Will your business actually work in that suburb?
Check the viability of a café, restaurant, gym, takeaway or retail shop in any major Australian suburb in 10 seconds. Get a GO / CAUTION / NO verdict, estimated monthly revenue, net profit, break-even, and the specific conditions that have to hold for it to work — before you sign a lease.
Run viability check
Suburb-level decision preview in ~10 seconds.
Quick examples
Free preview based on suburb-level demand models. For an address-level report with live competitor, foot-traffic and demographic data, run the full Locatalyze analysis.
Result panel
Run your first check
Choose your business format, suburb, rent, and setup budget to generate a GO / CAUTION / NO outcome with base-case revenue, profit, and break-even signal. You currently have Surry Hills, Sydney selected.
Verdict
GO / CAUTION / NO
Action-ready signal
Financial snapshot
Revenue + Net + BE
Base / low / high ranges
Decision checks
Conditions + Failure modes
What must be true
Four variables decide whether a location works.
Demand fit for your format
Every suburb has a different demand profile. Fitzroy over-indexes for cafés and indie retail; Chatswood over-indexes for restaurants and service retail; Subiaco for health-conscious formats. We score the suburb against your specific business type.
Rent-to-revenue ratio
Rent above 10% of revenue is the #1 silent killer of hospitality and retail. We compare the rent you entered against the suburb median so you can see whether your lease is already eating your margin before day one.
Capital adequacy
Under-capitalised openings are the second most common failure driver. Each business type has a minimum setup threshold — if your budget is below it, we flag it and show you the failure mode before you commit.
Suburb-type match
Some suburbs are great for cafés and terrible for gyms. Some are excellent for restaurants but poor for takeaway. We use on-the-ground suburb profiles (demographics, vibe, anchors, parking, foot traffic) to score the match.
Most failed locations were predictable.
Operators don't fail because they're bad operators — most fail because the location maths never worked in the first place. Rent was 3% too high, demand was 15% below what they assumed, a direct competitor opened 150 metres away, or the catchment had the wrong demographics for their format.
This checker exists to catch those signals before you sign a 5-year lease. The free suburb-level preview gets you 60% of the way there. The full Locatalyze report resolves the rest at your exact address.
The checker is good at:
What only the paid report sees:
Questions operators ask before they trust the number
How accurate is the free viability checker?+
The free checker is a suburb-level preview. It uses Locatalyze's demand scores, rent ranges, parking signals and suburb fit data — the same base layer that powers our paid reports. It's designed to tell you whether a format works in a suburb at all. It can't see your exact address, your specific competitors or live foot traffic — that's what the full address-level report unlocks.
What does the GO / CAUTION / NO verdict actually mean?+
GO (score 72+): the inputs clear the viability line comfortably — demand, rent-to-revenue ratio, suburb fit and capital are all on your side. CAUTION (52–71): it can work, but only if specific conditions hold — we list them. NO (under 52): at least one of demand, rent, budget or suburb fit is under the line and needs fixing before a lease is signed.
Where do the revenue and profit numbers come from?+
Revenue is modelled as customers/day × average ticket × 30, scaled by the suburb's demand score for your business type. Costs combine staffing (calibrated to business type and size), rent you entered, COGS as a % of revenue, and a utilities/insurance overhead. We show worst, base and best cases, not a single false-precision number.
Is this financial advice?+
No. It's a decision-support preview. Numbers are indicative, based on suburb demand models and typical operating ratios for each business type. Before signing a lease or spending capital, run the full address-level report and review it with your accountant.
Which suburbs and cities are covered?+
Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Canberra and Newcastle — with the highest-demand inner suburbs in each. If the suburb you want isn't in the list, the full Locatalyze report can still analyse any address in Australia.
Why do I need the paid report if this is free?+
The free tool uses suburb averages. But most leases fail or succeed on variables an average can't see: the specific competitors within 500m, hour-by-hour foot traffic on your block, the exact demographic mix of your 500m catchment, and whether the rent you've been quoted is above or below real comparable listings. The paid report resolves all of that for your exact address.
The suburb looks good. Now check the exact address.
Run a full Locatalyze report with live competitor data, foot traffic, demographics and a 12-month financial model. Delivered in under 5 minutes.