Australia guides

How to find a business broker in Sydney

Start with the Australian Institute of Business Brokers' member search filtered to New South Wales, then the broker directories on the listing portals, and verify every candidate on the NSW Government's licence check before you talk fees. In New South Wales anyone who sells or negotiates the sale of a business for reward needs a real estate agent licence — class 1 or class 2, or one restricted to business agent functions — since the separate business agent licence was folded in on 23 March 2020. bizflip publishes this page and is building a broker directory of its own; at the time of writing that directory is not yet open and shows sample data while its feed is wired up, so it is listed last.

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

Sydney has plenty of people calling themselves business brokers and no single list of them. What it does have is a licensing regime that lets you check any one of them in a minute, an industry body whose member search is the closest thing to a directory, and marketplace directories that list the brokers who advertise with them. This page walks through them in the order worth using. Disclosure: bizflip publishes this page and is building an Australian broker directory of its own. At the time of writing that directory is not yet open — the page shows simulated sample profiles while the feed is wired up — so it appears last below and will not help you this week.

What a Sydney business broker legally is

In New South Wales, business broking is a licensed activity under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002. The Act defines business agent functions as selling, buying, exchanging or otherwise dealing with businesses or professional practices — including any share, interest or goodwill in them — and negotiating any such sale. Before 23 March 2020 there was a separate business agent licence; those functions now sit inside the real estate agent licence, and a person needs either a real estate agent licence or one restricted to business agent functions to provide services related to buying or selling a business. There are two classes. A class 2 licence lets the holder act for a client to sell, buy or exchange businesses or professional practices and negotiate with vendors, but not open or manage a trust account or be nominated licensee in charge; a class 1 licence, which needs two years on class 2 first, adds those. The practical consequence: the person you deal with day to day may be class 2, but any deposit held in trust must sit under a class 1 licensee in charge, so ask who that is. The Australian Institute of Business Brokers lists the NSW class 2 real estate agent licence as the New South Wales state licence course for someone entering business broking, so a class 2 licence is the usual starting point; only a class 1 holder can be nominated licensee in charge.

1. The AIBB member search

The Australian Institute of Business Brokers has been the industry's peak body since 1989. Its public search lists members near you, and every member has completed the Institute's Best Practice, Code of Conduct and Ethics training and is bound by its Code of Conduct. Two further searches sit alongside it, for Certified Professional Business Brokers and for Registered Business Valuers. Membership is voluntary, so the search will not show every licensed broker in Sydney — but it is the only list where inclusion means something beyond paying for an advertisement. Members also have exclusive access to Bizstats, which the Institute describes as Australia's largest database of completed business sales; when a candidate quotes you a price range, ask whether it draws on that data or on asking prices.

2. Marketplace broker directories

The listing portals each publish a directory of the brokers who advertise with them. Bsale, which the Australian Institute of Business Brokers' partner listing says has operated since 2000, and AnyBusiness, which the same listing describes as a platform where business brokers list and promote businesses for sale, both carry broker directories. The thing to understand is the business model. Bsale's broker directory profiles are part of its paid Business Broker advertising packages, invoiced month by month, and Bsale says it is primarily an advertising platform; AnyBusiness says its own directory will not tell you outright which brokers are the best. Treat both as lists of who advertises there, not as rankings of competence. They are useful for finding who is active in your industry and your part of Sydney — Bsale's directory narrows by industry and region, AnyBusiness's by state — and then you verify.

3. Referrals from the professionals already around the business

Accountants and commercial solicitors in Sydney see business sales from the inside and know which brokers close and which merely list. Ask yours for two names and the reason for each. Industry associations do the same for specialist sectors — pharmacy, childcare, medical practice and hospitality tend to have brokers who work only in that space and rarely appear in general directories.

4. bizflip's directory — listed last, and not yet open

bizflip is building an Australian business broker directory. At the time of writing it is not yet open: the page shows simulated sample profiles while the directory feed is wired up, and every sample card says so. The page states that broker profiles, placement and inbound enquiries will be free, the opposite of Bsale's advertising-package model, but there are no real profiles to consult yet. If you need a broker this month, use the three routes above; we will update this page when real profiles are live. Our guide to the free directories of Australian business brokers compares all of them.

Verify every candidate on the NSW licence check

Before the first meeting, run each name through the NSW Government's Verify NSW licence check. It covers all real estate agents, including business broking, and shows the holder's name and business address, the licence category, any conditions restricting the holder to a category of work, the licence number, dates of issue and expiry, and disciplinary action taken from 1 September 2003, the day the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 commenced. Check three things: that the name on the licence matches the person and the trading entity you are dealing with; that the licence is current; and whether it carries a business agent restriction, which is fine for a business sale, or a real estate restriction, which is not. Someone who cannot be found on the check should not be marketing your business.

The agency agreement: what NSW requires before a broker can charge

A NSW agent is not entitled to any commission or expenses unless there is a written agency agreement, signed by the licence holder and the client, containing the terms the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022 prescribes for that kind of agreement, and a copy signed by the licensee is served on you within 48 hours after you sign. Read the prescribed terms before you sign rather than after: the exclusivity period, what triggers commission, and what happens if a buyer the broker introduced completes after the agreement ends. The one-day cooling-off period described in that guidance applies to agency agreements for residential property and rural land; do not assume it covers a business sale agreement. Our guides to business broker fees in Australia and to how to sell a business in Australia, which sets out sales-authority rules by state, cover what to negotiate.

What to ask before you sign

Whichever route you take, walk into the first meeting with your own number. bizflip's market appraisal tool is free and shows its method, so you can tell the difference between an appraisal and a pitch. A formal valuation for finance or a dispute is a separate engagement an accountant performs under APES 225.

Find candidates on the AIBB search and a marketplace directory, verify each on the NSW licence check, ask the questions above, and only then look at an agency agreement. If you are on the buying side, the Sydney businesses for sale guide covers the same licence check from the other direction, and the broker qualifications guide explains what the training behind each licence actually involves.

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.