Register your brief · No cost to buyers
The best businesses sell quietly
Tell me the sector, the size, the region and the funding you have available. It takes one conversation, it costs nothing, and your details never reach a seller without your say so.
Registering a brief is free to buyers and carries no obligation either way. Last updated 15 September 2026.
Tell me what you are looking forCall 0431 124 128
No obligation. Nothing is published. Nobody is contacted.
The best businesses sell quietly
Plenty of good businesses never make it to a public listing. Owners who value confidentiality prefer their business shown only to qualified, serious buyers, which means the best opportunities are often quietly matched rather than openly advertised. If you are only watching the listings, you are seeing a fraction of what is actually available.
That is why serious buyers register their brief with a broker. You tell me what you are looking for, your sector, your budget and your goals, and you are matched against businesses that fit as they come to market. It costs you nothing, because the fee in a business sale is paid by the seller.
Due diligence: what settles each item, and what a problem there means for you
| What you are verifying | Where it is settled, and what the search returns | What a problem there actually means |
|---|---|---|
| The seller exists and is registered | ABN Lookup at abr.business.gov.au. Free and instant. Returns ABN status, entity name and type, GST registration and its effective date, main business location by postcode and state, and historical trading names | If the seller is not GST registered, or you are not registered by settlement, the going concern treatment in A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (Cth) s38-325 is not available and GST is payable on the price. That is a cash flow event at settlement even where you later claim an input tax credit |
| Who you are actually contracting with | ASIC Connect at connectonline.asic.gov.au. Returns company existence, ACN, registered office, officeholders, shareholders and documents lodged. Current company extract $9, current and historical $18, business name extract $9 on the current ASIC Connect schedule | Directors or shareholders who are not who you were told changes who gives the warranties and who you would sue. In a share purchase it changes what you are buying |
| Whether a person is banned or disqualified | ASIC banned and disqualified registers. Free and instant | A banned person cannot be the counterparty you assumed. In a share purchase, whatever produced the ban sits inside the company you are buying |
| Security interests over the plant, vehicles and stock | PPSR at ppsr.gov.au. Run a grantor search against the ACN, or the ABN where there is no company, and a serial number search on every motor vehicle, trailer, watercraft and item of registrable plant in the sale. $2 per online search as at 14 August 2026. Every search returns a certificate | A registered interest means that plant is somebody else’s collateral. It is discharged at settlement out of the purchase price, with the discharge evidenced before you release funds. Settle without clearing it and you have bought the seller’s debt collateral |
| Who owns the premises and what is registered over the land | Titles Queensland at search.titlesqld.com.au. Current title search $25.71 in FY2026/27, historical $37.88. Returns the registered owner, registered interests, mortgages, leases and easements | A mortgagee over the land can hold its own consent right over the assignment. That is an extra party, with its own solicitor, who nobody in your negotiation has spoken to |
| The landlord’s decision on assignment | The lease itself, every amendment and every deed of variation, plus Property Law Act 2023 (Qld) s142, commenced 1 August 2025. The lessor must decide within 1 month of receiving full particulars (s142(5)) and must not unreasonably withhold consent (s142(3)) | There is no deemed consent. A landlord who lets the month run out has agreed to nothing, and s142(8) sends you to the Supreme Court. Check the remaining term, every remaining option and its notice date, the rent review mechanism, the bank guarantee, the make good obligation and whether the permitted use covers what you intend to do |
| Retail lease disclosure before the assignment | Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 (Qld) s22B. The assignor must give a disclosure statement and a copy of the current lease at least 7 days before the earlier of the sale agreement date and the request for landlord consent. Section 5A reaches a leased floor area of 1,000 m2 or less | Under s50A the assignor and any guarantor are released on assignment only where s22B was complied with and the disclosure statement was not defective. A seller who is not released keeps an interest in how you trade, which changes the negotiation |
| Building work licensing | QBCC Licensee Register at my.qbcc.qld.gov.au. Free, and it returns “a complete licence history”. A licence is required for building work over $3,300, $1,100 for hydraulic services design, and any value for drainage, plumbing, gas fitting, chemical termite management, fire protection, building inspections, building design, site classification and mechanical services | A licence attaches to the licensee, not to the business. In an asset sale your own entity needs its own licence, issued before you trade, and a contractor licence carries financial requirements including a maximum revenue category that your entity must satisfy independently. Resolve this before contract, not before settlement |
| A food business | The relevant local council, under the Food Act 2006 (Qld). The licence triggers include manufacturing food by combining ingredients, retail sale of unpackaged food, and a non-profit selling meals on 12 or more days a year | Confirm the position with that specific council in writing before contract. The council’s processing time sits on your critical path to settlement, and a date you have not asked about is a date you cannot plan around |
| Every other licence, permit and approval the activity needs | Australian Business Licence and Information Service at ablis.business.gov.au. Free. Returns the licences, permits, approvals, registrations, codes of practice, standards and guidelines applying to a described business across Commonwealth, state and local government | Run the target’s actual activity and location through it before settlement. A licence nobody mentioned is a regulator’s timetable inserted into yours |
