Buying a Business in Perth

The order you do things in matters

Buying a business is one of the biggest financial decisions most people make, and the order you approach it in changes the outcome. Buyers who fall in love with a business and then go looking for finance often find the deal does not stack up at the price they have already agreed in their head. Buyers who understand what is fundable before they make an offer negotiate from a stronger position and settle with fewer surprises.

This guide walks through the process the way it actually unfolds in Perth, from the search to settlement, with a focus on the parts that affect whether the deal funds. It is written from the finance side of the table, because that is where we sit, and it is where a lot of otherwise good deals come unstuck.

1. Decide what you are actually buying

Before scrolling listings, get clear on what you want and what you can run. A business you understand, in an industry you know, with transferable revenue, is a very different proposition to a lender than a business in a field you have never worked in. Your background is part of the credit assessment, so it pays to be honest early about where your experience adds value and where it does not.

2. Search and shortlist

Most Perth businesses for sale are listed through business brokers or marketplaces, and many of the best opportunities are sold quietly. As you shortlist, look past the headline asking price to the quality of the earnings. A cheaper business with shaky, owner-dependent revenue can be a worse buy than a dearer one with stable, transferable income. The price is only meaningful next to what the business reliably earns.

3. Understand how the business is valued

Most small and medium businesses are valued on a multiple of earnings, either EBITDA or seller's discretionary earnings. The multiple reflects risk. Predictable, recurring, transferable revenue earns a higher multiple. Revenue that depends on the current owner or a few large customers earns a lower one. The price then breaks down into tangible assets, the equipment, stock and fit-out, and goodwill, the value above those assets. That split matters enormously for finance, because lenders fund tangible assets and goodwill very differently.

4. Do proper due diligence

This is where you confirm the business earns what the seller says it earns, and that those earnings will survive the handover. Work through it with your accountant and solicitor.

• Financials verified against tax returns and BAS, not just a profit and loss summary
• The lease, its term, options and assignment conditions
• Licences, registrations and accreditations the business depends on
• Customer concentration, how much revenue comes from how few clients
• Supplier contracts and terms
• Staff, entitlements and who is essential to the business
• How much of the revenue walks out with the current owner
• The real reason the business is being sold

5. Work out the full cost, not just the price

The purchase price is rarely the whole number. A realistic budget includes your deposit or equity contribution, stock at settlement, legal and due diligence costs, any transfer duty, and a working capital buffer for the first weeks under your ownership, when supplier terms, debtor collection and revenue continuity are all still settling. Buyers who budget only for the price are the ones who run into trouble shortly after settlement. You can map this quickly with our business acquisition calculator, which separates the deposit, the duty, the working capital and the funding gap.

The WA duty on goodwill, in dollars

In Western Australia you pay transfer duty on the goodwill, not just the gear. WA charges duty on business assets including goodwill, intellectual property, client lists, business licences and restraint of trade agreements under the Duties Act 2008 (WA). New South Wales abolished duty on most non land business assets from 1 July 2016 and South Australia did the same from 2015, so a Perth buyer carries a cost a Sydney buyer does not, and a lot of the advice online is written for a state where it does not exist.

Put a number on it. The WA general rate is $28,453 plus $5.15 per $100 of dutiable value above $725,000. On a business priced at $1.2 million, duty on the full dutiable value is approximately $52,916. Had the same business been priced with only $300,000 of dutiable value, say if the goodwill were not caught, the duty would be approximately $8,835. The goodwill component alone therefore costs roughly $44,081 in duty, on top of your deposit.

Two things follow, and they catch buyers more often than the rate itself. There is a concessional rate, but it only applies where the dutiable value of the entire property does not exceed $200,000, so on any business of meaningful size you should assume the general rate. And duty is generally payable within one month of the assessment notice, from your own funds, and cannot normally be added to the loan. Buyers who have budgeted to the last dollar for the deposit are the ones this hits.

Source: Duties Act 2008 (WA), summarised in the WA Government Duties Fact Sheet: Business Assets; general rate scale per WA Department of Treasury and Finance (in force since 2 July 2014); NSW position per Revenue NSW. Checked 16 August 2026. The figures above are worked examples, not an assessment. Confirm your exact liability with your solicitor or RevenueWA before you sign. Our full WA business acquisition guide covers the duty, the goodwill split and the funding stack together.

6. Get the finance tested before you sign

This is the step most buyers leave too late. By the time a heads of agreement is signed, the structure is largely set, and the terms around price, earn-outs and vendor finance all affect how a lender will assess the deal. Getting a broker involved during the negotiation, not after, means the deal can be shaped to be bankable. Lenders assess a business purchase on the trading history, the strength and transferability of the cash flow, the proportion of goodwill in the price, the security available, and your background as the buyer. A well-prepared, well-structured application reads completely differently from a rushed one. This is the heart of what we do in acquisition finance, and where most of the value is added. For the deposit ranges, goodwill treatment and funding stack in detail, our guide to getting a loan to buy a business covers the lending side end to end.

7. Settle, then manage the transition

Approval is not the finish line. Conditions need to be cleared in step with the settlement date, and the first weeks of ownership need working capital and a plan for staff, suppliers and customers. Deals that are structured with the transition in mind settle cleanly. Deals that treat settlement as the end often hit a cash flow squeeze a month later.

A note on goodwill

If most of the price sits in goodwill rather than hard assets, expect more scrutiny from lenders, and do not assume a no from your own bank means the deal is dead. It usually means the structure needs work and the right lender needs to be found. We cover this in detail on our goodwill finance page.

A note on rent rolls

If the business you are buying is a real estate agency, or a rent roll on its own, the finance works differently again. Lenders fund a rent roll against the recurring management fee income it produces, and they assess the portfolio itself: the arrears position, the spread and tenure of the managements, the average management fee, and how transferable the agreements are. The lending side is covered on our rent roll finance page, and the buying process, valuation and due diligence in our guide to buying a rent roll.

Found a business you are ready to make an offer on? Our free business purchase readiness check walks through the questions a lender will ask about the deal and about you, before you spend money on it.

Why Perth buyers put us in the deal

Bankers first, brokers second. Rockwall was founded by two former commercial bankers. We spent those years on the lender's side of business lending, which is why we structure a Perth business purchase the way the person approving it will read it.

We get involved before the heads of agreement. The finance clause is the wrong place to discover a deal does not fund. We test price, goodwill and structure against lender policy while you can still renegotiate or walk.

Access to more than 40 lenders. Through our Finsure accreditation we can take a Perth purchase to the majors and to the non-bank and specialist lenders that actually fund acquisitions, including the sectors the majors cap by policy.

Licensed and accountable. We are MFAA members and Credit Representatives (579184, 579182 and 580433) of Finsure Finance & Insurance Pty Ltd.

Frequently asked questions