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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
A new purpose-built centre in Mount Barker and a converted villa in Unley are very different assets, but both are valued from the same starting point: what comparable South Australian centres have sold for, tested against the earnings their rooms can sustain.
Childcare centres in Adelaide are normally valued against recent sales of similar centres, because the sector trades often enough to give real evidence. Those sales are expressed per licensed place and as a multiple of earnings, adjusted for the occupancy the centre holds across the year, its quality rating, its lease and any preschool program it delivers, and then checked by capitalising earnings after a salaried centre director replaces a working owner.
Most instructions come from a transaction or a disagreement. A national operator has written to the owners of a centre in Salisbury with an offer nobody asked for. A couple who opened a centre in the southern suburbs together are separating, and the Adelaide registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court needs the business valued at a fixed date. One of two co-owners of a Prospect centre wants to sell their share to the other. A bank needs a figure before it funds a second site near Mawson Lakes. Or the accountant is moving several centres into a new group structure and the ATO will look for market value.
Plenty of owners also come to us long before selling. The probable buyers are corporate groups and investor syndicates that have modelled hundreds of centres, so a seller without a figure grounded in evidence negotiates from behind. An early valuation also shows what is holding the price down while there is time to act on it: rooms with empty places, a lease nearing its end, a rating sitting at Working Towards, or educator costs pushed up by agency shifts.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Market Approach carries the most weight. Corporate operators, private owners and property investors buy long day care centres around Adelaide regularly, so recorded sales say more about value than a forecast built from scratch.
We use guideline transactions. Each sale is screened for licensed places, occupancy, quality rating, remaining lease, catchment and whether the building sold with the business, then expressed per licensed place and as a multiple of maintainable earnings.
A handful of close matches is worth more than a long list of loose ones. A purpose-built centre on a new long lease in a northern growth estate says little about a small centre in an old bluestone house in Norwood with two years of lease left, even if both sold in the same quarter.
Maintainable earnings are capitalised after the owner's hours in the rooms or the office are costed at a qualified centre director's salary. A centre that only looks profitable because its owner takes no wage is found out at this step.
Outdoor play areas, equipment, furniture and fit-out are valued at what they would realise now, and the building is included only if the owner holds it. A freehold is a separate property interest, which investors price on rental yield and operators price on trading.
Valuations of the same centre usually part company at the normalisation stage, so our reports show each adjustment next to its reason. For childcare centres in Adelaide the usual ones are:
Where a centre sits in Adelaide changes how buyers read it. The northern growth corridor around Salisbury, Elizabeth and beyond, the southern suburbs toward Seaford, and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills are where large purpose-built centres open alongside new housing, usually on long leases to investors, and where a new centre nearby can take enrolments before the estate fills. Established suburbs such as Unley, Burnside, Norwood and Prospect have smaller centres on tight sites, often with long waiting lists. Centres in and around the CBD, near the BioMed City precinct and the Royal Adelaide Hospital, or close to Flinders Medical Centre at Bedford Park, serve working parents and pay higher rents for it.
South Australia adds its own considerations. Services are approved and assessed against the National Quality Standard by the state's regulatory authority for education and care services. Much of the state's preschool is delivered through government preschools, and changes to preschool access, including programs offered within long day care, can alter a centre's room mix, staffing and income. A buyer will want to know what the centre is approved to deliver, whether any preschool program relies on a single qualified early childhood teacher, and how expected policy changes may affect demand. Council development approval can also cap how many children a site may take, whatever the building could hold.
Licensed places are a ceiling, not a result. A centre approved for 90 places that fills 64 is valued on the 64 it can hold, with credit for the gap only where catchment growth and nearby supply make filling it likely. Demand behind the sector keeps building: health care and social assistance, the ABS division that includes child care services, grew its business count by 6.7 per cent nationally in 2025 to 2026, while South Australia added a net 5,613 businesses across all industries (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). For a seller that means more sales to compare against; for a centre in a growth estate it can also mean a new competitor down the road.
The report opens with the purpose of the valuation, the standard of value, the valuation date and the records relied on, with any gaps identified. It then works through each approach considered and the method used, every normalisation adjustment and its reason, and the reconciliation of the results into a range, with the weighting explained in plain English.
When the figure is challenged, the reasoning is what is left standing. A second expert will look first for a choice that is not explained: why sales were preferred to capitalised earnings, or why the centre sits at a particular point among them. That scrutiny arrives in a property settlement in the Adelaide registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court, or in a dispute between co-owners in the Supreme Court of South Australia, where expert evidence is governed by the court's expert evidence rules. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a certified valuer ready to defend them.
Which assumption would an opposing expert attack first, and how would you respond? A valuer who answers immediately has done the work properly.
An Indicative valuation is a sensible first step when a corporate operator has made contact and you want your own figure before replying. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a sale to an unrelated buyer, a co-owner buying in, or a bank funding another centre. A Detailed report is required for a property settlement, a dispute between owners, or any matter where an opposing expert will go through the work.
Let the reader decide the depth. Where a court, a lender, the ATO or another valuer could test the number, the complete reasoning has to be written down.
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.