Regional guide · Brisbane
Business broker, Brisbane
Tony Pope works from Gumdale, inside the Brisbane City Council area, so a meeting at your premises is a short drive rather than a trip. This page sets out what the ABS, Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Government publish about selling a business here, from Wacol to Wynnum.
Every figure on this page is sourced and dated. Where a figure is not published for this region, the page says so. Last updated 15 September 2026.
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What do I need to know about selling my business in Brisbane?
Brisbane City Council had 145,916 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2025, up 3,354 over 2024-25. That depth gives you buyers, and it gives you competition for their attention. Three Brisbane specifics decide your settlement date: the council food business licence does not transfer, the flood planning area under Brisbane City Plan 2014 is now a commercial term, and a change of use can trigger infrastructure charges.
Brisbane at a glance
Six lines, each of them sourced. Everything below expands on one of them.
At a glance
- The business base
- There were 145,916 actively trading businesses in the Brisbane local government area at 30 June 2025, up 3,354 businesses (2.4 per cent) over 2024-25. At 30 June 2024 the Brisbane count of 142,547 was 28.0 per cent of every business in Queensland, held on 1,342.7 square kilometres.
- What is over represented
- Professional, scientific and technical services. There were 25,777 of them at 30 June 2024, 18.1 per cent of the Brisbane base against 12.4 per cent for Queensland, an index of 1.46. Brisbane holds 40.8 per cent of every business in that division in the state.
- Where the businesses are
- Council names the South West Industrial Gateway at Rocklea, Archerfield, Acacia Ridge, Coopers Plains, Salisbury, Darra and Wacol, the Northern Industrial Area at Geebung, Virginia, Northgate, Nudgee and Banyo, and Australia TradeCoast at Lytton, Hemmant, Murarrie, Colmslie, Eagle Farm and Pinkenba. Urban enterprise areas sit at Albion, Newstead, Bowen Hills, Woolloongabba, East Brisbane and Milton, alongside close to 300 retail precincts.
- Who the buyers are
- The deepest local pools are professional services, finance, health, wholesale and transport, because those divisions are the ones over represented here. Size sets the rest. At 30 June 2024, 61.6 per cent of Brisbane businesses employed nobody, only 9.2 per cent turned over $2 million or more a year, and only 3.3 per cent employed 20 or more people. Above those lines your buyer is a trade buyer or a funded private buyer, not a first timer.
- The local friction
- Brisbane City Council food business licences are not transferable, so your buyer applies for a new one and council has 30 days to decide. A footpath dining permit does transfer, but only with your written consent, which makes it a contract term. Five environmentally relevant activities are devolved to council, including metal forming, surface coating and plastic product manufacturing.
- What decides the price
- Lease term first, then flood. Brisbane City Plan 2014 puts your site in one of five flood planning areas or the local overland flow class, and 23,400 properties across 177 suburbs were affected in February 2022. After that, a buyer weighs whether the lawful use of record matches the actual use, because a material change of use carries infrastructure charges under the Brisbane Infrastructure Charges Resolution (No. 15) 2026.
What Brisbane actually runs on
| Industry division | Businesses | Share of the base | Against Queensland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 25,777 | 18.1% | 1.46 |
| Financial and insurance services | 8,478 | 5.9% | 1.43 |
| Information media and telecommunications | 1,569 | 1.1% | 1.40 |
| Health care and social assistance | 14,399 | 10.1% | 1.27 |
| Wholesale trade | 4,806 | 3.4% | 1.21 |
| Rental, hiring and real estate services | 19,043 | 13.4% | 1.15 |
| Accommodation and food services | 6,143 | 4.3% | 1.10 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | 11,835 | 8.3% | 1.08 |
| Retail trade | 8,103 | 5.7% | 0.99 |
| Manufacturing | 4,031 | 2.8% | 0.79 |
| Construction | 17,862 | 12.5% | 0.73 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 1,333 | 0.9% | 0.11 |
Counts are for the Brisbane local government area at 30 June 2024, from ABS Data by Region drawing on Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, July 2021 to June 2025, released 26 August 2025; the index compares the Brisbane share of businesses with the Queensland share, and it counts businesses on the register, not businesses that were sold.
Where the businesses actually are
The precincts that hold the business base, and the industries that carry them.
Where the businesses actually are in Brisbane, 811 words, on its own page.
Local knowledge
What I know about this market that a data table does not carry
What sells well in Brisbane
The Brisbane market is broad, but the businesses that move fastest share a few traits. Recurring or contracted revenue rather than one off jobs. A team that runs the day to day without the owner in the middle of every decision. Clean financials that reconcile to the tax returns without a long explanation. Brisbane buyers, particularly the interstate and offshore ones, are comparing your business against options in Sydney and Melbourne. The presentation has to hold up against that standard, not just against the business down the road.
