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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A two-chair family practice in Maitland and a specialist referral practice in the Newcastle CBD are valued on the same footing: what the surgeries will keep producing for a new owner. Per-surgery sales check that figure; they never set it.
Dental practices in Newcastle and the Hunter are valued on future maintainable earnings. We pay the principal a market associate rate for the days they treat, remove one-off and related-party items, and capitalise what is left at a rate matching how likely those earnings are to stay with a buyer. Per-surgery sales and equipment resale values test the answer.
A change of ownership is the usual reason. An associate who has worked at a Lake Macquarie practice for eight years is ready to buy in, and both dentists want a price they can defend. A dental group has approached an orthodontic practice in Hamilton. A principal in Port Stephens wants to retire and sell to the associate who already sees most of the recall patients. A separating couple needs the practice valued at a fixed date for a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia's Newcastle registry. Or a lender wants an opinion before funding a new fit-out in one of Maitland's growing suburbs, or the practice is moving into a company and the transfer must be at a market value the ATO will accept.
Many principals ask years before any sale, because the valuation shows what moves the price. Chair utilisation, the share of fees earned by hygienists and oral health therapists, the balance between routine and complex treatment, and how much of the appointment book depends on you personally can all be improved, but only if you know about them before a buyer starts due diligence.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. Recall patients and the treatment plans that follow them give a dental practice income that repeats from one year to the next. That is what a buyer is paying for: the output of the surgeries, not the original cost of the equipment in them.
For most practices we capitalise future maintainable earnings. Three to five years of results are normalised into one sustainable figure, which is divided by a capitalisation rate reflecting how secure that income would be under new ownership.
A discounted cash flow replaces it when a known change sits inside the forecast. A new surgery being fitted out in Charlestown, an associate taking over part of the principal's book, or an imaging upgrade due in two years is each easier to show year by year than inside a single multiple.
We compare the earnings result with sales of similar practices, expressed as an earnings multiple or a price per surgery, drawn from the Hunter and regional New South Wales where the evidence allows. A percentage of gross fees quoted by a broker is a rough check at best, since two practices with equal fees can earn very different profits.
Chairs, OPG units and intraoral scanners, sterilisation equipment and the fit-out are valued at what they would sell for today rather than their written-down value. Fully depreciated equipment often still has a resale price, and the total forms the floor under the conclusion.
Most disagreements between valuers trace back to this schedule, so every adjustment and its reason sits in the body of the report, not tucked into an appendix. For a dental practice the common ones are:
The region's dental market splits into a few distinct groups. Specialist and referral practices concentrate in the Newcastle CBD and inner suburbs such as Hamilton, close to the hospitals and to the general dentists who refer to them. Established general practices around Charlestown and the Lake Macquarie shoreline often run several surgeries on long leases, with patients who have attended for decades. Practices in Maitland and Port Stephens draw on growing family suburbs, and towns further up the valley tend to have loyal patients and fewer competitors nearby.
That is why we choose the comparable set by location and patient mix before chair count. Two three-surgery practices, one in Maitland and one near Charlestown, can bill similar fees and still deserve different capitalisation rates once population growth, the number of dentists nearby, rent and reliance on one practitioner are weighed. Registration is national, through Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia, so nothing changes there. Premises are what most often needs untangling: if the principal owns the rooms through an SMSF or a family trust, the rent in the accounts is rarely a market rent, and the property and the practice are separated before either is valued.
There is plenty of local activity to measure against. At 30 June 2025 Lake Macquarie had 15,181 actively trading businesses and Maitland 6,142 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, July 2021 to June 2025), and health care and social assistance businesses grew 6.7 per cent nationally over 2025 to 2026 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). More practices mean more sales evidence, and more competition among buyers for practices with several clinicians and a secure lease.
We begin with the reason for the valuation, the standard and date of value, and the records relied on, including any limits on them. The body then covers each approach we considered and the method used, sets out every earnings adjustment with its reasoning, and reconciles the results into a range with the weighting explained in plain English.
When principals fall out or a marriage ends, that reconciliation is what gets cross-examined. A second expert in a Supreme Court of New South Wales dispute (the court sits in Sydney), or at a conference of experts in a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Newcastle, will ask why earnings outweighed sales evidence and why the multiple sits where it does in the range. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services, are prepared with the court's expert evidence rules and the Expert Witness Code of Conduct in mind, and are signed by a certified valuer prepared to defend them.
How did you choose the capitalisation rate, and which comparable sale did you rely on most? If a valuer cannot explain both in a few sentences, the report will not explain them either.
An Indicative valuation is the place to start if you want your own number before negotiating with an associate or replying to a dental group. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits an associate buy-in, a new partner or a finance application. A Detailed report is the one to choose for a family law property settlement, a dispute between principals, or any matter where another expert will check the work.
The person relying on the report decides how deep it goes. The more likely a court, a bank, the ATO or an opposing valuer is to test it, the more complete it 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.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.