Setting Up a Medical Practice in Australia: Checklist, Costs and Finance

Setting up a medical practice in Australia runs through eight steps: registration, business structure, premises, Medicare provider numbers, fit-out, equipment, staff and accreditation. This checklist puts a sourced figure or rule against each one, from the $1,102 annual registration fee to published fit-out estimates of roughly $180,000 to $450,000 for a general practice, and matches the finance to each step.

It is written for a doctor starting a medical practice from scratch, usually a general practice, because that is where most of the rules bite, and the same sequence applies to specialist rooms and dental surgeries with the substitutions noted along the way. Practice ownership is a minority path: the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) 2025 Health of the Nation survey found close to one in four practising GPs (24%) own a practice, while 34% of GPs in training say they would like to. The medical professionals hub covers the finance side profession by profession.

Setting up a medical practice: the checklist at a glance

The rules and deadlines in the table come from the Medical Board, the ATO, Services Australia, the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) and Emu Money's own product pages. The costs are in the table under What it costs, and each step has its own section below.

Step 1: registration, indemnity and who can practise

Nothing else on the list matters until the doctors who will work at the practice hold current registration with the Medical Board of Australia through Ahpra. From 1 August 2026 the annual fee for general or specialist registration is $1,102 ($925 for NSW registrants), and a first application for general or specialist registration carries a separate $1,661 application fee. A doctor who is already registered and renewing pays the annual fee only; a first-time registrant pays $2,763 in fees in the first year outside NSW on the Board's published figures.

Professional indemnity insurance (PII) is a condition of registration, not an optional extra: the Board's registration standard requires every practitioner who undertakes any form of practice to hold PII arrangements for all aspects of that practice, and initial registration and each annual renewal include a declaration to that effect. A practice that trades on a specialist title needs specialist registration behind it, because the title is protected by law, and fellowship of an Australian Medical Council (AMC) accredited college is the usual route to it, not the only one. The finance for doctors guide covers what that means for a specialist's borrowing.

Dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and psychologists are among the professions regulated under the same Ahpra scheme, each with its own board, so a dental or allied health practice runs through the same step and the Medical Board fees above apply to doctors only. Veterinarians sit outside it, registered by state and territory veterinary boards, which is why the veterinary practice loans guide handles them separately.

Step 2: business structure, ABN and GST

The ABN comes first: the ATO requires one before a practice can register for GST, and it is the first thing an Emu Money business finance application asks for. The structure that holds the ABN (sole trader, partnership, company or trust) decides who signs the lease, who employs the staff and who carries the debt, and that choice is an accountant's and a lawyer's conversation to have before the lease is signed rather than after.

GST registration becomes compulsory once GST turnover reaches $75,000, or from the start when a new business expects to reach that threshold in its first year of operation, and the ATO gives you 21 days to register once you are required to. A service that attracts a Medicare benefit is generally GST-free, as is any other service supplied by or on behalf of a medical practitioner that is generally accepted in the profession as necessary for the patient's treatment. Cosmetic procedures with no Medicare benefit and medical reports written for insurers or lawyers are generally not.

How GST-free billings count toward the $75,000 threshold, whether to register early to claim GST credits on the fit-out, and the treatment of each income line are questions for the accountant before the billing software is configured.

Step 3: premises, lease or buy

For a practice that leases, the lease shapes the finance for everything that follows, because the fit-out becomes a leasehold improvement with its own tax treatment. The split between the capital works in a fit-out and the plant inside it is generally the accountant's call, and the fit-out finance guide covers it.

Buying the premises instead means a commercial property loan. Through Emu Money, commercial property loans run from $100,000 to $10,000,000+ over terms from 1 to 30 years, lenders on Emu Money's panel apply standard loan-to-value ratios (LVRs) of 65% to 80%, and you generally need a 20% to 35% deposit, with low doc loans typically requiring 35% to 40%.

