Selling a medical practice in Australia typically takes 9 to 18 months from the decision to sell through to settlement. The process covers valuation (3–6x normalised EBIT for most GP clinics), confidential marketing to pre-qualified buyers, due diligence, and a settlement that includes patient records obligations, AHPRA compliance, and Medicare billing transition. The key risks — practitioner retention, lease assignment, and billing continuity — differ from any other business sale in this country.
Most owner-practitioners underestimate how complex the process is. Not because the deal mechanics are unusual, but because the asset itself is unusual. You’re not selling a plumbing business; you’re selling a healthcare facility where staff have professional registrations, patients have legal protections, and revenue depends on individual doctors who can leave the day the sale becomes public knowledge.
Here’s how the process actually works.
How Much Is Your Practice Worth?
Before anything else, you need a realistic figure. A medical practice in Australia is typically valued at 3 to 6 times normalised EBIT — where normalised means the practice earnings after stripping out the owner-doctor’s billings and replacing them with a market-rate service fee arrangement.
A solo-GP bulk-billing practice in a regional area might fetch 2 to 3 times EBIT. A four-doctor suburban clinic with private billing, nursing support, and a strong Allied Health attachment could attract 5 to 6 times. The spread is large and almost entirely driven by practitioner dependency, billing mix, and whether the business actually functions without you.
For a detailed breakdown of the calculation, including how bulk billing versus private billing affects your multiple and what buyers adjust in their valuation models, read what your medical practice is worth.
One number to know early: your normalised EBIT. Get your accountant to calculate it properly, including EBITDA add-backs for any personal expenses, one-off costs, and the owner-doctor’s billing contribution. That number — not revenue, not gross billings — is what buyers price.
Preparing Your Practice for Sale
Most owner-practitioners start thinking about selling six to twelve months out. That’s usually too late for significant preparation, though it’s not hopeless if the fundamentals are solid.
The work that actually moves your sale price happens 18 to 24 months before you want to settle. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Lock in your practitioners. This is the single most important thing you can do. A buyer will discount heavily — or walk away entirely — if your GPs are month-to-month with nothing in writing. Even a two-year service agreement with notice provisions significantly reduces key person risk in the buyer’s model. If you have locum dependency, address it now.
Secure the lease. The lease is often the deal-breaker nobody thinks about until it’s too late. A practice with 14 months remaining on its lease is a difficult sale; one with 5 years remaining is a much easier conversation. Negotiate an extension now, ideally with a further option. The landlord knows you’re profitable and will generally cooperate (though they’ll probably want to have a conversation about rent while they’re at it).
Clean up the financials. Three years of clean, coherent management accounts and tax returns. No unexplained gaps, no cash sales not reflected in the P&L, no unexplained expense spikes. Buyers will forensically examine your financials during due diligence. The goal is a clean story, not a perfect one.
Reduce your personal involvement. If every second patient at your practice books specifically to see you, that’s a value problem. Buyers are paying for future income that continues after you leave. A practice that functions as a business — with clinical protocols, a strong practice manager, and doctors who see patients regardless of who owns the building — is worth substantially more than a vehicle for your own earnings.
Who Buys Medical Practices in Australia?
The buyer pool for medical practices is wider than most vendors expect (which is good news for competitive tension, and therefore your price).
Corporate GP groups are the most active buyers in most markets. Groups like Healius, Primary Care, and various private roll-up platforms are actively acquiring practices, particularly in metropolitan and outer-suburban markets. They typically pay 4 to 6 times EBIT and have established due diligence and integration processes.
Private equity has become increasingly active in healthcare, looking for platforms they can grow before an eventual trade sale or IPO. PE buyers generally pay higher multiples but require more structured deals, often with an earn-out component tied to practitioner retention.
Individual doctors — GPs buying their first practice, or established practice owners expanding — make up a significant share of transactions, particularly at the smaller end. They tend to be owner-operators who want to run the business day-to-day.
Non-medical business owners can also buy a medical practice in Australia. In most states, there’s no legislative requirement for the owner to be a registered medical practitioner (unlike, say, a pharmacy). The doctors are contracted or employed separately from the ownership entity.
