An Australian laundromat typically sells for 2x to 3.5x Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE), with the lease doing more to set that multiple than the machines, the revenue, or how long you’ve been there. A well-positioned suburban laundromat generating $120,000 in SDE with a solid lease might sell for $240,000 to $420,000. The same earnings with two years left on the lease and no options might sell for $80,000 — or not at all.
Laundromats are a quirky asset class. They’re often described as passive income, and in a good setup they nearly are. But they’re also lease-dependent in a way that makes them genuinely tricky to value, and most owners who haven’t been through a sale before don’t realise how much the tenancy position dominates the conversation.
What Buyers Are Actually Buying
When someone buys your laundromat, they’re buying three things in rough order of importance: the lease, the earnings, and the machines.
The lease is first because without a secure tenancy, nothing else matters. A buyer is being asked to invest $150,000 to $400,000 (or more) into a business that lives in a space they don’t own, operated under a contract they’re taking over. If that contract expires in 36 months, the landlord can redevelop the site, double the rent, or simply not renew. The buyer then has a warehouse full of heavy, hard-to-move equipment and no revenue.
The single most important number in a laundromat sale isn’t the revenue or the profit — it’s the years left on the lease, including options.
The earnings come second, because they tell the buyer what they’re getting while the lease holds. The machines come third — they’re assessed for age, condition, and remaining useful life, and anything that needs replacing in the next three years gets discounted off the price before negotiation even begins.
What the Numbers Look Like
Australian laundromats are generally valued on SDE rather than pure EBITDA. SDE adds back the working owner’s wage (or the notional wage if the owner isn’t drawing one) to the net profit, along with depreciation and one-off expenses. It gives the best picture of what a working buyer — someone who’ll be collecting the coins, managing the machines, and handling the occasional flooded floor — will actually make.
Typical sale multiples by operation size:
Small suburban laundromat ($50,000–$90,000 SDE): Sells for $90,000–$220,000. Often owner-operated with minimal staff, coin or card machines, and a loyal if modest customer base. These attract buyers looking for a side business or a transition out of employment.
Mid-sized operation ($90,000–$180,000 SDE): Sells for $200,000–$550,000. Usually has a mix of self-service and wash-and-fold, some casual staff, and a location with genuine foot traffic. This is the most common bracket for laundromats Miro sees transacted.
Larger or multi-site operation ($180,000+ SDE or normalised EBITDA): Starts attracting a different buyer — small business operators looking for a portfolio play, or investors who want proper passive income. Multiples here can edge toward 4x for operations with manager-run systems and long leases, though that’s the high end.
A rule of thumb: for every year remaining on the lease (including exercised options), add some value. For every year missing, expect a discount.
For context on how these multiples compare to other sectors, the EBITDA multiples across Australian industries guide shows laundromats sitting in the lower-to-middle range — above cafes, but well below healthcare or professional services.
The Lease Question: Everything Depends on This
I’ll say this plainly because it bears repeating. A laundromat with eight years left on its lease (including options) is worth significantly more than the same laundromat with two years left, even if every other number is identical.
Buyers want to see:
- At least five years remaining, including any unexercised options
- An option mechanism that allows the business to lock in terms (not just right of first refusal at market rate)
- A rent-to-revenue ratio under 15% — ideally under 12%
- No demolition or redevelopment clauses that could cut the tenancy short
A broker I spoke with last year told me about a laundromat in Brisbane that had been trading for eleven years, had brand-new commercial machines (the owner had just upgraded), and was generating over $160,000 in SDE. It sat on the market for six months. The issue: the lease had two years left, and the landlord — a small property developer — had form for redeveloping suburban strip shops. The eventual buyer paid $160,000. The machines alone had replacement value of nearly $200,000 (which is more than most owners realise until they price new ones).
Understanding your lease when selling a business is worth reading carefully before you go to market.
Equipment Age: The Silent Liability
Commercial washing machines and dryers have working lives of roughly 10–15 years under heavy use. A laundromat with fifteen machines averaging eight years old isn’t a laundromat with eight more years ahead of it — it’s a laundromat with a rolling replacement schedule that a buyer will need to fund out of earnings.
Buyers will typically ask for a machine list, installed dates, and service history. If you can’t provide it, they’ll discount the price to allow for uncertainty. If the machines are old and you can’t prove they’re well-maintained, expect a significant hit to the offer price.