Step 4: Medicare provider numbers and billing

A Medicare provider number is what lets a practitioner claim under the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), and a prescriber number lets a practitioner prescribe under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). A provider number is tied to a practitioner at a practice location, so every doctor who will bill from the new address needs one issued for it, and most health professionals receive theirs immediately when they apply through HPOS via Provider Digital Access (PRODA). Dentists need one to bill, refer or request services that attract a Medicare benefit, with a different number for every location, and the finance for dentists guide has that detail.

The practical consequence is that provider numbers cannot be sorted out until the practice has an address, which puts this step after the lease and before the practice management software goes live. Bulk billing, mixed billing and private billing are business decisions rather than registrations, but they drive the cash flow a lender will later read, so settle them before the opening date.

Step 5: the fit-out

The fit-out is the widest-ranging line on this page. Published 2026 estimates from fit-out contractors put a 100 to 200 square metre general practice at roughly $180,000 to $450,000, and one industry guide's own illustration is a 150 square metre GP practice from roughly $300,000. Dental and radiology fit-outs sit above general practice in the same estimates, and the fit-out finance guide carries the full ranges, the cost drivers and the tax treatment.

Through Emu Money, fit-outs run on equipment and asset finance over 1 to 7 years, which may require additional security for items that become fixtures, or on a secured term loan where property or asset security is available; the finance table below carries the floors and amounts. Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer fit-out terms up to 10 years and a draw-down facility with the option of no repayments during the draw-down stage, subject to eligibility and credit approval, which matters when the builder's progress claims arrive before the first patient does.

Step 6: equipment

One industry guide puts equipment at 20% to 40% of the total build cost, and prices a Class B benchtop autoclave, for a practice that sterilises its own instruments, at $9,500 to $16,000. The consulting-room basics (examination couches, ECG, spirometer, vaccine fridge, computers and phones) add up before any imaging is considered, and the medical equipment finance page covers the items in depth.

Through Emu Money, medical equipment finance covers $5,000 to $500,000+ over 1 to 7 years (the floor is in the finance table below), and Emu Money's equipment finance page notes that payment goes directly to the vendor at settlement.

On tax, a small business with aggregated turnover under $10 million can generally claim the instant asset write-off on eligible assets costing less than $20,000 per asset, a limit that is now law as a permanent measure from 1 July 2026. Whether a new practice qualifies in its first year, and how anything above the limit is treated, are questions for the accountant, and the fit-out finance guide carries the detail.

Step 7: staff, awards and insurance

Plan the first hires, for example reception staff, a practice manager and a practice nurse, before the opening date. Medical receptionists and health professional employees such as physiotherapists sit under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award (HPSS Award), and nurses are covered by the Nurses Award. Neither the HPSS Award nor the Medical Practitioners Award, which covers doctors employed in settings such as hospitals and day procedure centres, places a GP employed in a private practice under an award, so the terms for any employed or contracted doctor need an employment adviser's eye.

Recruitment is a widespread headache: the RACGP's 2025 Health of the Nation survey found seven in 10 practice owners say sourcing GPs is an issue for their practice.

On insurance, the PII in Step 1 covers the practitioners; the practice itself needs public liability cover, which is a stated eligibility requirement for the PIP, and workers compensation cover for its employees under its state or territory scheme. Cover for the fit-out and equipment is a decision to settle with the insurer and the lender financing them.

Step 8: accreditation, the PIP and privacy

For a general practice, the Commission requires a practice to be operational before it can register for accreditation, so accreditation is not a condition of opening. It is the gate to the PIP, which requires a practice to be accredited, or registered for accreditation, against the RACGP Standards for general practices.

Accreditation under the National General Practice Accreditation Scheme currently uses the 5th edition of the Standards, and a 6th edition has been published with accreditation arrangements to be announced. To register, a practice must meet the RACGP definition of a general practice, be operational and confirm it can meet all the mandatory indicators, and it then engages a Commission-approved accrediting agency, which notifies the Commission within 10 business days.

Registration expires 12 months from the date the practice signs its contract with the accrediting agency, and the Commission recommends assessment at least four months before expiry. A practice that is not accredited before expiry has to re-commence the process, so the working window from signing to assessment-ready is at most about eight months. Two pressures pull against each other: signing is what makes the practice registered for accreditation for the PIP, but it also starts the clock, so when to sign is a decision to take with the accrediting agency once the practice is operational.

