Aged care providers
How much is my aged care business worth?
Your aged care business is worth the maintainable earnings it can sustain without its current owner, capitalised at a rate reflecting that business's own risk. Most aged care revenue is set or capped by government, through AN-ACC, Support at Home and Commonwealth Home Support Program funding, so the answer turns on the margin that funding leaves, whether the roster meets care minutes and award wages from it, and what a buyer can take over. For a residential home, land, buildings and resident deposits are analysed separately from the operating business.
No multiples published. The reasoning is, in full.
What the answer depends on
The three things that move the number most
Aged care funding resets on published dates, so the question is what the business can repeat under the settings in force at the valuation date, the date at which the facts are taken as known.
The margin each funding stream leaves
In a residential home, care is funded through the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC), whose price the Government updates on 1 October each year on advice from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority. Support at Home, which replaced the Home Care Packages Program on 1 November 2025, gives each ongoing participant a quarterly budget in one of eight funding classifications, and 10 per cent of every budget funds care management. Those providers set and publish their own prices on My Aged Care but cannot bill administration or travel separately, so the business is the margin between the published price and the cost of the hour. Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) services are grant funded, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that CHSP will transition to Support at Home no earlier than 1 July 2027.
Whether the roster meets care minutes and award wages from that funding
Labour is the largest cost, and awards rather than the owner set most of it. The AN-ACC price covers Fair Work Commission award wage increases, and the Department states how much of it is attributable to them, so a home whose roster costs more than that carries the difference. Each home also has a care minutes target derived from a sector-wide average of 215 minutes of care per resident per day, including 44 minutes of direct registered nurse care. From 1 April 2026 part of the care funding of non-specialised metropolitan homes is paid through a care minutes supplement tied to the minutes delivered, so meeting the target with permanent staff rather than agency labour protects both funding and margin.
What a buyer can take over
Under the Aged Care Act 2024, which commenced on 1 November 2025, registration with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission attaches to the legal entity. A share or unit sale continues the registered entity, while an asset buyer must already hold, or apply to vary, its own registration. Goodwill, what a buyer pays beyond the identifiable assets net of liabilities, differs by setting. In home care it is a retained participant base, and because funding follows the participant, a book spread across several care managers transfers better than one built around a single coordinator. In residential care it is occupancy at a registered, staffed location, which cannot be separated from the building. Key-person risk is highest where the owner is the facility manager or the only rostered nurse.
Higher or lower
What would move your number up, and what would move it down
Pushes the number up
- Sustained occupancy at a registered, staffed home.
- Care minutes and nurse coverage met by permanent staff rather than agency labour.
- A Support at Home book with long participant tenure, spread across several care managers.
- No adverse registration conditions and a settled audit history.
- A governing body that already meets the membership requirements for registration categories 5 and 6 (nursing and transition care, and residential care).
Pushes the number down
- An owner who is also the facility manager or the only rostered nurse.
- A wage bill the award-related funding does not cover, or care minutes gaps filled by agency labour.
- Profit that includes non-recurring grants, or counts unspent Home Care Package balances as revenue.
- CHSP clients who are not registered with My Aged Care and assessed.
- An asset sale in which the buyer must already hold, or apply to vary, its own registration.
The evidence
What sets the number, in practice
The analysis works from the Aged Care Financial Report and Quarterly Financial Reports, AN-ACC claim statements, care minutes performance, the refundable deposit register, the participant list by classification and care manager, CHSP grant agreements, Commission audit reports and rosters.
Maintainable earnings are the normalised result the business could reasonably repeat, so reported profit is restated to a sustainable arm's length basis. Home Care Package accounts before November 2025 are restated to the 10 per cent care management deduction, an owner working as facility manager or nurse is replaced with a market salary and on-costs, and where the operator owns the home a market rent is charged. HPNA does not value real property: a property valuer values the land and buildings.
Refundable deposits and borrowings are then deducted as liabilities on the way from enterprise value, the value of the business however it is funded, to equity value, what the owners hold.
Where the line is
Why there is no multiple on this page
A capitalisation multiple is, in substance, the inverse of the return a buyer requires for the risk of the earnings continuing. HPNA does not publish one for aged care, per bed or otherwise, because each would be wrong in a predictable way.
