Cafes, restaurants and licensed venues, valued on what comparable Sydney businesses have actually sold for.
A hospitality business valuation in Sydney leads with the market approach, because venues change hands often enough to provide real comparable evidence. Value is tested against maintainable earnings under a market-rate manager, and the fit-out, the liquor licence and any gaming machine entitlements are valued as assets that set the floor.
Sydney operators commission valuations for a sale or purchase, a partner exit, a family law property settlement, a lease assignment where the landlord or an incoming tenant needs an independent view, an insurance claim, or an ATO market value requirement on a restructure.
Venues are also frequently bought on a broker's estimate that reflects turnover rather than profit. An independent valuation separates what the business earns from what it turns over, which is usually the difference between a price that can be financed and one that cannot.
The Market Approach leads. Sydney venues transact frequently and publicly enough that comparable sales are the most persuasive evidence available.
The guideline transaction method leads. Comparable venue sales are narrowed by format, location, seating or capacity, trading hours, licence type and unexpired lease term, then expressed as a multiple of maintainable earnings. Turnover multiples are treated with caution because two venues on identical turnover can have very different margins.
For licensed premises the licence itself and any gaming machine entitlements are separately identifiable and transferable, and they are valued as such rather than being absorbed into a single goodwill figure.
Maintainable earnings are capitalised after the owner-operator is replaced with a market-rate venue manager. In owner-operated hospitality this is the cross-check that matters most, because a large share of reported profit is often unpaid owner labour.
Fit-out, plant and equipment at market value, plus the licence and any gaming entitlements. This sets the floor, and in a marginal venue it can exceed the earnings-based result, which is itself a finding worth stating plainly.
Normalisation is the most common source of disagreement in a valuation, so it is set out in full in the report rather than buried in a schedule. For this industry the recurring adjustments are:
Accommodation and food services grew 1.3 per cent in the national business count in 2025 to 2026, one of the slower rates across the industry divisions (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). Slow net growth in a sector with high turnover of individual businesses means comparable evidence is plentiful but has to be selected carefully by format and location.
Comparable evidence for licensed premises is better in New South Wales than in most markets. Liquor & Gaming NSW publishes a monthly licensed premises list covering licence number, venue address, trading hours, authorisations and gaming machine entitlements (Source: Liquor & Gaming NSW, Liquor licence premises list, via Data.NSW). That dataset lets a valuer match a subject venue to genuinely similar premises rather than to any venue that happens to have sold.
Location risk in Sydney is specific rather than general. A CBD or Barangaroo venue dependent on weekday office trade carries different risk from a Surry Hills or Newtown dining venue, a Manly or Bondi venue exposed to seasonality and weather, or a suburban licensed club in the west with a stable gaming-supported income base. The comparable set has to respect those differences.
Still being sourced before publication: [VERIFY: Count of licensed premises in Greater Sydney by local government area, from the Liquor & Gaming NSW premises list]; [VERIFY: Median earnings multiple for Sydney cafe and restaurant sales over the last 24 months].
The report states the purpose of the valuation, the standard of value applied, the valuation date, the information relied on and its limitations. It sets out each approach considered, the method chosen under each, the normalisation adjustments made and the reason for each one, then reconciles the results into a range and explains the weighting in words rather than by formula.
That reconciliation narrative is a large part of what makes an opinion defensible. A conclusion that cannot explain why one approach was preferred over another, or why a particular point in a multiple range was selected, is difficult to sustain when another expert reviews it. Reports are prepared consistently with APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a credentialed certified valuer who is prepared to explain and defend the opinion.
If another expert reviewed this report, which assumption would they challenge first, and what is your answer? A valuer who cannot answer that has not finished the work.
An Indicative valuation is the sensible first step when you are testing an asking price or deciding whether to go to market. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a sale, a purchase, a lease assignment or a finance application. A Detailed report is required for family law, partner disputes, insurance claims and anything subject to expert review.
Purpose drives the choice. The more likely it is that the opinion will be reviewed by another expert, a court, a lender or the ATO, the deeper 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.