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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A group practice in Fairy Meadow, a GP clinic in Dapto and specialist rooms in the CBD each earn their value differently. What matters is the profit left once consulting sessions are paid at market rates, and every step of that reasoning is written down so it can be tested.
Most medical practices in the Illawarra are valued on capitalised future maintainable earnings. We replace the principal's drawings with a market rate for the sessions they actually consult, remove one-off and related-party items, and divide the result by a capitalisation rate built from a risk-free rate and specific risk premiums. Sales of comparable practices and the resale value of equipment and fit-out are then used as checks.
A valuation request usually follows a decision that cannot wait. A GP who has run a Shellharbour clinic for decades wants to wind back, and a younger doctor has offered to take over the list. A group in Albion Park Rail has had a call from a larger operator. A specialist with rooms in Wollongong is separating, and the court process needs a figure for the practice interest as at a set date. A lender wants support before funding a second site, or the practice accountant is restructuring the service entity and needs a market value the ATO will accept.
Many established practices in the region were built up by one or two founding doctors, so a good share of valuations here concern succession inside the practice rather than a sale to a stranger. Having the number early shows what the clinic earns when the principal consults less, which is what an incoming partner is really buying. It also lets you separate the price of the goodwill from the price of the years you would be asked to stay on, two things that should be negotiated apart.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach comes first. A stable patient list generates recurring fees month after month, and an earnings-based method exists to measure exactly that kind of repeat income.
We build the capitalisation rate in layers instead of choosing it. Long-dated Commonwealth bond yields supply the risk-free rate. An equity risk premium, a size premium and a premium for the health sector go on top, followed by a loading specific to the practice. That loading looks at how much billing depends on one or two doctors, the time left on the lease, the balance of bulk billing and private fees, and the quality of the patient records.
One maintainable earnings figure is usually enough, divided by the discount rate less long-term growth. When the coming years will not resemble the past ones, a discounted cash flow is better suited. A registrar being brought through to partnership, a satellite clinic opening in the western Illawarra, or rooms about to be re-leased at a different rent can each be modelled year by year, which a single multiple cannot show.
Prices paid for similar practices, measured per full-time doctor or per active patient, show whether the earnings answer is in line with the market. Two or three close matches count for more than a long list of practices that only resemble yours at a distance.
Consulting room fit-out, clinical and diagnostic equipment and any imaging machines are restated from book value to what they would sell for now. A practice that trades at a profit should not be worth less than the net proceeds of its assets, so that sum acts as a floor.
Two valuations of the same practice most often part ways at this stage, so each adjustment appears in the body of the report with its reasoning. For a medical practice the usual list is as follows.
Practices here follow the hospitals and the housing. Wollongong Hospital is the tertiary referral centre, and Shellharbour Hospital serves the southern end of the region, both within the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District. Specialist suites tend to cluster in and around the CBD and North Wollongong. General practices are spread from Helensburgh in the north through Fairy Meadow and Unanderra to Dapto, Albion Park Rail, Shellharbour and Kiama. The University of Wollongong also adds a steady stream of younger patients and trainee doctors to the local mix.
Those differences decide which sales make a fair comparison. A specialist suite near Crown Street and a family clinic in Dapto share a region and little else: billing mix, rent, referral reliance and dependence on one name all differ. Payroll tax adds a further layer. Whether payments to contracted GPs are wages under the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW) depends on how the arrangements work in practice, and Revenue NSW administers it, so the way a clinic engages its doctors can change both its earnings and the risk a buyer prices in. We check the position as it stands at the valuation date and do not assume it.
The health sector keeps adding businesses. 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 means more sales to compare against, and more buyers competing for clinics with several doctors and a long lease.
A report opens by recording why the valuation was prepared, the standard of value, the valuation date and the documents relied on, including any gaps in them. It then walks through each approach considered, the method chosen under it, every earnings adjustment with its basis, and how the results were weighed into a range.
Weighing is where challenges land. If the report cannot say why earnings were preferred to sales evidence, or why the multiple sits where it does, an opposing expert will find the gap, whether the matter is in the District Court at Wollongong, the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, or a property settlement under the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Experts in court proceedings are bound by the Expert Witness Code of Conduct in the court rules. Where doctors share a practice under a partnership with no written exit terms, the Partnership Act 1892 (NSW) can shape what interest is being valued, and the report states the basis adopted. Every report follows APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and is signed by a certified valuer who will explain and defend it.
Ask which assumption in your practice valuation is most exposed to challenge, and how they would support it under cross-examination. If the answer is slow to come, the work is not finished.
An Indicative valuation suits a principal who wants a private benchmark before replying to a corporate approach or pricing a junior partner's entry. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report covers most partner admissions, internal retirements and lending applications. A Detailed report is the right level for a property settlement, a dispute between practice owners, or any matter where another expert will go through the opinion.
Purpose sets depth. The more likely it is that a judge, a bank, the ATO or an opposing valuer will test the figure, the fuller the report needs 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.