Business Valuations in Melbourne
Independent valuations for trade and field-service businesses in Melbourne, delivered remotely at the same fixed fees as everywhere else.
Valuing trade businesses in Melbourne
Green Standard has no offices. Every engagement is delivered remotely, through online intake, a secure client portal and phone and video calls, so a Melbourne owner deals with us in the same way, and at the same fees, as an owner anywhere else in Australia. What differs from city to city is the market a business operates in, and that is what this page covers.
Much of Melbourne’s trade economy follows its housing growth. The outer growth corridors to the west, north and south-east support large numbers of builders, plumbers, electricians, concreters, landscapers and fencers, many of them subcontracting to volume builders on fixed-price schedules. That work moves with the building cycle and with each builder’s own pipeline, so a valuation looks closely at how many builders a business works for, how and when it is paid, and what its revenue did in slower periods.
Inner and middle Melbourne work differently. Apartment buildings, owners corporations and commercial premises generate recurring maintenance, compliance and servicing work, and a business holding those accounts is valued differently from a construction subcontractor. Strata and building managers decide who is on the panel, so the age and documentation of those relationships matter. Traffic and parking also reduce the billable hours a technician actually produces, which shows up in utilisation.
Large transport and infrastructure projects create demand for civil, electrical and traffic-management subcontractors, but they also concentrate risk. Work is let in packages, and a business that has grown on one project may have little behind it when the project ends. We look at what share of recent revenue came from a single project and what the pipeline looks like beyond it.
Melbourne’s cold winters and hot summers drive peaks in heating and cooling work, and state policy has been moving new housing away from mains gas, which is changing the mix of gas, hot water and electrical work. Competition for licensed tradespeople and apprentices is strong across the metropolitan area, so a stable licensed team is hard to replicate, and a business that depends on two or three key people is exposed if they leave. For the regulatory frame and regional Victoria, see business valuations in Victoria.
What transfers, and what does not
Trade licences are issued by each state and territory. Whether a licence can pass to a buyer affects how much of the business transfers with a sale.
Licences stay with the licence holder
In Victoria, building, plumbing and electrical registrations and licences are held by individuals and companies. They are not assets that pass to a buyer with the business, so an interstate buyer or an employee buying in may need to obtain their own. We ask who holds which licence before we judge how transferable the earnings are.
Recurring compliance work in metropolitan buildings
In apartment buildings and commercial premises, regulated testing and inspection work such as backflow prevention, fire safety systems and electrical safety checks recurs on a cycle. We look at how much of it sits in a register or contract, because documented work is more transferable than work that depends on one person’s relationship.
Industries with particular weight in Melbourne
Valuations in Melbourne
Do you need to visit my Melbourne business?
Not normally. Documents are uploaded through the secure client portal and interviews are held by phone or video. A site visit can be arranged where an engagement needs one, and it is priced in writing before it goes ahead.
Most of our work is for volume builders in the growth areas. Can that be valued?
Yes. Builder concentration is common among subcontractors, and it is one of the first things we examine. The report looks at the length and history of each builder relationship, payment terms, exposure to a builder’s financial difficulty and what would happen to revenue if one relationship ended.
Is a strata maintenance business valued differently from a construction business?
Yes, because the earnings behave differently. Strata and commercial maintenance usually repeats, so we look at account tenure, contract terms and how much of the work is documented, while construction revenue is lumpier and is weighed against the builder pipeline and the margins on fixed-price work. Many businesses have both, and we value each stream on its own evidence.
Start with a short intake. We confirm the fee and scope in writing.
An Independent Business Valuation is $1,995 + GST, with a draft before the report is finalised. Typical turnaround is 3 to 7 business days once all required information has been received.