One industry fit-out guide budgets roughly $3,000 to $7,000 for accreditation every three years. The PIP also requires the practice to be an open practice as the PIP defines it, to hold public liability insurance and to hold PII for all its GPs and nurse practitioners, and its payment streams include eHealth, quality improvement, teaching, after-hours care and rural locations.

Privacy is the last compliance line: a private sector health service provider, including a medical practitioner, is covered by the Privacy Act regardless of the $3 million turnover threshold that applies to other businesses, so the privacy policy and records handling are in scope from the first patient.

What it costs: the lines a lender will read

Because a new practice has no trading history, a lender will typically read the budget line by line rather than the trading figures. The registration fee below is exact and the rest are published estimates, and the table prints no total because the premises, the staffing plan and the imaging decision swing the number by hundreds of thousands.

Finance for setting up a medical practice

Lenders price a start-up on the application rather than at the product floors: the doctor's income history and registration, the business plan, the lease and the security offered typically carry the decision that trading figures would carry for an established practice. The floors on this page are the lowest advertised rates through Emu Money, and a start-up is not automatically assessed at them.

Emu Money's own unsecured business loans page says rates for start-ups typically start from around 12% given the higher risk, and that a personal guarantee from the director is standard. Most lenders on the panel want an ABN registered for at least 6 months (6 to 12 months for a sole trader), GST registration and minimum monthly turnover of $5,000 for unsecured lending. A practice entity that is weeks old will not meet those tests on its own, which is one reason a start-up is priced on the application rather than at the product floors.

Some specialist medico lenders publicly offer up to 100% finance for practice build loans covering commercial property, construction and fit-out, with staged payment support, subject to eligibility and credit approval. Those are not Emu Money product terms, so ask about them alongside an Emu Money comparison, which puts offers from 50+ lenders side by side, costs you nothing and has no impact on your credit score. If you buy an existing practice instead of starting one, the medical practice loans guide covers practice loans through Emu Money and how much of the price lenders on the panel typically finance.

Most Australian businesses with an active ABN can apply through Emu Money, and the application asks for ID, ABN details and recent bank statements, which for a new practice may be the doctor's own. Some lenders require a deposit, particularly for larger loans or businesses with shorter trading histories, so a start-up may be asked for one.

Timeline: what to start first when starting a medical practice

The dependencies set the order. Registration and PII come first because every other step names the registered practitioner, and the structure and ABN come next because the lease, the finance applications and the payroll all sit on the entity. The lease comes before the provider numbers because a provider number is tied to a practitioner at a practice location, and the fit-out, the equipment orders and the hiring run in parallel once the lease is signed so the team is in place for opening.

Accreditation sits last because a practice must be operational at the time it registers with an accrediting agency, which means the PIP's registered-for-accreditation condition is generally only met once the doors are open. Step 8 has the clock that starts on signing, and a line of credit or unsecured loan can bridge the gap between opening and the billings settling into a pattern.

How to compare finance for a new practice

Setting up a medical practice is eight budgets, not one, and the finance can follow the same split: by asset life first, and by lender second. The equipment carries its own security, the fit-out may need extra security for items that become fixtures, and both belong on equipment or asset finance over 1 to 7 years or, with property or asset security, on a secured term loan. The premises belong on a commercial property loan.

Working capital is usually better placed on a line of credit or an unsecured loan than on the fit-out facility, and a start-up is priced on the application on every facility.

Then compare on the terms a new practice is actually offered rather than the floors: the deposit asked for, the personal guarantee, the draw-down arrangements during the fit-out, any interest-only period, and whether the lender will finance the fit-out on leased premises without extra security. Have the accountant confirm the GST, capital works and instant asset write-off treatment of each line before the finance is structured, because the tax position changes which facility is cheapest after tax.

This page is general information only and is not financial, tax or legal advice. Registration fees, accreditation arrangements, tax thresholds and lender terms change; check the current figures with the Medical Board, the ATO, your accrediting agency and your accountant before relying on them. Subject to lender approval, terms, and conditions apply.