Buying a post office means buying an income Australia Post sets, under a licence Australia Post must approve.

A post office in Australia costs what its profit supports, and asking prices run widely. In our review of post offices listed on public sale sites on 2 November 2026, offices without their building asked $320,000 to $2.25 million, some plus stock, and one office offered with its building asked $1.25 million, about $950,000 of it for the freehold. Where a profit was stated for an office without its building, the asking price was about 2.3 to 3.4 times it, on profit figures usually stated before any wage for the owner. In 2014 a Senate committee heard multiples of about 3.8 to 4.3 times adjusted net profit in metro areas and about 3 times in rural areas. Profit bases differ, so rebuild the profit with a fair wage for every hour you will work before you compare. General information, not a valuation.

A licensed post office is valued on its adjusted net profit, never on its turnover or on Australia Post’s commission. Start with three years of Australia Post payment statements and the financials, then take out a fair wage for every hour the owner and family work, the rent you will pay under your own lease, and any payment that will not repeat. The price is a multiple of what is left. Three things move the multiple: how much of the income comes from parcels, PO Boxes and Bank@Post rather than letters; the length of the lease, or the building itself; and what Australia Post intends for the office’s area. Payment rates are revised every year, so value the trend across three years, not the strongest year.

A licensed post office makes what Australia Post pays it, plus its retail margin, less its staff, premises and running costs, and that varies widely from office to office. Across the network, Australia Post paid licensees $635.1 million in 2025-26, up 5.1% (Australia Post, 2026 Annual Report). A Senate committee described four streams in 2014: discounts on the postage and parcel products sold, handling and delivery fees including PO Boxes, commissions on services such as Bank@Post and bill payments, and minimum or other support payments. A licensee group argued in 2023 that Australia Post’s headline payments figure overstates what reaches licensees, because it includes GST and product discounts. Ask for three years of the office’s own payment statements, the PO Box count and the retail margin, then rebuild the profit after a fair wage.

You buy a licensed post office from its current licensee, not from Australia Post, which does not act as a broker or keep a list of offices for sale. Once a sale is agreed, the vendor tells Australia Post and it starts its approval process: an online information request, an assessment and selection interview, usually at the state head office, training at the state head office and at a post office, then signing the licence agreement and handover. Australia Post expects the process to take 90 days. It may ask for your legal entity, a seven-year employment history, cash flow projections, a business plan, referees, a statement of your assets and liabilities, and details of your proposed financing (checked 2 November 2026). Make the contract conditional on approval and on finance.

Yes. A post office purchase is usually funded as a business loan sized on the office’s adjusted profit, plus a property loan if you are buying the building. In written positions in September 2026, one specialist business bank asked buyers to bring about 30% of the price to a standalone business purchase and tested debt-service cover of at least 1.25 times, with lower gearing possible for first-time operators. The building is lent against the valuer’s figure, and a building with a post office, another tenancy and a residence is valued as mixed use. If residential equity is part of the plan, structure it as a business loan secured by the property from the start: one major bank’s assessor treated a draw against residential property for a business purchase as an unacceptable purpose, as presented, on a 2026 file. Subject to lender assessment.

The deposit for a post office depends on the profit left after a fair wage, and on whether the building is included. For the business, one specialist business bank asked buyers to bring about 30% of the price to a standalone purchase (September 2026), and whatever you borrow has to be carried at 1.25 times cover by the profit left after any property repayments. For the building, the lender lends a share of its valued figure and you fund the rest. In the worked example on this page, a regional office with its building at $1.1 million needs about $465,000 of the buyer’s money, 42% of the price, plus stock, because its advertised profit was quoted before the owner’s and the family’s wages. Run the funding check with the listing’s numbers. Subject to lender assessment.

A licensed post office works much like a franchise, but the arrangement is a licence from Australia Post. You run Australia Post’s systems and manuals under its trademarks and look, in an approved fit-out, typically from 9am to 5pm on weekdays and 9am to noon on Saturdays (Australia Post, checked 2 November 2026). A licensees’ association says there is no franchise fee on a purchase or sale, though Australia Post charges the incoming licensee a training fee (2023). In 2014 a Senate committee described limits on selling products that compete with Australia Post’s and on moving the office without its agreement, and rival carriers told the 2026 Senate inquiry that licensees cannot handle other carriers’ parcels without Australia Post’s permission. Read the current agreement before you sign the contract of sale.

