A conveyancing business in Australia typically sells for 2.5x to 4x normalised EBITDA, or 0.8x to 1.3x annual gross fees for smaller practices where a single EBITDA number doesn’t give a buyer enough to anchor on. The multiple is driven less by industry than by the question every buyer of a conveyancing practice asks first: does this revenue belong to the business, or does it belong to you?
That question determines more of your sale price than your margins, your technology, or your matter volume combined.
How conveyancing businesses are valued in Australia
The primary valuation method for a conveyancing practice is the EBITDA multiple — the same approach used for professional services broadly. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation) is normalised to remove personal expenses, one-off costs, and any above-market owner salary, producing a figure that represents what the business earns as a standalone entity rather than what you happen to extract from it each year.
For practices generating under $150,000 in normalised EBITDA, buyers often negotiate on gross fees instead. The numbers tend to converge in the same range, but revenue multiples are easier to anchor when profit is thin or varies year to year with property volumes.
Rule of thumb: an Australian conveyancing practice generating $300,000 in annual gross fees will typically sell for $240,000–$390,000. A practice with $800,000 in annual fees and a real management layer behind it may achieve $640,000–$1.1M. Owner dependency and staffing structure determine where in that range you land.
The typical multiple ranges, by practice size:
| Normalised EBITDA | Typical multiple | Implied valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Under $150k | 1.5x–2.5x (or 0.8x–1.2x revenue) | $120k–$375k |
| $150k–$400k | 2.5x–3.5x | $375k–$1.4M |
| $400k–$800k | 3x–4x | $1.2M–$3.2M |
| $800k+ | 4x–5x | $3.2M+ |
Most Australian conveyancing practices sit in that $150k–$400k EBITDA band — typically a principal with two to four staff, handling 300–600 matters per year at $1,000–$1,800 per file. That’s the band where preparation work before going to market pays off most visibly.
Owner dependency — the one factor buyers price hardest
A broker I work with regularly told me about a deal she ran on a Perth conveyancing practice last year. The owner had built something genuinely impressive: 22 years in the business, strong referral relationships with a dozen real estate agents across the western suburbs, 380 matters a year, and profit margins that most small professional services firms would envy. The problem was straightforward: every agent had her mobile number, not the firm’s. She’d taken one real holiday in seven years. There was no second licensed conveyancer. When she put the practice to market, it sold for under 2x EBITDA. Buyers priced in the risk that the referral network walked out with her on settlement day, because there was no evidence it wouldn’t.
Owner dependency is the single largest discount factor in conveyancing valuations. It’s more damaging here than in most other professional services because the referral dynamics are so visible. A buyer can see whether an agent is sending work to “ABC Conveyancing” or to “Sarah at ABC Conveyancing.” The difference in sale price can be 1x–2x EBITDA. That’s a material amount of money.
The questions a buyer will test:
- Can the practice operate without you for 90 days?
- Do your referral sources have relationships with your staff, not just with you?
- Is there at least one other licensed conveyancer who can supervise matters?
- Are your systems documented to the point that a new principal could follow them without asking you?
Each “yes” supports a higher multiple. Each “no” compresses it.
What drives conveyancing business value up or down
Referral network ownership. Conveyancing revenue flows from referrals — real estate agents, mortgage brokers, financial planners, developers. The key question is whether those referrals belong to the entity or to the individual. If your practice has a CRM, a staff member maintaining agent contact, and a history of the business (not you personally) being credited for the relationship, those referrals are portable. If agents text you directly and don’t know who else works at your firm, the referral network doesn’t survive settlement.
Consistency across property cycles. A practice that went from $850k revenue in 2021 to $430k in 2023 and back to $720k in 2025 will face questions — not because the volatility is unusual, but because buyers want to understand it. Could the dip have been worse? Was anything lost permanently? Three to five years of financials telling a consistent story is worth more to a buyer than one strong year. Buyers discount uncertainty; they’ll price in the possibility of another 2023.
Licensed staff on team. In most Australian states, a conveyancing practice needs a licensed conveyancer or solicitor supervising work. A practice where the owner is the only licence on the wall has a structural problem: any buyer who isn’t a licensed conveyancer themselves needs to hire one at settlement to keep operating. That reduces the buyer pool and gives remaining buyers leverage. Two licensed conveyancers on staff — even part-time — meaningfully expands who can acquire you.
