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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
From house builders in Springfield and North Lakes to civil crews on the 2032 Games pipeline, the value of a Queensland contractor sits in what it can actually recover, not in the size of its turnover.
Most Brisbane builders and civil contractors are valued on adjusted net assets. Owned plant goes in at market value, work in progress at what it will realistically bring in on completion, retentions and payment claims at the amount likely to be collected, and defect liabilities come off. Earnings are tested over a whole cycle of projects, not one good or bad year.
Some triggers are planned and some are forced. A contractor may be selling to a tier two builder, offering equity to a project manager, settling a property matter in the Brisbane registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, refinancing a fleet of excavators and tippers, meeting a head contractor's pre-qualification test before tendering on a government package, dealing with a payment dispute or a liquidator, or restructuring under an ATO market value requirement. Banks and principals on the larger Queensland jobs increasingly ask what equity stands behind the contractor before they commit.
In no other sector does the revenue line say so little about value. A volume builder in Logan or Moreton Bay can bill a large amount each year and still be worth very little, because most of that money flows straight out to trades and suppliers, the margin per house is slim, and the cash that remains is tied up in claims, retentions and unfinished jobs. Our job is to separate the activity from the equity a buyer would pay for.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Asset Approach leads. Profit in contracting moves with each project and each phase of the cycle, while the capital locked up in plant, work in progress and receivables is large and measurable. Starting from the restated balance sheet gives the steadiest base.
Adjusted net assets means every line is taken to the amount it would actually realise. Earthmoving plant, trucks and site equipment are valued at what they would sell for. Work in progress is assessed on what each job will bring in at completion, not on what has been claimed. Retentions are aged and discounted for collection risk, debtors are provisioned, and variations count only where the paperwork supports them. Defect and warranty exposure, which stays with a builder well after practical completion, is brought in as a contingent liability.
Earnings then act as the check, averaged across roughly five years because a single year in contracting can mislead in either direction. Where a business holds secured work with sensible margins, such as a standing panel arrangement with a council or utility, or a signed subcontract package on Cross River Rail or a Games venue, the income result may lead and the restated assets become the floor.
Average earnings across several years, after the owner is paid a market salary, are capitalised at a rate that carries a heavy risk loading for reliance on a few principals, fixed price exposure and the sector's history of failures.
Prices paid for contractors of similar size and trade give a range to test against, but the evidence is limited and many sales in this sector happen under financial pressure, so each comparable is weighed for how far it really resembles the subject business.
Disagreements over a contractor's value usually come down to a few adjustments, so the report lists every one with its reasoning. For Brisbane builders and civil firms these are the ones that come up most:
Building work around Brisbane falls into two broad camps. Residential builders and their trades chase land release in the growth areas, including Springfield and the Ipswich corridor to the west, Logan to the south, Moreton Bay and North Lakes to the north and the Redlands to the east. Civil contractors depend more on the public pipeline: Cross River Rail, road and rail upgrades, water and energy networks, and the venues and transport works planned for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Plant hire and earthmoving firms cluster in the industrial suburbs of Acacia Ridge, Rocklea and Wacol to service both.
For the risk assessment, the type of work matters more than the trade. A civil firm on a government panel or a subcontract to a tier one head contractor tends to have more predictable revenue and stronger payment security than a builder relying on private residential clients. In Queensland, payment disputes run under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld), and a contractor's record of adjudications tells us a good deal about the quality of its claims book. Licensing by the Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC), including the financial requirements attached to each licence class, decides what a buyer can lawfully take over and on what terms.
New contractors keep arriving. The number of construction businesses nationally rose 3.4 per cent in 2025 to 2026 (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026), and Queensland finished the year with a net increase of 19,244 actively trading businesses across every industry (same source). Much of that is small operators starting out rather than established firms growing, which keeps pricing competitive and explains why a Brisbane contractor's value leans so heavily on the assets it can recover.
Each report states the purpose, the standard of value, the valuation date and the material we relied on, and it names any information that was asked for and not provided. It then explains each approach we looked at, the method applied, each adjustment and why it was made, and how the results were weighed to reach a range, in plain sentences rather than a formula.
In a contested matter, that weighing is what gets tested. If a report cannot explain why the asset result was preferred over the earnings result, or why a point in the range was picked, it is exposed before the Supreme Court of Queensland, where expert evidence is governed by Chapter 11 Part 5 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld), and in front of a liquidator or a principal's lawyers. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and are signed by a credentialed certified valuer prepared to explain and defend the opinion.
Ask which assumption an opposing expert would attack first and how the valuer would respond. A valuer who has no answer ready has more work to do.
An Indicative valuation suits an owner who wants to know how much equity really sits behind the work in progress and the plant before making a decision. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. A Summary report suits a sale, a new shareholder, a pre-qualification or bonding submission, or a loan application. A Detailed report is needed for a family law property matter, a shareholder dispute, an insolvency and any engagement another expert will examine.
Who will read the report decides how much reasoning it has to show. When a judge, a bank, the ATO or a rival expert is likely to pick it up, more of the working belongs on the page.
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.