Marketing Your Practice Without Alarming Anyone
This is where medical practice sales differ most sharply from other business sales, and where things can go sideways fastest.
If word gets out that you’re selling — to patients, to your staff, to your GPs — before you’re ready, you can lose practitioners and patient volume before a buyer is even in the room. A GP who hears rumours about an ownership change might start looking for alternative arrangements. Patients who hear their doctor is “leaving” may seek care elsewhere, even if the clinical team isn’t changing at all.
Selling a business confidentially is standard practice across all industries, but medical is particularly sensitive because the professional reputations involved are tightly tied to the practice’s value.
In practice, this means all marketing materials are produced under a code name or practitioner description rather than the practice name. Prospective buyers sign non-disclosure agreements before they receive an information memorandum. Only a small number of seriously qualified buyers — typically three to six — are introduced to the practice by name, and only after financial pre-qualification.
A broker told me about a suburban GP practice sale that nearly collapsed when a second buyer shared the information memorandum with their accountant, who happened to know someone at the practice. The primary practitioner found out within 48 hours. It was recoverable, barely, but it cost six weeks and a significant reduction in price. Confidentiality protocol isn’t bureaucratic caution — it’s commercially essential.
Due Diligence in a Medical Practice Sale
A buyer’s due diligence on a medical practice typically runs four to eight weeks and covers financial, legal, clinical, and operational aspects. The due diligence checklist for a general business sale applies, but with several specific additions.
Medicare billing analysis. Buyers will request a detailed Medicare billing history — item numbers, volumes, billing trends over three years. Any unexplained drops in billings, item number changes, or compliance concerns get flagged. If you’ve had a Medicare audit or are on any compliance review, this needs to be disclosed.
Practitioner contracts and retention. Every GP’s contract, service agreement, and any restraint provisions. Buyers want certainty that the doctors stay — and they’ll price based on how confident they are that they will.
Patient records obligations. The acquisition agreement will need to address what happens to patient records — who becomes the responsible entity, how patients are notified, and how records are transferred. This has legal and ethical dimensions that need proper advice from both sides.
AHPRA compliance. Buyers will confirm that all practitioners are currently registered with no conditions or sanctions. Any AHPRA proceedings — past or pending — need to be disclosed.
Lease and fit-out. The lease assignment process, condition of the premises, and any make-good obligations at the end of the lease.
Tax on the Sale
In most cases, selling a medical practice triggers Capital Gains Tax on the goodwill component of the sale. The small business CGT concessions can substantially reduce — or in some cases eliminate — that liability if your total net assets are under $6 million and the practice qualifies as an active asset.
The 15-year exemption, the retirement exemption, and the 50% active asset reduction can each apply depending on your circumstances. Given that a well-run GP practice might sell for $1M to $4M or more, the difference between a well-structured exit and a poorly-timed one can easily be $200,000 to $600,000 in tax.
Get advice early — before you go to market, not during the sale. Tax on selling a business in Australia covers the concessions in detail.
The Post-Sale Transition
Most medical practice buyers require the vendor to remain with the practice for a transition period — typically three to six months, sometimes longer. The purpose is introducing patients to new practitioners, transferring institutional knowledge to the incoming management, and supporting practitioner retention through the ownership change.
The transition arrangement is usually structured as a paid consultancy, not as an ongoing employment. The terms — duration, remuneration, scope — should be negotiated and documented as part of the sale agreement.
After that period, your involvement typically ends, subject to any restraint of trade provisions that prevent you from practising within a certain radius for a period of years. Restraints on vendor-practitioners are common and enforceable if reasonably drafted; a typical restraint might be three to five years within a 5km radius.
Where to Get Help
A specialist business broker with medical practice experience, or a corporate advisory firm that regularly handles healthcare transactions, is worth engaging early. The healthcare transaction market in Australia is active; a good advisor will have access to corporate buyer networks and know which groups are actively acquiring in your market.
If you’d like to understand what your practice might be worth and whether now is the right time to sell, start with our valuation calculator or get in touch with the Miro Capital team. We work with owner-practitioners across Australia on confidential sale processes — from the first conversation through to settlement.