What it costs to buy a function centre or wedding venue in Australia

Australian function centres and wedding venues are listed from $189,000 for a licensed reception centre in Ringwood to $6,495,000 for a freehold wedding venue in Portarlington. Business-only venues mostly ask $189,000 to $1.2m, and priced venues with land start near $2.5m. Tenure, lease length and booked events drive the price, not guest capacity.

A function centre or wedding venue is priced on its tenure, its lease and its booked calendar, not on how many guests it holds. That is why a licensed 450 square metre room in Williamstown asks $250,000 while a freehold wedding venue in Portarlington asks $6,495,000. This guide sets out what 14 listings and sale campaigns in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia ask, how the numbers compare per guest and per dollar of revenue, how weddings cluster in the calendar, the licence and costs on top, and how cautiously lenders treat an event venue.

What function centres and wedding venues sell for

A restaurant with a function room is covered in our guide to buying a restaurant, and a venue with rooms in our motel guide. This table lists 13 listings on AnyBusiness and Bsale plus one news-reported sale campaign, checked on 22 October 2026. Figures are the vendor's or agent's, indicative market data and not Ventas offers. SAV means stock at valuation, paid on top.

Three things stand out. Land is the price: Granya splits $2,500,000 into $2.2m to $2.4m of property and $50,000 to $100,000 of business, so the business is two to four per cent of the ask (our arithmetic). Only three show any profit figure: Granya (a forecast), Woodville (reported net income) and Burwood East (a projection). And the cheap end is business-only: $189,000 to $250,000 buys a room, a licence and a lease, not property. Portarlington's status field reads Active but an image tag reads sold, so confirm it is available. The one South Australian listing on Bsale, a Barossa winery restaurant (Bsale 662062), is offered for rent with no price.

How the listings price

We found no published valuation multiple for function centres, so the listings are the evidence, and the spread is wide.

Guest capacity is a poor guide: $556 to $3,667 a guest for business-only rooms, and $12,500 where land and a residence come with it. Revenue ratios run from 0.16x to 1.1x. Williamstown asks more than its gross revenue with rent at about a fifth of it, so ask for profit, not takings. Granya's $180,000 plus forecast is about 78 per cent of that hire revenue, so ask what costs it assumes. Test any ask against two to three years of accounts reconciled to BAS.

Weddings, seasons and forward bookings

The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 118,804 marriages registered in 2025, 1.7 per cent fewer than in 2024. Saturday carried more than 52,000 of them, over four in ten (our arithmetic). Spring and autumn are the busiest seasons and winter the quietest, and the most popular single date was 25 October with 2,035 marriages. A venue earns most of its year on a few dozen peak Saturdays, so cash flow is lumpy and forward bookings matter.

The listings show how thin the calendar can be. Granya has held about 15 weddings a year by choice and forecasts 20. A Central Coast NSW listing for a 90-guest venue (Bsale 648994, marked sold) had 50 booked in a year at up to two events a week. Woodville's operator targets 50. Portarlington had deposits for five weddings in 2027 when listed. Burwood East reports $1.35m of sales against $2m plus projected.

Ask for a dated booking ledger: each event, date, package price, deposit paid and who holds it. In a going concern sale you take on events the vendor has already taken deposits for, so negotiate a credit at settlement for those deposits.

Licence, planning and the costs on top

These items sit on top of the asking price, and a lender will ask you to show them.

Planning consent. Limits on guest numbers, hours, noise and event days belong to the land, and rural wedding venues rely on them. Ask for the permit or development consent and read it before the accounts. GST. A sale of a going concern can be GST-free if the ATO conditions are met, including a written agreement and the vendor supplying everything needed to keep operating. Otherwise 10 per cent GST applies to the taxable part of the price. Confirm duty, GST and the land, goodwill and plant split with your accountant, and make settlement conditional on the licence transfer.

Financing a function centre or wedding venue purchase

Lenders are cautious about event venues, and with reason. Income is seasonal and concentrated on spring and autumn Saturdays. Forward bookings are customer deposits, not contracted profit. Reputation and the owner's relationships carry the sales. Fit-out and furniture resell poorly, and a rural venue is a specialised property with few buyers if it fails. Freehold is easier to fund than a lease, because the land is real security. Goodwill on a lease may be heavily discounted. Ventas is a finance broker, not a lender, so we do not quote rates here.

For scale, one published hospitality lending page lists up to 80 per cent of property value for a freehold restaurant and up to 50 per cent of business value for a leasehold. A general commercial property page guides to a 30 to 40 per cent deposit and warns that specialised property can attract a lower loan-to-value ratio. Expect an event venue nearer the cautious end.

Illustrative only, subject to lender assessment. A freehold wedding venue at a $2,500,000 asking price:

And how it is typically funded across lender types:

Debt here is $1,480,000, or 59 per cent of the asking price. A business-only venue like the $250,000 Brisbane listing leaves a lender little to hold. If a lender funds up to half of business value, as the 50 per cent leasehold limit above implies, that is about $125,000 (our arithmetic) and the rest comes from you. A property-backed loan secured on your home or another property can fund the equity gap, or most of a leasehold purchase, because the lender relies on the property instead of the venue. The cost is that your property is at risk if bookings fall.

What makes an event venue deal fundable:

• Trading history. Two to three years of accounts that reconcile to lodged BAS and bank statements.
• Bookings. A dated ledger showing deposits held and the spread across the seasons.
• Tenure. A freehold with clear title, or a committed lease at least as long as the loan term, with landlord consent.
• Approvals. Planning consent and a liquor licence that cover the events being run.
• Your experience. Events or hospitality management, and a handover from the vendor.
• Security. Property, equipment and cash you can put in.

To get a number from Ventas, send the listing, the vendor's split between land, goodwill and plant, two to three years of accounts and BAS, the booking ledger, the title or lease, the planning consent and liquor licence, your experience, and the security you can offer. Start at business acquisition finance, see hospitality finance, compare a pub purchase in our pub guide, or test a repayment on the secured business loan calculator. Finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

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.