Landscaping business valuation multiples: what a landscaping company is worth and why

Part of the Landscaping guide: buying, selling, valuation and who is buying.

This guide is for a landscaping owner, or a buyer, who wants a straight answer on price. By the end you will know the landscaping business valuation multiples sellers are asking today, what closed deals paid by size, and what moves a company up or down its range. Every number comes from one of two named sources, and we say plainly which is which.

Where do these numbers come from?

There are two honest ways to see what a landscaping business is worth: what sellers ask, and what deals closed at. This post uses one source for each.

The first is our own asking-multiples report. Our AI sourcing agents read business-for-sale marketplaces every day. Between 1 September and 23 October 2026 they read 2,915 listings, after removing cross-listings. 42 of those were landscaping companies. The report gives medians and quartiles only, never single listings, and hides any cell with fewer than 15 listings.

These are asking prices our agents read from marketplaces, not closed deals. Sellers set them. Buyers often pay less.

The second source is the International Business Brokers Association's Q4 2025 Market Pulse, a survey of brokers about deals they closed. It covers all industries, sorted by deal size.

What are landscaping sellers asking right now?

Here is the landscaping row from our October 2026 report, for the full window of 1 September to 23 October 2026.

Source: Acquisitions.com asking-multiples report, October 2026. Asking prices on marketplaces, not sale prices.

So half of the landscaping sellers who disclosed earnings asked between about 2.4 and 4 times SDE. Only half of the 42 listings gave SDE at all, so 21 is a small sample. Treat it as a range, not a rule.

For context, across all 2,915 listings the median asked was 3.04x SDE, on 1,283 listings with both figures. Landscaping sellers ask about what the wider market asks.

What did closed deals pay by size?

IBBA's Q4 2025 Market Pulse reports average multiples by purchase price for each quarter of 2025. Deals under $2M are priced on SDE. Deals of $2M and up are priced on EBITDA.

Source: IBBA and M&A Source, Market Pulse Q4 2025 highlights. All industries, closed deals reported by brokers.

The median landscaping listing in our data asked $900,000. That sits in IBBA's $500K to $1M band, where closed deals averaged 2.8x to 3.0x SDE in 2025. The two sources point to the same neighbourhood: around 3x SDE for a typical small landscaping company.

SDE or EBITDA: which one applies to you?

Small landscaping companies are valued on SDE, and larger ones on EBITDA. The line is roughly the $2M price IBBA uses.

SDE (seller's discretionary earnings) is profit plus the owner's salary, benefits and personal costs run through the company. It assumes the buyer will step into the owner's job. Most owner-run firms with a few crews are priced this way.

EBITDA takes a market salary for a manager out first. It is a smaller number on a higher multiple. Platforms and larger buyers use it because they will hire a manager to run the branch.

If you mix them up, you can be off by a lot. A company with $500,000 of SDE might have $380,000 of EBITDA once a $120,000 manager is paid.

What pushes a landscaping company up or down its range?

The same company can sit at the bottom or top of its band. These are the things buyers price in.

Maintenance is the biggest lever. At BrightView, the largest public company in the trade, maintenance brought in $1,891.3 million of its $2,672.8 million fiscal 2025 revenue, per its fiscal 2025 results. Buyers at every size want that kind of repeat revenue.

A worked example

Here is an illustration with round numbers, not a quote. It applies our landscaping asking quartiles and the IBBA band for each company's size.

The small company's IBBA price lands right on our median asking price of $900,000. If the owner runs every crew and most revenue is design-build, expect the low end. If most revenue is renewing commercial contracts and a manager runs the day, the owner can argue for the high end.

The larger company is worth several times more, from a bigger multiple and a buyer pool that includes private equity platforms. Try your own numbers in our business valuation calculator.

What should you do with these numbers?

Use them as a frame, not a price tag. The real price is set by your earnings, your contracts and the buyers who show up.

1. Work out both SDE and EBITDA so you know which buyers you are talking to.
2. Split revenue into maintenance, enhancements, design-build and snow.
3. Check customer concentration and the contract renewal rate.
4. List equipment by age so a buyer cannot surprise you with it.
5. Compare your number to the bands above and ask why you sit where you do.

Our report is refreshed monthly, so the landscaping figures will move as new listings come in. For the rest of the picture, see our landscaping buying and selling hub, or talk to us about selling. Moran Pober has advised buyers and sellers of small and mid-sized businesses since 2016.