No. Australia Post says there is no term for the licence, which can be assigned or transferred at any time with its approval (checked 2 November 2026), and the government’s business licence register lists its duration as ongoing. That may change. A business case dated June 2026, reported in the media from late June, proposed encouraging regional and rural offices to move from perpetual to fixed-term licences; Australia Post said no final decision had been made. The Council of Small Business Organisations told the Senate inquiry in August 2026 that lenders treat the perpetual licence as a saleable asset, and that a fixed term would affect loans, refinancing and resale value. Ask the vendor and Australia Post in writing whether any change has been proposed for the office you are buying.

Australia Post has said there is no program in place to actively close post offices, while confirming it was considering a voluntary buy-back trial in metro areas it regards as oversupplied, with no final decision (June to September 2026). A business case dated 9 June 2026, reported in the media from late June, proposed a trial covering up to 36 metro licensed post offices in New South Wales and Victoria. The network has a legal floor of 4,000 outlets, 2,500 of them outside major cities, and stood at 4,100 on 30 June 2026. A Senate inquiry into the retail network has run since June 2026, and a House of Representatives committee inquiry was referred on 29 to 30 October 2026. If the office is in a metro area with other outlets nearby, ask Australia Post directly before you exchange.

Buying the building with the post office gives a lender the security the business cannot, and replaces rent with repayments you control. The building is funded as commercial property against its valued figure, usually over a longer term than the business loan, which lowers the yearly repayments the office’s profit has to cover. Two cautions. A building with a post office, another tenancy and a residence is valued as mixed use, and lent against on that basis, so order the valuation early and give the valuer the floor-area split. And the building ties your capital to one location in a network under review. Among the listings we reviewed on 2 November 2026, one office with its building asked $1.25 million, about $950,000 of it for the freehold. Subject to valuation and lender assessment.

For a post office purchase, lenders read the office, the building and you. On a post office purchase with the building, lenders ask for: two years of the vendor’s financial statements, accountant-prepared and signed; the contracts of sale for the business and for the building; the licence agreement and any existing lease; the buying entity and its corporate family tree; a cash flow forecast and a broker’s credit memo on you and the purchase; your last two years of tax returns and a statement of financial position; two forms of ID; two years of financials for any business you already own, with six months of its loan statements; and ATO statements for every entity covering any tax debt and how it was paid down, with any payment arrangement. Add three years of Australia Post payment statements and the PO Box count.

Income tied to letters keeps shrinking, and income from parcels, PO Boxes and banking has to replace it. Letter volumes fell 14.7% to 1.42 billion in 2025-26 (AAP, August 2026), and Australia Post expects about 10% fewer a year (ACCC, July 2026), even after basic postage rose to $1.85 on 1 September 2026. Parcel volumes rose 5.3%, 64% of visits to a post office were about parcels, and Bank@Post commissions rose 30% after new agreements with the major banks (Australia Post, 2026). Parcels are not a like-for-like replacement: a licensee group said in 2023 that a locker delivery pays the licensee about half what a counter delivery pays. Read three years of the office’s payment statements by category, and value the trend, not the strongest year.

Often, within Australia Post’s rules. Many offices sell stationery, cards and phones alongside postal products, and some are sold with a second business: one Sydney office listed on 2 November 2026 comes with a newsagency. The limits are in the licence. In 2014 a Senate committee described restrictions on selling products that compete with Australia Post’s, and rival carriers told the 2026 Senate inquiry that licensees cannot handle other carriers’ parcels without Australia Post’s permission. For a buyer, a second business changes the numbers: separate the post office income from the other business’s before you price either, and check that the lease permits both uses. Ask Australia Post what the agreement allows before you plan the shop around it.

Allow at least three months. Australia Post expects its approval to take 90 days, from the online information request through the interview and training to signing and handover, and training must be complete before you take over (checked 2 November 2026). Your lender’s assessment, the valuation of any building and the landlord’s consent run alongside it. Write the contract’s finance and approval dates around those processes, not around the agent’s preferred settlement date: a vendor can issue a default notice when finance runs past the contract date. A complete pack at the start, and the valuation ordered early, are the two things that shorten the timetable most.

You can, but Australia Post and the lender will both test it. Australia Post interviews and trains every incoming licensee, and may ask for a seven-year employment history, a business plan for the site and cash flow projections (checked 2 November 2026). Lenders weigh the buyer’s experience: one specialist business bank may set lower gearing for first-time operators (September 2026), and assessors compare a buyer’s forecast with the actual results of any business the buyer already runs. What helps: retail or customer service management experience, a forecast that starts from the vendor’s actual figures rather than an immediate lift, an experienced staff member staying on, and more of your own money in the deal.