Technology and PEXA compliance. Electronic lodgement through PEXA is now standard for most property settlements in Australia. A practice still handling a high proportion of paper settlements, or running manual processes where integrated practice management software exists, will be priced as a renovation project. Buyers aren’t scared of technology work, but they’re going to discount for it.
Geographic and client concentration. A practice doing 70% of its matters for one developer, or entirely reliant on one real estate network that could pull referrals, carries concentration risk buyers will price into the multiple. The same principles apply here as in any business sale — customer concentration risk is a universal discount factor.
How conveyancing compares to related professional services
For context, conveyancing practices sit in the middle of the professional services valuation range — above trade businesses but below highly systemised professional practices with institutional clients.
| Business type | Typical valuation approach |
|---|---|
| Conveyancing practice | 2.5x–4x EBITDA (or 0.8x–1.3x gross fees) |
| General law firm | 0.5x–1.5x gross fees (or 3x–5x EBITDA) |
| Accounting practice | 1x–1.2x gross fees (or 3x–5x EBITDA) |
| Mortgage broking | 2.5x–3.5x trail book multiple |
| Property management | 2x–3x rent roll |
The comparison with law firms is worth noting. The law firm valuation article covers the gross fees multiple in detail; conveyancing practices within law firms are sometimes valued on a blended methodology. Conveyancing-only practices tend to trade at a slight discount to full-service law firms because their revenue is more exposed to property market cycles and their referral networks are harder to demonstrate as business assets.
For broader context on EBITDA multiples across Australian industries, this overview covers 30+ sectors.
Who buys conveyancing practices
The buyer pool is more limited than for some businesses, but it’s consistent and active.
Solicitor firms expanding into conveyancing are the most common acquirers. A firm that’s been referring conveyancing work out for years and finally wants to bring it in-house will pay a genuine premium for an established practice with agent relationships. They understand the economics, due diligence is faster, and they often have strong motivation to do the deal.
Larger conveyancing groups — national chains, franchise systems, and property services firms — buy for volume and geographic footprint. These buyers want predictable matter flow and don’t need the principal to stick around long. (Which is good, because these deals tend to have shorter handover periods than private transactions.)
Individual licensed conveyancers wanting to own their first practice, or existing staff wanting to buy out a departing principal, make up the third category. These deals almost always involve some form of vendor finance because financing a professional services acquisition through a bank is difficult. Expect to carry 20–40% of the purchase price over two to four years.
Preparing your practice for sale
The preparation work for a conveyancing sale overlaps with professional services broadly, but a few specifics matter here.
If you don’t have a second licensed conveyancer on staff, the time to hire one is at least 12 months before you plan to sell. An experienced licensee will cost $80,000–$120,000 annually in most Australian capitals. That’s a real cost — but a practice that demonstrates operational independence from the owner will often achieve a multiple half a point to a full point higher. At $300,000 EBITDA, the difference between 2.5x and 3.5x is $300,000 in sale proceeds. The maths generally works in your favour, even accounting for the run-in period before the hire adds to your sellable profit.
Document your referral sources now, before you’re in a sale process. A simple spreadsheet — source name, annual matter volume, relationship holder on your team, years of relationship, contact frequency — is surprisingly powerful in an information memorandum. Most conveyancing businesses don’t have this. The ones that do move faster and achieve better outcomes. The data room guide covers what else buyers expect to see.
Clean up your EBITDA add-backs with help from your accountant. The EBITDA add-backs guide is a practical reference for identifying and documenting personal expenses, one-off costs, and normalisation adjustments that a buyer will scrutinise.
Getting a proper number
The ranges in this article are the market in broad strokes. Your actual valuation will depend on your specific financials, your state’s licensing framework, your staffing structure, and the timing of your sale relative to the property cycle.
If you want to understand where your practice sits — and what you’d need to change to get to the higher end of the range — use the valuation calculator or speak with the team at Miro Capital. We work with professional services business owners across Australia and can give you a realistic read before you commit to a process.