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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
From a laneway espresso bar off Degraves Street to a 120-seat dining room in Richmond: priced on what similar venues have actually sold for, then tested against what the business earns once the owner stops working for free.
A Melbourne cafe, restaurant or bar is valued mainly on comparable sales, expressed as a multiple of the profit the venue keeps after a paid manager replaces the owner's labour. That result is checked by capitalising the same earnings, and the fit-out, equipment and any transferable liquor licence are priced at market value to set a floor.
Most requests arrive with a deadline attached. A couple selling a Brunswick cafe after eight years want to know whether the broker's figure is real. A chef buying out a business partner in a Fitzroy restaurant needs a price both of them can sign. An incoming tenant taking an assignment of a Southbank lease under the Retail Leases Act 2003 (Vic) wants to know what the goodwill is worth before paying for it. A property settlement in the Melbourne registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court needs the venue valued at a fixed date, or the ATO needs a market value for a restructure.
Buyers in this trade are often quoted a price built on weekly takings. Takings say how busy a venue is; they say little about what is left after wages, rent and produce. Separating the two usually decides whether a bank will lend against the purchase, and it is the first thing we do.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach leads. Cafes and restaurants change hands across Melbourne all the time, so there is real evidence of what buyers pay, and someone looking at a Carlton trattoria will weigh it against other trattorias, not against a discounted forecast.
We build the comparable set from venues of the same format and seat count, in a similar trading position, with a similar licence and a similar amount of lease left to run. Each price is read against maintainable earnings rather than takings, because two venues turning over the same amount can keep very different margins.
Where the venue holds a liquor licence, the licence is treated as its own transferable asset rather than folded into goodwill. Venues with gaming machines are a different valuation altogether and are covered on our pubs, hotels and clubs page.
We capitalise the venue's sustainable profit after charging a market salary for the manager and head chef the business would need without its owner. In a small cafe this often removes most of the apparent profit, and that is exactly the finding a buyer needs before signing.
Coffee machines, kitchen plant, cool rooms and fit-out are priced at what they would sell for today, with the licence added where it transfers. For a venue trading near break-even this total can sit above the earnings result, and the report says so plainly.
Two valuers looking at the same venue disagree most often over these adjustments, so each one appears in the report with its reason. In cafes, restaurants and bars the usual ones are:
Melbourne's food and drink trade runs on very different patterns depending on where a venue sits. CBD laneway cafes and Collins Street lunch spots live on weekday office workers. The dining strips of Fitzroy, Collingwood and Brunswick draw evening and weekend crowds from across the city. St Kilda, Port Melbourne and the Bayside strips trade hard in summer and quieter in winter, while cafes in growth suburbs such as Point Cook and Pakenham rely on local households. Each pattern carries a different risk, so a venue is compared with sales from a similar position, not simply from the same postcode.
Licensing is a Victorian matter. Liquor Control Victoria issues the restaurant and cafe, on-premises and general licences these venues trade under, and the category, trading hours and conditions show how much of the earnings depend on alcohol. A licence can usually pass to a buyer only once the regulator approves the transfer, so the report records what the licence permits and treats any doubt over that approval as a risk to the price.
Net growth in the sector is slow. The national count of accommodation and food services businesses rose 1.3 per cent in 2025 to 2026, while Victoria recorded a net increase of 19,581 actively trading businesses across all industries in the same year (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). In a trade where individual venues open, close and change owners often, sales evidence is plentiful but uneven, and choosing the right comparables matters more than finding a lot of them.
Every report opens with the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and what we relied on, including where that information falls short. It then works through each approach we considered, the method chosen within each, every adjustment to earnings with its reason, and a reconciliation that explains in plain words how the results were weighted into a range.
That last step is what a challenge tests. When a venue's value is contested in the County Court of Victoria, in a retail lease dispute that moves from the Victorian Small Business Commission to VCAT, or in a property settlement in the Melbourne registry, the opposing expert goes straight to why the multiple sits where it does. Our reports are prepared under APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and signed by a certified valuer who will stand behind the reasoning.
Ask which comparable sale in the report you could least afford to lose, and what the value would be without it. A good answer is specific and comes quickly.
An Indicative valuation suits an owner weighing an offer for a cafe or deciding whether to list a restaurant at all. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report fits a sale or purchase, a lease assignment or a bank application to fund the acquisition. A Detailed report is the level for a family law settlement, a falling-out between business partners, an insurance claim for lost trade, or any matter where another expert will test the opinion.
The deciding factor is who will rely on the figure. A lender, the ATO, a court or a second valuer will each probe it harder than you will, and the report has to be written for that reader.
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.