The sectors I know best in Brisbane
E-commerce and retail operating out of Brisbane warehouses and fulfilment sites. Transport and logistics running from the Trade Coast, Rocklea, Wacol and the southern industrial belt. Earthmoving and civil contractors working the growth corridors. Construction and building businesses where the QBCC licence structure has to be handled properly. Mining services and supply businesses headquartered in Brisbane but servicing the Bowen and Surat Basins. Window furnishings, shutters, curtains and interiors across the metro area. Toy, gift and hobby retail, wholesale and retail, online and bricks and mortar. Turf farming and growing across the surrounding corridors. Workplace health and safety consultancy, training and RTO businesses.
And every other sector besides. Those are the industries I know from the inside, not a list of what I will take on. Manufacturing, wholesale, professional services, hospitality, health, automotive, agriculture, franchises and trades of every kind all sell in this market and I sell them. If your business is not named above, ask anyway.
The licence question comes first
If your business holds a QBCC licence, that shapes the entire sale before anything else does. Licence class, nominee arrangements, net tangible asset requirements and how the licence transfers or does not transfer to a buyer all determine who can realistically buy you and what structure the deal takes. Getting that wrong late in a sale process is one of the most common ways construction deals fall over. I put the question first, not last.
What the infrastructure pipeline actually means
There is a lot of loose talk about the 2032 pipeline lifting every business in South East Queensland. The honest version is narrower. It is genuinely lifting buyer appetite for civil, earthmoving, transport, plant hire and trade services businesses with capacity to take on work. It is doing considerably less for businesses outside that pipeline. If you are in one of those sectors, the buyer interest is real and worth understanding now rather than assuming you will find out later.
Confidential from the first conversation
Nobody finds out you asked. Not your staff, not your customers, not your competitors, not your suppliers. The first conversation is a private chat about your business and your options. If you decide to do nothing, nothing happens. You are probably twelve months to three years away from doing anything, and that is exactly the right time to be having it.
The industrial south does the volume
Rocklea, Archerfield, Acacia Ridge, Darra and Wacol are where a lot of Brisbane's real trading businesses actually sit. Manufacturing, transport, wholesale, equipment hire and trade supply. Buyers tend to be either interstate operators wanting a Queensland base or local competitors wanting capacity, and both pay attention to the same three things: the state of your plant register, how much revenue sits with your largest customers, and whether the lease has enough term left to justify what they are paying for goodwill.
Port of Brisbane and the trade corridor
Anything touching import, export, customs, freight forwarding or container logistics attracts a different buyer, often one already operating in Sydney or Melbourne and looking for the Queensland leg. Those buyers move faster and ask harder questions about compliance, licensing and contract terms. Have your accreditations, insurances and customer agreements assembled before going to market. Nothing slows a good process down like a fortnight spent hunting for paperwork somebody should have filed.
Multi-site operators and lease exposure
Brisbane businesses frequently run two or three sites, and each lease is a separate negotiation with a separate landlord at settlement. Any one of them can hold up the deal. Pull all your leases now, check the assignment clause and remaining term on each, and work out which landlord is going to be difficult. Doing that early is often the difference between a six week settlement and a five month one.
Inner city leases carry the value
For hospitality, retail and services businesses through the city, the Valley, West End and Newstead, the lease is frequently the most valuable asset in the sale. Remaining term, options, the rent review mechanism, permitted use and the make good obligation all feed straight into the price. Buyers walk away from good businesses on bad leases every week. Before marketing, have your solicitor read the lease properly and tell you what a buyer will find. If the make good is significant, know the number, because it will be raised.
Questions people ask
3 of the 19 answered in full on the questions page for this topic.
Does my Brisbane food business licence go to the buyer at settlement?
No. Brisbane City Council states that food business licences are not transferable. Your buyer has to apply for a new licence in their own name, and the premises is inspected before it issues.
Can my buyer keep the tables on the footpath?
Yes, if you agree in writing. Council allows a footpath dining permit to be transferred where the buyer is buying or leasing the food business, subject to your written consent as the current permit holder, the incoming operator holding a food business licence, and the premises not having been modified without approval.
My premises is in a flood planning area. How much does that matter now?
It is a commercial term rather than a background fact. Brisbane City Plan 2014 puts your land in one of five flood planning areas or the local overland flow class, and council maps river flood, creek flood, overland flow and storm tide separately.
Questions owners in Brisbane ask, all 19 of them.
Go deeper
The long form, where it belongs
The full detail is on the pages below, each on its own page.
Check it yourself12 primary sources
Primary sources, none of them affiliated with me and none of them endorsing this site. Where anything here differs from an official source, the official source is right.
Ask what it is worth
Free, in writing, and nobody finds out you asked. Tell me the trade and the suburb and I will do the rest.
Nobody finds out you are selling. This goes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I will not contact your accountant, your landlord, your bank or your staff, ever, unless you ask me to.
If you would rather not put anything in writing yet, ring 0431 124 128. Prefer to pick a time yourself? Book a time in my diary.
Find out what your Brisbane business is worth
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