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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A reformer studio in Mermaid Beach and a 24-hour club in Coomera sell very different things, but both are priced on the same question: how much revenue the members will go on paying once the new year rush and the winter visitors have gone.
A gym or fitness studio on the Gold Coast is usually valued against sales of businesses in the same format, applied as a multiple of maintainable earnings. Where it sits in that range depends on how long members stay, their average fee, how much revenue is on minimum-term contracts rather than month to month, the finance still owing on equipment and the term left on the lease.
The trigger is usually a decision with money attached. A studio owner in Burleigh Heads has been offered a price by a franchise group, two partners in a Robina strength gym are splitting up, a franchisee in the northern corridor wants to buy a second site, or a separating owner needs the business valued at a set date for property proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court's Brisbane registry. Lenders funding a large equipment upgrade can also ask for a figure.
Many gyms change hands on the wrong measure. A headline member count says nothing about how many will still be paying in a year, at what fee, or how many unpaid hours the owner puts in at the front desk and on the floor. A valuation moves the conversation to the earnings the membership reliably produces once the owner takes a proper wage and worn machines are replaced on schedule.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach leads. Studios and clubs across the Gold Coast sell often enough that recent transactions are firmer evidence than a forecast built on hoped-for membership growth.
Sales are grouped by format first: 24-hour access clubs, class-based boutique studios, franchised sites and independents each trade at their own levels. Inside each group we compare catchment, floor area, membership size and remaining lease, then apply the multiple that results to maintainable earnings.
Capitalised earnings carry more weight where members sign genuine minimum-term agreements, because that income can be forecast with some confidence. When a major equipment replacement or a rent review falls due within a few years, a discounted cash flow shows that cost in the year it lands, which a single multiple cannot.
A manager is costed at market rates in place of the owner, and any classes or personal training the owner delivers are priced at what an instructor would charge, before earnings are capitalised. For an owner-run studio this is usually the most telling test.
Machines, racks, flooring and fit-out are valued at what they would fetch, less the finance still owing. Fitness equipment loses value quickly and is often financed close to its worth, so it usually adds less to the price than an owner expects.
Normalisation explains most of the gap between two valuations of one gym, so every adjustment is listed in our reports with its reason. For fitness businesses on the Gold Coast they commonly include:
Format and position decide which sales count as fair comparisons. Boutique reformer, yoga, boxing and functional training studios along the beachside suburbs from Main Beach and Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads and Palm Beach charge high fees from small, expensive tenancies, often on short leases. The 24-hour clubs at Robina, Varsity Lakes, Nerang, Helensvale and through the Coomera and Pimpama growth corridor run on volume, lower weekly fees and large floor plates near shopping centres and new estates. They are different businesses, and blending their sales produces a multiple that suits neither.
The coast adds two pressures a buyer will ask about. Free and low-cost outdoor training is everywhere, from the beachfront parks to the oceanway paths, and outdoor trainers working in public parks compete for the same members as a small studio. Holiday visitors and seasonal residents also buy casual passes and short memberships, which lift revenue in some months and vanish in others. We read the trading record month by month, separating resident members from visitors, because a business that can show churn by month and membership type is valued with more confidence than one that can only show a total.
The lease usually sets the ceiling. A fitness fit-out is costly and cannot be taken along, so a buyer needs time to earn it back. Many gyms in centres and retail strips are leased under the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld), where a dispute with the landlord usually goes first to mediation through the Queensland Small Business Commissioner, and an unresolved dispute will cut the price. The surrounding business base is growing: Queensland recorded a net increase of 19,244 actively trading businesses in 2025 to 2026, to 543,277 at 30 June 2026 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). That growth does not raise a particular gym's value on its own; its members and its lease do.
The report sets out its purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information relied on, including exports from the membership software, and says where that information is thin. It explains each approach considered and the method chosen, lists every normalisation adjustment with its reason, and reconciles the results into a range with the weighting explained in plain words.
When gym partners fall out or a sale ends in a dispute, the argument is about that reconciliation. A report that cannot explain why comparable sales outweighed capitalised earnings, or how the churn rate was settled, will not survive a second expert, whether the matter is before the District Court of Queensland at Southport, the Supreme Court of Queensland or in family law proceedings in the Court's Brisbane registry. Each report is prepared in line with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and carries the signature of a credentialed certified valuer who will explain and defend it.
Which assumption about my members would the other side's expert go after first, and what would you say? A valuer with no ready answer has not finished the analysis.
An Indicative valuation fits an owner sizing up a buyer's offer, or an asking price, before going any further. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report is the usual fit for a sale, a franchise transfer or refinancing equipment. A Detailed report is required for a property settlement, a dispute between partners or any engagement that another expert will review.
Let the reader set the depth. If a court, a bank, the ATO or another expert may test the figure, go with the fuller report.
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.