A certified valuer looks at your business from three directions before settling on a figure. The direction that leads is the one a realistic buyer would use, and the report has to show the reasoning.
A business on the Gold Coast is valued with the three approaches recognised throughout Australia. Income asks what its sustainable earnings are worth today, market asks what similar businesses have sold for, and asset asks what it owns less what it owes at current prices. The certified valuer weighs the three results and states which one carried the conclusion, and why.
What is the profit this business can keep earning worth in today's dollars, once the risk that it falls short has been priced in?
How it worksWhat prices have buyers paid for businesses of a similar type and size, and at what earnings multiples do listed companies in the sector trade?
How it worksSell every asset at current prices, pay out every debt, and how much is left for the owners?
How it worksThe city's economy is unusually mixed, and the mix decides which evidence a valuer leans on. Tourism and short-stay accommodation in Surfers Paradise, Broadbeach and Main Beach trade on seasons, school holidays and major events, so a single good year says little on its own; earnings are normalised across a full cycle before the income approach can carry any weight. Cafes, restaurants and bars along the G:link corridor and in Burleigh Heads and Palm Beach change hands often enough that recent sales can lead.
Around the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct at Parklands, and near Robina Hospital, medical, dental and allied health practices are usually valued on the earnings their practitioners and referral base can sustain. Further north the balance shifts: boat builders and marine service businesses in the Coomera marine precinct, joinery and fabrication shops in Molendinar and Arundel, and manufacturers in the Yatala enterprise area often carry most of their value in plant, moulds, stock and freehold, so the asset approach leads or sets the floor.
Population growth, people moving up from interstate and the construction pipeline ahead of the 2032 Games shape the outlook for many local businesses. A valuer includes that outlook only where contracts, bookings or a credible forecast support it, and states the assumption so a reader can test it.
Every approach the valuer applies produces its own range, and those ranges are set out side by side. The report then explains in plain terms which result best matches the way a buyer would price this particular business, which results served only as a check, and which approaches were looked at and put aside, and why. A Broadbeach restaurant with a run of recent venue sales nearby is weighted differently from a Molendinar joinery whose value sits largely in its machines and a freehold factory.
What comes out of the reconciliation is a range of enterprise value. The owners' equity is found by deducting interest-bearing debt and adjusting for surplus cash, assets the business does not need and liabilities unrelated to trading; the result is the value of the whole business held as a controlling, saleable interest. If the subject is a minority shareholding, or an interest that would be difficult to sell, a discount for lack of control or marketability comes only after that, with its size explained.
Reviewers turn to the reconciliation first. An opposing expert in a Supreme Court of Queensland matter, an ATO officer checking a CGT concession claim and a lender's credit analyst all ask one thing: was the figure reasoned out of the evidence, or chosen first and justified later?
The depth of that working in your report follows from who will rely on it. An Indicative valuation is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report sets out the approaches applied and the reasoning behind them, and a Detailed report applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full.
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.