Reported aged care transactions bundle the property with the operations and reflect different registration positions and fee cohorts. A per-bed figure drawn from them folds land and buildings, a deposit pool that is a liability and an operating business into one number. Applied to an operator that leases its building, it prices property the operator does not own.
The earnings base also moves on published dates: the AN-ACC price each 1 October, Support at Home budgets each July, and CHSP scheduled to transition. Home care profit reported before November 2025 was earned under the Home Care Packages Program. A multiple applied to it capitalises a revenue model that has ended, together with whatever the owner was not paid for running the business.
What it costs to find out
A fixed fee, published before you ask for it
An indicative assessment is a flat $950 plus GST, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months. A full valuation report is a fixed fee set by the annual revenue of the business being valued, $1,500 plus GST at the smallest band and $9,450 plus GST at the largest, and an expert report for a dispute between owners is priced separately on the same bands. Every fee is agreed in writing before work starts and never depends on the conclusion reached.
Indicative assessment
$950
One fee whatever the size of the business, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months.
Valuation report
- Up to $1 million
- $1,500
- $1 million to $3 million
- $2,200
- $3 million to $10 million
- $4,950
- Above $10 million
- $9,450
Expert report
- Up to $10 million
- $4,495
- Above $10 million
- $16,950
Every fee above is fixed and quoted plus GST, and is agreed in writing before any work starts. Bands are set on annual revenue. A business sitting exactly on a boundary pays the lower fee. See the full fee schedule
Go deeper
Read the full analysis
- Sector pageAged care business valuationsThe complete treatment: methods, earnings adjustments, sector risks, value drivers, the information required and detailed FAQs.Read
- MethodologyHealthcare business valuation methodsHow maintainable earnings, capitalisation, discounted cash flow, net assets and market evidence each work, and when each applies.Read
FAQs
Aged care business valuation questions
How much is my aged care business worth?
It is worth the maintainable earnings it can sustain without its current owner, capitalised at a rate reflecting the risk of those earnings continuing under the funding settings at the valuation date. That means restating past accounts to current AN-ACC, Support at Home and CHSP settings, paying a market salary for any role the owner fills, charging a market rent where the operator owns the building, and keeping refundable deposits out of earnings.
Is the building included in the value of my aged care business?
Not in the value of the operating business. HPNA values the operating business and equity interests in it, and does not value real property; the land and buildings of a residential home are valued by a property valuer. Where the operator owns the home, the business is charged a market rent and the two values are reconciled. The building still matters to the business, because whether it is newly built or significantly refurbished drives the maximum accommodation supplement rate the home can attract.
Do refundable accommodation deposits add to what my aged care home is worth?
No. A refundable accommodation deposit (RAD) must be paid back when the resident permanently leaves care, so the pool is owed to residents rather than earned by the business. The business is valued on its earnings, and deposit balances, accrued refunds and borrowings come off afterwards to reach equity value. Retention deducted from deposits under the 1 November 2025 arrangements is the exception: it is not refunded and is income. See share and equity valuations.
How has Support at Home changed what my home care business is worth?
It changed what the earnings are made of. Each ongoing participant now has a quarterly budget in one of eight funding classifications, 10 per cent of which funds care management in place of the fees providers once set themselves, and from 1 October 2026 the Government fully funds personal care. Value now rests on the margin between each published price and the cost of delivering it, and on how many participants the business kept through the transition.
How much does it cost to find out what my practice is worth?
An indicative assessment is a flat $950 plus GST, credited against a valuation report if you proceed within 3 months. A full valuation report is a fixed fee set by the annual revenue of the business being valued, $1,500 plus GST at the smallest band and $9,450 plus GST at the largest, and an expert report for a dispute between owners is priced separately on the same bands. Every fee is agreed in writing before work starts and never depends on the conclusion reached. The full schedule, including the additional entity fee for groups that trade through more than one entity, is published on the pricing page.
Make your next decision with a clear understanding of value.
Tell us about your healthcare business and the purpose of the valuation. We will confirm the appropriate scope, information requirements, timeframe and the fee band that applies.