rents are higher and most new patients arrive on referral. Long-running general practices in Fairy Meadow, Unanderra and the coastal suburbs tend to run several surgeries on long leases, with patients who have attended for decades. Practices in Kiama and Shellharbour see similar loyalty in a smaller catchment, while Dapto and Albion Park Rail, where housing keeps growing, are where new surgeries open and corporate groups look to add scale.
Location therefore matters more to the comparable set than the number of chairs. A three-surgery practice in Dapto and one in Wollongong can bill similar fees and still deserve different capitalisation rates, because population growth, the number of dentists nearby, rent and dependence on one practitioner are not alike. Registration is national through Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia, so it does not vary by state. Premises are where arrangements differ: if the principal owns the rooms through an SMSF or family trust, the rent in the accounts is rarely a market rent, and property and practice need to be separated before either is valued.
The sector is still expanding. Across Australia, health care and social assistance businesses rose 6.7 per cent between 2025 and 2026, to 227,702 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, June 2026, released 18 August 2026). More practices give more sales evidence, and more buyers chasing practices with several clinicians and a secure lease.
The opening pages record the purpose of the valuation, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information relied on, along with its limits. The report then lists each approach considered and the method used under it, sets out every earnings adjustment with its reason, and combines the results into a range with the weighting explained in plain words.
That reconciliation carries the opinion when it is challenged. A report that cannot explain why earnings were preferred to sales evidence, or why the multiple sits where it does in the comparable range, will not hold against a second expert, whether in the District Court at Wollongong, the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, or a joint conference of experts in a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Court experts work under the Expert Witness Code of Conduct in the court rules. Our reports are prepared under APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services, and a certified valuer signs each one and stands ready to explain and defend the conclusion.
Ask where an opposing expert would push hardest on your practice valuation, and what the reply would be. A slow answer suggests the analysis is not complete.
An Indicative valuation is a sensible first step if you want your own figure before talking to an associate or 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, a new partner or a lending application. A Detailed report is needed for a property settlement, a dispute between principals, or any case where another expert will work through the numbers.
The reader sets the depth. The greater the chance that a judge, a bank, the ATO or an opposing valuer will test the report, the more complete it 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.