Licensed venues, where the trading business, the licence, the gaming entitlements and the freehold are four separate questions.
A pub or hotel valuation in Sydney leads with the market approach, using comparable venue sales expressed as a multiple of maintainable earnings. The liquor licence and any gaming machine entitlements are separately identifiable transferable assets, and the freehold, where owned, is valued separately from the trading business.
Venues are valued on a sale or acquisition, a partner or shareholder exit, a family law property settlement, refinancing, an insurance claim, a lease renewal or assignment, and where the ATO requires a market value on a restructure.
Licensed venues also carry the most commonly misunderstood asset mix in Australian small business. Owners regularly quote a single price that blends the trade, the entitlements and the property, and then cannot explain to a lender or a buyer which part of it is which. Separating them is most of the work.
The Market Approach leads. Licensed venues transact frequently and the evidence is unusually well documented in New South Wales, so comparable sales are the strongest basis available.
The guideline transaction method leads. Comparable venue sales are narrowed by venue type, location, trading hours, licence authorisations, gaming entitlement numbers and whether the freehold was included, then expressed as a multiple of maintainable earnings.
Because a sale may be of the freehold going concern, the leasehold business alone, or the entitlements separately, the valuation states clearly which interest is being valued and only uses comparables of the same kind. Mixing freehold and leasehold transactions in one comparable set is the most common error in this sector.
Maintainable earnings capitalised after the operator is replaced with a market-rate venue manager and a market rent is applied where the freehold is owned. This separates the return on the business from the return on the property.
Fit-out, plant, cellar and kitchen equipment at market value, plus the licence and any gaming machine entitlements, which are transferable and separately tradeable. In a marginal venue the entitlements can exceed the value of the trade.
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:
New South Wales publishes better comparable evidence for licensed premises than almost any other Australian market. Liquor & Gaming NSW releases a monthly licensed premises list covering licence number, venue address, trading hours, authorisations and gaming machine entitlements (Source: Liquor & Gaming NSW, licensed premises data), which lets a valuer match a subject venue to genuinely comparable premises rather than to whatever sold most recently.
Gaming machine entitlements are the distinguishing feature of the New South Wales market. They are transferable, they trade in their own right, and they are a material part of the value of many suburban venues. A valuation that folds them into an undifferentiated goodwill figure cannot be defended to a lender or in a dispute, so they are identified and valued separately.
Accommodation and food services grew only 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 alongside high turnover of individual venues means comparable evidence is plentiful, but Sydney venue types diverge sharply: a CBD hotel on weekday trade, a Newtown or Marrickville live-music pub, a Manly venue exposed to weather and seasonality, and a western Sydney club with a stable gaming-supported base are four different businesses.
Still being sourced before publication: [VERIFY: Count of hotel and club licences in Greater Sydney by local government area, from the Liquor & Gaming NSW licensed premises list]; [VERIFY: Recent transfer values for NSW gaming machine entitlements].
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 suits an operator 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 renewal or a finance application. A Detailed report is required for family law, shareholder 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.