| Contaminated land | Environmental Management Register and Contaminated Land Register search. $61.05 per lot from 1 July 2026, emailed “within one day and usually immediately” when you supply the lot on plan reference. Returns whether the land is listed, “what, if any, contaminants are on the land”, the notifiable activities conducted there and whether a site management plan exists | Environmental liability attaches to the land, not to the goodwill, so no sale structure moves it. Note the limit of the search: it does not return contamination that was never notified |
| Environmental authority and enforcement history | The Environmental Protection Act 1994 (Qld) public register, held by the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation. It holds environmental authority applications and permits, enforcement actions, annual returns, environmental impact statements and rehabilitation plans. Records not available online come by information request, which the department states “typically take 10 to 75 business days depending on complexity” | Start the request in the first week or the answer arrives after your due diligence date. Transferring an authority requires the new holder to be registered as a suitable operator, and s314(5) means the previous holder’s financial assurance may not be discharged until you have given your own |
| Who owns the brand | Australian Trade Mark Search at search.ipaustralia.gov.au. Free. Returns the owner, status, classes, filing and renewal dates. Domain names sit with the registrar account and the auDA WHOIS | Check the registered owner name against the seller entity name character for character. A trade mark, domain or website held personally, by a separate entity or by a former developer is not in the sale unless the contract puts it there. A business name registration is not a trade mark and confers no exclusive right |
| Employee records | The seller’s records. Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ss535 and 536 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009 (Cth) require them to be kept for 7 years, “in a legible form and in English” and readily accessible to a Fair Work Inspector, covering pay, hours, leave taken and balances, superannuation and termination details | Absent records mean an unquantified liability you cannot calculate. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s position is that where an employer fails its record keeping obligations, “the employer will be required to disprove the person’s wage-related allegation in court” unless a reasonable excuse is shown |
| Superannuation compliance | Payment records against the fund, for each employee. The superannuation guarantee rate is 12% of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025, with a maximum contribution base of $62,500 per quarter for the 2025-26 financial year. From 1 July 2026 contributions must be received by the fund within 7 business days after paying employees | The rule you are testing is weeks old, not years old. Late payment triggers the superannuation guarantee charge, which carries interest compounding daily, an administrative uplift, and penalties of 25% or 50% of the unpaid charge depending on prior penalties |
| Tax lodgement history | Income tax returns for at least 3 years, every quarterly BAS for the same period, and the ATO integrated client account. There is no public register of the integrated client account, so it comes from the seller or the seller’s tax agent | The ATO may disclose a business tax debt to credit reporting bureaus where at least $100,000 is overdue by more than 90 days and the entity is not engaged with the ATO on it, after giving 28 days notice to act. A target sitting just under those thresholds is carrying a debt reported nowhere. In an asset purchase the history generally stays behind, but a seller with an unmanageable tax position may not be able to complete |
| Whether the adviser is registered | Tax Practitioners Board register at tpb.gov.au, free, showing registration and any sanctions. Fair Trading Licensing Register at ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au, free, showing whether a person or corporation holds a current Queensland property licence and its conditions. A licence extract is $20.70 from 1 July 2026 | Only a registered tax agent may charge for a tax agent service (Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth) s90-5). Membership of a professional body is a separate thing from a licence and confers no licence |
Compiled from Business Queensland’s due diligence guidance, the PPSR, ASIC Connect, Titles Queensland, the QBCC, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, IP Australia, the Fair Work Ombudsman and the ATO. Fees and law stated as at 14 August 2026. The core search set of ABN Lookup, an ASIC current and historical company extract, an ASIC business name extract, the ASIC banned and disqualified registers, one PPSR grantor search, a Titles Queensland current title search, the QBCC register, the Fair Trading Licensing Register and Australian Trade Mark Search totals $54.71, plus $2 for each additional PPSR serial number search. Queensland transfer duty rates sit in Duties Act 2001 (Qld) Schedule 3 and are not stated here, because the schedule could not be retrieved from a primary source. Obtain them from the Queensland Revenue Office or your solicitor.
Tell me what you are looking for
I will tell you when something matches. You sign a confidentiality agreement before you see anything that identifies a business.
Nothing you send goes any further. It comes to me only, into my own database in Sydney. I do not pass buyer enquiries to sellers, to other brokers or to anyone else. You see a sector, a region and a size before you see a name, and nothing that identifies a business is released until you have signed a confidentiality agreement.
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.
Register your buying brief
Tell me the sector, the size, the region and the funding you have available. It takes one conversation, it costs nothing, and your details never reach a seller without your say so.