If you have never bought or sold an NDIS business, the process is more structured than most people expect. Here is the whole arc.

1. The anonymous listing

NDIS business listings are deliberately anonymous: the registration groups, state, price and description are public, but the company's identity is not. That protects the seller — staff, participants and competitors generally should not learn a business is for sale from a website.

2. Enquiry and NDA

A buyer enquires through the listing, and the conversation starts by email — directly between buyer and seller. Before identifying details change hands (company name, ABN, financials), the parties sign a confidentiality agreement. Serious sellers insist on this and serious buyers expect it.

3. Due diligence

With the NDA in place, the buyer verifies everything: the Certificate of Registration and its groups, certification expiry and audit history, ASIC records, and — for operating businesses — financials, staff and participant arrangements. Buyers should use their own accountant and lawyer here. Sellers speed this stage up enormously by having documents ready before listing.

4. Contract and completion

The sale is a company transfer: share sale documents, settlement, and the ASIC updates that record the new ownership. The ABN — and with it the NDIS registration — stays with the entity throughout. This is the step where professional advisers earn their fee.

5. Notifying the NDIS Commission

The change of ownership must be notified to the Commission as soon as possible, through the registered providers portal. The Commission assesses the incoming owners' suitability, and businesses delivering high-risk or complex supports complete an audit within three months of the change. These rules have applied in their current form since 1 July 2026 and are set out in the Commission's guidance, "Buying or selling a registered NDIS business".

6. Handover

For clean companies, handover is mostly documents and portal access. For operating providers it is staff, participants, systems and relationships — plan the transition before settlement, not after.

How long does all this take?

It varies with the buyer's readiness and the complexity of the business — clean-company sales with organised documents move fastest. The single biggest factor either side controls is preparation.