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One chair in Northcote or six in Box Hill: valued on the earnings the surgeries sustain, with per-surgery multiples used to test the answer rather than produce it.
A dental practice in Melbourne is valued on future maintainable earnings: the principal dentist's drawings are replaced with a market wage for the clinical days worked, non-recurring items come out, and the result is capitalised. Per-surgery multiples from comparable sales test that figure, and chairs, imaging and fit-out at market value set the floor.
The usual moment is a change of hands. An associate at a two-surgery practice in Box Hill wants to buy in and both sides need a number they can trust. A corporate group has approached a specialist suite on Collins Street. A principal in Brighton is retiring and selling to the dentist who has run the hygiene programme for a decade. A property settlement in the Melbourne registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court needs the practice valued as at a set date. A lender wants a figure before refinancing the fit-out of a new surgery in Cranbourne. Or a restructure needs a market value the ATO will accept.
Plenty of owners also value the practice years ahead of any deal, because it shows which levers they hold. How full the chairs run, how much of the fee base comes from the hygienists rather than the dentists, the split between routine and high-value work, and how much production would leave with the principal are the things that shift the number, and each can be worked on before a sale.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. Fees per surgery in a settled practice recur reliably enough to capitalise, and that is how an informed buyer in Melbourne actually prices one: on what the chairs will keep earning, not on what the equipment cost.
Capitalisation of future maintainable earnings is the method in most cases. We work out sustainable earnings from three to five years of normalised results and apply a capitalisation rate that reflects how likely that earnings stream is to survive a change of owner.
A discounted cash flow is used where the practice is in the middle of a change: a fourth surgery being fitted out in Glen Waverley, an associate being brought in to replace the principal's production, or a chair and imaging replacement cycle landing inside the forecast period. The DCF can carry each of those year by year; a single multiple cannot.
Comparable sales, read as an earnings multiple or per surgery, show whether the income result sits where similar practices in similar parts of Melbourne have actually traded. A broker's flat multiple of gross fees is only ever a cross-check. It ignores profitability and risk, and those are what separate two practices of the same size.
Chairs, imaging, sterilisation equipment and fit-out are restated to what they would fetch today, not what the depreciation schedule says. A fully written-off chair still has a price, and that asset total is the floor under the conclusion.
Normalisation is where valuers most often disagree, so every adjustment is listed in the report with its reason rather than buried in an appendix. For dental practices the ones that recur are:
Melbourne's dental practices cluster in ways that matter for value. Specialist suites and referral practices sit on Collins Street and around the Parkville precinct, where rents are high and much of the patient base is referred rather than walk-in. Box Hill, Glen Waverley and Doncaster carry the mature eastern suburban practices, often multi-surgery, with long tenancies and long patient tenure. Bayside and the Mornington Peninsula show similar patient loyalty with more competition per catchment. The growth corridors through Wyndham, Casey and Hume are where new practices open and where corporate groups buy scale.
That is why location drives the comparable set more than chair count. A three-surgery practice in Werribee and a three-surgery practice in Brighton can earn similar fees and still deserve different capitalisation rates, because catchment growth, practitioner supply, rent and reliance on one dentist all differ. Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia regulate practitioners nationally, so registration is not a state variable, but the premises usually are: where the principal holds the rooms through an SMSF or a family trust, the rent in the accounts is rarely a market rent and the practice has to be separated from the property before either is priced.
The industry is still expanding. The number of health care and social assistance businesses in the national count grew 6.7 per cent in 2025 to 2026, and Victoria added a net 19,581 actively trading businesses in the same year (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). More practices means more sales evidence, and more buyers for the ones with several clinicians and a secure lease.
The report begins with the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information relied on, with its limits stated. It then records each approach considered, the method chosen under each, every normalisation adjustment and why it was made, and reconciles the results into a range with the weighting explained in words.
That reconciliation is what carries the opinion when someone pushes back. A report that cannot say why the income approach was preferred, or why the multiple sits where it does in the comparable range, will not survive a second expert in the Commercial Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria or a single expert conference in the Melbourne registry. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a certified valuer who will explain and defend them.
Which assumption in this report would a reviewing expert go after first, and what is your reply? If the valuer has to think about it, the report is not finished.
An Indicative valuation is the sensible first step when you want your own defensible view before opening a conversation with an associate or answering a corporate group. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report fits a partner admission, an associate buy-in or a bank application. A Detailed report is the level for a property settlement in the Melbourne registry, a dispute between principals, or anywhere a second expert will review the work.
Purpose decides. The more likely a court, a lender, the ATO or another expert is to test the opinion, the fuller 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.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.