Australia guides

What businesses are for sale in Queensland right now?

No article can list Queensland's live inventory, because any static answer is wrong within days, so this page tells you where the listings are, what the main portals showed when checked on 3 September 2026, and the Queensland-specific rules that change what a listed business is worth to you. The two that matter most are transfer duty, which Queensland charges on business assets such as goodwill, and the liquor and retail-lease transfer procedures. Use the portals to find candidates, then check the agent's licence and get the duty position before you make an offer.

By the bizflip team · Published 3 September 2026 · Facts checked 3 September 2026 · Sources listed below

The honest answer to "what is for sale in Queensland right now" is that no article can tell you: the answer changes every day, and a list frozen into a page is wrong within a week. Business Queensland's own advice to buyers is to research across several sources — real estate listings, business broker websites, commercial websites, trade journals and advertisements in the region that interests you — rather than rely on one. What a page can do is show where the live inventory sits, how big it was on a given day, and the Queensland rules that decide what a listing is worth to you. bizflip publishes this page. Its own Australian listing set held ten listings nationally when checked on 3 September 2026, three of them in Queensland, against the 3,600-plus on Bsale's Queensland page the same day; start on Bsale and AnyBusiness and treat this site's set as a supplement. The other portals are named below with the counts they showed on the day.

What the portals showed on 3 September 2026

Here is what the national portals displayed when their Queensland listing pages were fetched on 3 September 2026 — the method was to request each page and read the count in its results header. The figures overlap, because the same business is commonly advertised on several portals, and they include franchise recruitment advertisements, so treat them as an order of magnitude.

For scale: the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 2,814,778 actively trading businesses in Australia at 30 June 2026, and Queensland added 19,244 in 2025-26. Only the small share whose owners have decided to sell and advertise ever appears on a portal, so a thin result page in your region is normal.

Where to look

Check the licence before you rely on anything an agent says. The Queensland Government's free online register for licensed industries is updated overnight, so a licence issued or cancelled in the last day will not show; search company names without spaces, punctuation or abbreviations such as pty or ltd.

The listing will be anonymous, and the earnings need a basis

Expect the public listing to withhold the trading name and address until you sign a confidentiality agreement; that is normal practice, not evasion. What you can judge from it is whether the earnings figure is stated on a defined basis — PEBITDA or SDE, and what was added back — whether the lease term is disclosed, and whether the price comes with any reasoning. Our guides to SDE versus EBITDA and to signing an NDA before seeing financials cover both halves.

Transfer duty: the Queensland cost that is not on the listing

When you buy a Queensland business you may be liable for transfer duty on the business assets. The Queensland Revenue Office counts as business assets goodwill, a statutory business licence or the right to use one, a business name, a right under a franchise arrangement, a debt of the business where the debtor lives in Queensland, a supply right, intellectual property, and personal property in Queensland such as trading stock and plant and equipment. Duty is calculated on the dutiable value of the agreement — the greater of the value of the business assets or the consideration paid — and on the GST-inclusive amount if GST is payable. Vehicles in the sale are charged at vehicle registration duty rates instead. Fail to lodge a dutiable transaction for assessment and interest and penalties can follow.

The general transfer duty rates apply: on the QRO's current schedule, nil on a dutiable value of $5,000 or less; $1.50 for each $100 over $5,000 up to $75,000; $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100 over $75,000 up to $540,000; $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100 over $540,000 up to $1,000,000; and $38,025 plus $5.75 for each $100 over $1,000,000. Applied to a $600,000 purchase of business assets, that schedule produces duty of about $20,000 — a cost the listing will not mention — and QRO publishes an estimator. Two details matter: an agreement may be dutiable even if goodwill is not named in it, because goodwill can form part of the transaction anyway; and an agreement solely for a debt, a supply right, or intellectual or personal property may fall outside duty under section 37 of the Duties Act 2001, but only if nothing else is transferred. Get your solicitor to assess the duty before you put a number in an offer.

Liquor and gaming: you cannot trade until the transfer is dealt with

If you take over a Queensland business with a liquor licence you must apply to transfer it, and you cannot sell or supply liquor at the premises until either an interim authority to trade is granted or the transfer is approved. Interim authority applications typically take two to three working days if the requirements are met; most transfers are finalised in around two months, longer where a new gaming machine licence is also needed. Licences are granted on a fit-and-proper-person basis, so build the interim authority into your settlement timetable.

Retail shop leases: seven days and two advice reports

Queensland's Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 attaches paperwork to the assignment of a retail shop lease. Where the assignment is in connection with the sale of the retail business, the seller must give you an assignor disclosure statement at least seven days before you enter into the contract for the sale of the business; you give an assignee disclosure statement to the seller and to the landlord about your financial standing and business experience; and before the assignment you must give the landlord a financial advice report completed by a qualified accountant and a legal advice report confirming you have had legal advice. The Queensland Small Business Commissioner publishes the forms and mediates disputes. The Act is under review at the time of writing, with submissions open until 11 September 2026.

How the purchase itself runs in Queensland

Business Queensland's guidance sets out the shape: due diligence before any binding decision, a non-binding letter of intent, negotiation, then a contract. A due-diligence period can be written into the contract, allowing termination if a serious issue surfaces, but it is generally limited to five to ten business days after signing — so most of your investigation should happen before the contract. And structure matters: in an asset sale you buy the assets and the seller keeps the entity, so a sole trader's ABN cannot come with the business; in a share sale you take the company with everything in it, including its debts. Our guides to making an offer on a business and to due diligence before buying a business go deeper.

Checks before you travel

Anything an agent tells you about earnings is a starting point, not a finding. Australian practice separates a market appraisal — the free, indicative estimate — from a business valuation, the formal engagement an accountant performs under APES 225. If a number is going to support finance, a partner buyout or a dispute, commission the formal one.

So the answer is: open a live filter, not a list. Keep Bsale and AnyBusiness filtered to your part of Queensland, check this site's Australian listing set for the few Queensland businesses it holds, run each shortlisted business through the Australian market appraisal tool, and read how to buy a small business in Australia before you make an offer. None of this is legal or tax advice; put the duty, lease and licence points to a Queensland solicitor and accountant before you sign.

Sources

Every load-bearing claim in this guide, and where it comes from:

Ready for your own number? The valuation calculator is free and ungated, and its methodology is public.