Free Consultation
Book a Free Consultation
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A beachfront cafe at Burleigh Heads, a dining room in Broadbeach or a small bar off Cavill Avenue trades on visitors, locals and the calendar in different measures, and the price follows what similar venues have fetched against the profit a hired manager would leave.
A Gold Coast cafe, restaurant or bar is normally valued against recent sales of comparable venues, expressed as a multiple of the profit that is left after a paid manager covers the owner's shifts and the year's busy and quiet months are averaged. We test that figure by capitalising the same earnings, and we price the fit-out, equipment and any transferable liquor licence at market to show what sits underneath it.
The request usually comes with a deadline. Owners of a Palm Beach cafe who have had an offer from a regular want to know whether it is fair. Two partners in a Southport restaurant near the light rail need a buy-out price neither of them will argue with later. A buyer about to take an assignment of a Mermaid Beach lease under the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld) wants the goodwill tested before paying for it. A separating owner needs the venue valued at a set date for property proceedings run through the Federal Circuit and Family Court's Brisbane registry, or an accountant needs a market value for a restructure.
On the coast the calendar makes this harder. Brokers often quote the takings from the busiest school holidays, while the quiet weeks of late summer storms or a slow winter midweek tell a different story. What a buyer pays for, and what a lender will fund, is the profit left over a whole year after wages, rent and food, so that is where every valuation of a venue starts.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach leads. Cafes and restaurants on the Gold Coast change hands often enough to give a usable record of prices, and a buyer weighing up a Coolangatta brunch cafe measures it against other brunch cafes, not against a cash flow forecast.
A sale is only a fair comparison when the venue matches on format, seating, licence type, trading position and the term left on the lease. Each price is then read against maintainable profit rather than turnover, because venues with identical takings can keep very different amounts once the bills are paid.
Where the venue holds a liquor licence that can pass to a buyer, it is recorded as an asset in its own right rather than lost inside goodwill. Venues with gaming machines are valued differently and are explained on our pubs, hotels and clubs page.
We cost the manager and head chef a new owner would have to employ, at market wages, and then capitalise the profit that remains over a typical year. In a husband and wife cafe this can strip most of the reported profit away, and it is better that a buyer sees it in the report than at settlement.
Espresso machine, kitchen plant, cool room, furniture and fit-out are valued at what they would sell for now, with the licence added where it can transfer. When a venue only just covers its costs, this total can sit above the earnings result, and the report says so in plain terms.
Two valuers looking at the same venue tend to part ways on these items, so the report lists each one with the reason behind it. For Gold Coast cafes, restaurants and bars they typically cover:
The coast does not trade as one market. Venues along Cavill Avenue and Orchid Avenue in Surfers Paradise, and around the Broadbeach dining precinct near the convention centre and casino, lean on visitors, conferences and events. Burleigh Heads, Miami, Palm Beach and Coolangatta mix holiday traffic with a large local crowd that comes back every weekend. Southport, with its courts, offices, Griffith University and the hospital precinct at Parklands up the light rail line, keeps a weekday lunch trade, while cafes at Robina, Varsity Lakes, Helensvale and Coomera depend on shopping centres, schools and new estates. On Tamborine Mountain and around Canungra, day-trippers and weekend tourists set the rhythm. The 2032 Games may change foot traffic in parts of the city, but a valuation prices the trade a venue has shown, not what it might gain.
Licences in Queensland are granted and transferred by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) under the Liquor Act 1992 (Qld). A cafe, a restaurant and a late-night bar usually hold different licence types, and the hours and conditions attached to each show how much of the profit relies on alcohol. Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach are among the precincts where late trading carries extra obligations, so the report records exactly what the licence allows. Because a licence moves to a buyer only once OLGR approves the transfer, any doubt about that approval is treated as a risk to the price.
The sector is not expanding fast. Across Australia the number of accommodation and food services businesses grew 1.3 per cent in 2025 to 2026, while Queensland added a net 19,244 actively trading businesses across every industry over the same period (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). Coastal venues open, close and change owners often, so sales evidence is plentiful but uneven, and picking the right handful matters more than finding many.
Each report opens with the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the records we relied on, and flags where those records fall short. It goes on to the approaches considered, the method used under each one, every earnings adjustment with its reason, and a plain-language reconciliation showing how the results were weighed into a range.
The reconciliation is the part a challenger targets. Whether partners in a venue end up before the District Court of Queensland at Southport or the Supreme Court of Queensland, a lease dispute moves from mediation with the Queensland Small Business Commissioner to QCAT, or a family law matter runs through the Court's Brisbane registry, an opposing expert will start by asking why the multiple sits where it does. Our reports are prepared in line with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and signed by a certified valuer who will stand behind the reasoning.
Ask which sale the conclusion leans on hardest, and what happens to the value if that sale is taken out. A valuer who has done the work answers at once and with numbers.
An Indicative valuation fits an owner weighing an unsolicited offer for a cafe or deciding whether this is the year to list a restaurant. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report fits a sale or purchase, a lease assignment or a bank loan to fund the purchase. A Detailed report is required for a family law settlement, a falling-out between partners, a claim for lost trading profit or any matter in which another expert will review the opinion.
Think about who will lean on the figure. A lender, the ATO, a court or the other side's valuer will press it much harder than you will.
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.