A laundromat with ten machines averaging twelve years old is carrying $80,000 to $150,000 in near-term replacement liability. Buyers know this and will price it in.
The smart move — if you’re thinking about selling in the next two to three years — is to do a partial machine upgrade now, document it properly, and have your service records organised. The cost of a new machine (typically $4,000–$8,000 for a commercial washer, $6,000–$12,000 for a dryer) comes back at a multiple when it’s reflected in the sale price. There’s more on this in the how to increase your business value before selling guide.
Self-Service vs Wash-and-Fold: The Valuation Difference
A purely self-service laundromat is about as passive a business as you can get — customers do the work, the machines are the product, and the owner’s job is maintenance, cleaning, and emptying the cash tray (or checking the card transaction reports). Margins can be very good. But growth is limited.
A laundromat with a wash-and-fold or dry-clean drop-off service has something more valuable: labour-based revenue that’s scalable, a customer relationship (customers leave their clothes and come back — that’s a habit), and a reason to invest in the fit-out and the brand.
Buyers will pay a premium for established wash-and-fold revenue with recurring customers, because it resembles a service contract more than a vending machine. The SDE multiple for a laundromat with 30–40% of revenue from attended services is often half a turn to a full turn higher than a coin-only equivalent.
The flip side: wash-and-fold requires staff, which increases complexity and cost. An owner who built this and is now stepping out needs to show that the service runs without them — otherwise it’s a key-person risk that buyers will price conservatively.
Are Laundromats Profitable in Australia?
The short answer is yes — when the fundamentals are right (which is a bit circular, but there it is).
The ATO’s small business benchmark data for laundry and dry-cleaning services shows that businesses in this category with $500,000 to $2 million in annual turnover operate at cost-of-sales rates between 30–50%, with better operators sitting toward the lower end. For a self-service laundromat with minimal product costs, the economics can be very favourable once rent and machine maintenance are controlled.
A suburban laundromat doing $250,000 in revenue with competitive rent, modern machines on card payment, and minimal staff involvement can net $80,000–$120,000 in SDE. That’s a meaningful return on a $200,000–$400,000 investment. A proper normalisation of your profit — adding back one-off expenses, a fair owner’s wage, and depreciation — will show a buyer what those real earnings look like.
The laundromats that struggle are typically operating in locations where rent has risen faster than revenue, with equipment that’s past its best, and no contactless payment (coin-only laundromats lose customers to competitors who accept cards and apps, and the trend is accelerating).
What a Buyer Due Diligence Process Looks Like
Once you’re in front of a serious buyer, they’ll want to verify the following before committing to a price:
Revenue verification: Three years of BAS statements and tax returns. If you run the business through a trust or company, the buyer wants both the entity accounts and a clear reconciliation to the cash deposits. Card payment systems make this easy; coin-heavy operations create an immediate question mark.
Lease assignment: The landlord must consent to the lease being assigned to the buyer. This is not automatic. Some landlords use assignment as an opportunity to renegotiate rent or impose conditions. You want to have had this conversation before you list.
Machine service records: As above — age, condition, recent maintenance, any recurring issues. A buyer who can’t verify machine history will price in the uncertainty.
Utilities history: Power is usually the biggest operating cost after rent. Three years of electricity bills gives the buyer a clear picture of what they’re buying into.
Planning and local council compliance: The use of the space must be permitted under the relevant planning scheme. This is rarely an issue for established laundromats but worth confirming.
Before You Sell: The Practical Checklist
If you’re thinking about selling in the next 12 to 24 months, here’s what moves the number:
- Get the lease sorted. If your current term is under five years and there are options left, exercise them now. A longer lease position is worth real money.
- Upgrade the oldest machines if replacement is within three years anyway.
- Move to card and contactless payments if you haven’t. It also eliminates coin theft and cash handling questions during due diligence.
- Document your service history and organise your machine records.
- Get two to three years of clean financials — reconcile any cash transactions and have your accountant tidy the accounts.
A laundromat that shows clean financials, a long lease, and modern machines sells faster and at a better multiple than one that requires a buyer to do a lot of investigative work. That’s not a complicated principle, but it does require doing the groundwork before you go to market rather than during it.
If you want to understand what your laundromat is likely worth, a good starting point is our free business valuation calculator, or get in touch through the contact page to discuss a more detailed valuation review.
Miro Capital advises Australian business owners on selling their businesses. Nigel Gordon is a corporate adviser based in Perth, Western Australia.