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Supported independent living, home care and community access businesses from Elizabeth to the southern beaches, valued on the margin that remains after award wages, travel between clients and the cost of staying registered.
NDIS, home care and aged care providers in Adelaide are valued on the income approach. Maintainable earnings, restated once the roster and the owner's own hours are costed at award and market rates, are capitalised at a rate that openly carries the risks peculiar to the sector: regulated price limits, exposure to award wage decisions and reliance on a handful of participants.
A deal or an ownership change sits behind most requests: selling or buying a provider, a shareholder coming in or going out, a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Adelaide, a new bank facility, or a restructure where the ATO will look for market value. Larger groups are buying, so the owner of a supported independent living operation in Salisbury or Elizabeth can receive an offer out of the blue and need to know quickly whether it deserves a serious reply. Many South Australian providers were also founded by owners now approaching retirement, and handing the business to family or senior staff needs a price as much as a sale does.
A less obvious reason is an honest look at the margin. A home care operator serving older clients in Burnside or the Adelaide Hills, or a community access provider around Tea Tree Gully, earns the difference between the government-set price for each support and the award wage it pays. Once the owner's own weekend and evening shifts are costed at award rates, some businesses turn out to be paying their owner a wage rather than a return. It is far better to hear that from your own valuer than from a buyer's due diligence team.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Income Approach leads. Most income comes from rostered supports funded by plans or packages that repeat week after week, so a purchaser prices the business on what that roster can keep earning. We take the same view, provided the capitalisation rate shows the regulatory risk in plain sight rather than hiding it.
The premium specific to the provider is often the biggest piece of the rate. It reflects how thin the gap is between the price limit and the award wage, how much income depends on a few high-value plans, where the provider stands on audits and registration, and whether its compliance records are good enough for a buyer to rely on.
A discounted cash flow is the better tool when a known change is ahead: a new registration group, a specialist disability accommodation property in the northern suburbs filling up, or a price review that will work through the roster over the coming year. A year-by-year forecast captures that change, where a single capitalised year would miss it.
For most engagements we capitalise future maintainable earnings. Reported profit is adjusted for the owner's hours, award-compliant rostering and the real cost of keeping registration, and the result is divided by a rate built from a risk-free base plus premiums for the market, the sector and the provider.
Sales of providers with a similar size, mix of supports and registration groups. The evidence is there, but a home care business in the eastern suburbs and a supported independent living operator in Elizabeth run on different cost structures and carry different risks, so comparables are chosen one by one rather than averaged.
A floor rather than the answer. Vehicles, equipment and fit-out go in at market value, and any supported accommodation the provider owns or head-leases is valued separately as property, apart from the trading business.
Valuation disputes usually start in the normalisation schedule, so each adjustment is explained in the body of the report along with its reason. For NDIS, home care and aged care providers the usual items are:
Where Adelaide's providers operate follows its people. Supported independent living and specialist disability accommodation are concentrated in the northern suburbs around Salisbury and Elizabeth and in the outer south, where housing is more affordable. Home care operators serve the city's older population in the eastern suburbs such as Burnside, along the beachside suburbs south of Glenelg and through the Adelaide Hills around Mount Barker, and newer providers are following housing growth to the northern and southern fringes. Where a provider's clients live sets its roster, its travel bill and in the end its margin.
That map changes both the comparable set and the risk view. A provider whose clients live a few streets apart in Elizabeth runs on a very different cost base from one serving the same number of clients spread from Gawler to the southern beaches, so the valuation is built from the real roster rather than an ideal one. Travel time is a direct cost, and a provider that grew by accepting any plan in any suburb usually shows a thinner margin than its revenue suggests. South Australian settings sit on top: workers need state-administered NDIS worker screening checks, and payroll tax under the Payroll Tax Act 2009 (SA) and ReturnToWorkSA premiums under the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA) are significant costs in a business that is mostly wages.
The scheme behind the sector is very large. At 31 March 2026, 774,456 participants across Australia had an approved NDIS plan and 277,376 providers were active (Source: NDIA, NDIS Quarterly Report to disability ministers, March 2026 quarter). Health care and social assistance businesses grew 6.7 per cent in the national count over 2025 to 2026, and South Australia added a net 5,613 actively trading businesses across all industries that year (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026). A scheme of that scale keeps provider businesses changing hands, but it also means national pricing and compliance decisions, not competition in any one suburb, are the main risk.
The opening section sets out the purpose of the engagement, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information we relied on, and says where it is limited. The report then covers every approach considered, the method chosen under each, each earnings adjustment and why it was made, and ends by bringing the results together into a range with the weighting explained in plain terms.
That reconciliation is what lets the opinion withstand scrutiny. When a judge, a lender or an opposing expert asks why earnings were preferred to sales evidence, or why one point in the range was chosen, the answer is already on the page. Reports are prepared under APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and signed by a certified valuer prepared to explain and defend the conclusion in a property settlement before the Federal Circuit and Family Court in Adelaide, a shareholder dispute in the Supreme Court of South Australia, or an ATO review.
Ask which assumption a buyer's adviser would go after first, such as the margin under the price limit or reliance on a few participants, and how it would be defended. A valuer who has not considered that still has work to do.
An Indicative valuation suits an owner weighing an approach from a larger group or deciding whether to test the market. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report usually fits a sale, a purchase or a bank facility. A Detailed report is needed for family law, disputes between shareholders and any matter where another expert will examine the work.
The use decides the depth. The likelier it is that a court, the ATO, a bank or another expert will see the opinion, the more thorough the report has to be.
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.