What it costs to buy a dental practice in Australia

Australian dental practices are listed from about $160,000 for a single-surgery clinic to $2m plus for a multi-chair metro practice; most established practices trade between $700,000 and $2m. Brokers price at 60 to 90 per cent of gross fees or 3 to 6 times owner earnings. Value hinges on how much of the patient base survives the principal leaving.

A dental practice is priced on the fees it bills and how safely those fees survive a change of owner. That is why a one-surgery clinic in Hawthorn East can be listed at $160,000 while a three-chair Gold Coast practice grossing $2m sits in a completely different bracket. Chairs, location, whether the principal is the whole business and whether the freehold is included all move the number. This guide sets out what is on the market right now, the multiples Australian brokers actually use, and how buyers fund the purchase.

What dental practices sell for

The table below is a survey of live and recently sold listings across the main Australian marketplaces in late September 2026. Where a price is not published we show the turnover the broker disclosed instead, because that is what the price is built from.

Two things stand out. First, the cheap end of the market is mostly fitout and lease, not a business: a $90,000 to $250,000 listing is usually a young or part-time clinic where you are buying the chairs and the tenancy and building the book yourself. Second, the specialist dental broker (Practice Sale Search, 112 practices listed) does not publish prices at all. You register, sign a confidentiality deed and get the information memorandum. The general marketplaces publish prices but carry fewer true practices; several of the 13 to 35 results on each site are dental labs, whitening businesses or medical centres with a dental room attached.

Where both turnover and price were disclosed, the ratio lands where the brokers say it should. The Newcastle sale was $700,000 on roughly $800,000 of fees (about 88 per cent). The inner Melbourne clinic sold at $1.95m on $2.9m of fees (about 67 per cent) and 2.9 times adjusted net profit. Those are the two numbers to carry into the next section.

How the price is set: fees multiple or earnings multiple

Australian dental brokers and valuers use two shortcuts and one proper method. The shortcuts get you to a bracket; the proper method (a capitalised or discounted cash flow on adjusted profit) gets you to a number you can defend to a lender.

The fees method is the one sellers quote because it produces the bigger number and ignores the cost base. The earnings method is the one the bank uses. If a practice bills $1.5m but the principal draws $600,000 and rent is 12 per cent of fees, the earnings multiple will price it well below 80 per cent of gross. Miro's rule of thumb for a healthy practice is roughly 50 per cent overheads, 40 per cent principal remuneration and a margin above 25 per cent for a premium result. Anything with an EBITDA margin under 15 per cent after a market-rate dentist salary is a fitout sale dressed as a business sale.

Group multiples of 7 to 12 times EBITDA belong to the corporates (Abano, Pacific Smiles and National Dental Care, Bupa Dental, Ekera). They apply to multi-site platforms with clinical governance and central management, not to a two-chair suburban clinic. A single practice sold into a group is typically priced as a tuck-in in the low to mid single digits of EBITDA, which is the same territory as a private buyer paying 3 to 6 times owner earnings.

What moves the price up or down

Two practices with identical fees can be $400,000 apart. These are the items the brokers and valuers weight, in rough order of impact.

• Principal dependency. The single biggest driver. Miro Capital cites a practice valued at $1.1m that settled at $740,000 (32 per cent lower) after the principal refused an extended handover. A practice where associates produce most of the fees, or where the principal will stay 6 to 12 months, holds its multiple. A practice that is one dentist and a receptionist does not.
• Number of surgeries and whether they are all used. A three or four chair practice with one dentist working three days is priced on what it bills, then marked up for capacity. Practice Sale Search's listings lead with surgery count for this reason. Capacity is only worth paying for if you can recruit into it; in regional Australia that is the hard part.
• Health fund status. Bupa Platinum or Preferred Provider and HBF or Medibank Members Choice status appear in the headline of Gold Coast and Sydney listings because they steer a steady flow of insured patients. Check the agreement transfers with the practice and is not tied to the seller.
• Lease or freehold. The Perth ($1,374,000, three chairs) and Wynyard (54 m2 strata, no rent) listings bundle the property. That lifts the price but also lifts what a lender will advance, because part of the security is real estate rather than goodwill. If leasing, you want five plus five years remaining with assignment consent; a lease under three years is a discount item.
• Equipment age and imaging. An OPG, CBCT or intraoral scanner in the practice is $30,000 to $200,000 you are not spending in year one. Chairs older than 12 to 15 years are a replacement cost, not an asset. Our dental practice setup cost guide has current fitout and chair pricing to sanity check the equipment schedule.
• Location type. Inner metro practices sell on lifestyle and patient density and attract the most buyers. Regional practices often show better margins (lower rent, less competition) but a thinner buyer pool, so multiples compress even when the profit is stronger.

On the due diligence side, insist on three years of practice management reports (Dental4Windows, Exact, Praktika) showing active patient count, new patients per month and recall rate, then reconcile fees billed to the BAS and tax returns. A practice with 1,630 active patients and two days a week of chair time, like the Wynyard listing, is being sold on the patient list; that list is what you are paying for and it needs to be verified, not assumed.

What you pay on top of the price

The asking price is rarely the cheque. Budget for the following, and expect the lender to ask you to show it.

• Stock and consumables at valuation, usually written as plus SAV. On a two to three chair practice that is $10,000 to $30,000.
• Transfer duty. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory still charge duty on the transfer of business goodwill and assets; New South Wales and Victoria do not for a pure business sale. On a $1m Queensland practice that is in the order of $30,000 to $38,000, so confirm with your accountant before you sign.
• Legal, accounting and valuation. $15,000 to $35,000 for a contract review, financial due diligence and an independent valuation if the lender wants one.
• Working capital. Health fund and HICAPS settle quickly, but you still carry wages and rent from day one while private billing ramps. Lenders like to see $50,000 to $100,000 of working capital on a mid-sized practice, either in cash or as an overdraft.
• Deferred equipment. If the chairs, sterilisation or imaging are due, price the replacement now; a new chair and delivery unit alone runs $30,000 to $80,000 installed.

If the practice you are looking at is a medical centre with a dental room attached, or a multi-disciplinary clinic, the pricing logic changes because Medicare billing and GP tenancy income are valued differently. Our guide to buying a medical practice covers that market separately.

Financing a dental practice purchase

Dentists are one of the few professions where lenders will fund the goodwill itself. The specialist health banks publish up to 100 per cent of the purchase price of an established practice, secured on the goodwill and equipment rather than the family home, with terms to 15 years and interest only for up to three years. NAB Health publishes the same 100 per cent headline, subject to eligibility. The top of that range needs clean three-year financials, a valuation that supports the price and a buyer with a registration history and no adverse credit.

Most deals are structured in layers. Goodwill and fitout go on a practice purchase loan from a health specialist bank or non-bank business lender, typically at 70 to 100 per cent of the valued price. Equipment being replaced at settlement goes on a separate equipment finance facility. Where the freehold is included, as in the Perth and Wynyard listings above, the property is funded on a commercial property loan at property-backed pricing and the practice loan covers only the business. Home equity can close a deposit gap or bring the rate down, but it is a choice, not a requirement, in this sector.

Read the medical and dental practice finance guide for rate bands by lender type, then start at business acquisition finance. To get a number from us, send the asking price, three years of fees and profit, the surgery count, whether the freehold is included and whether you own property. Finance is subject to lender assessment.

This is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Figures are indicative market data from the sources listed, not Ventas offers, and move with the market. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a professional. All finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This article is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Ventas Asset Lending is a finance broker, not a lender. Approvals are subject to lender assessment. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a qualified professional, including your accountant for any tax questions.