In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →An auction compresses a property purchase into a few minutes. In a private sale, a buyer makes an offer, negotiates, signs, and then has several days in which the law lets them change their mind. At an auction in Queensland, the highest bid above the reserve ends the matter on the spot. The contract is signed straight away and the safety nets that many buyers assume exist are simply not there.
That is why the rules matter more at auction than anywhere else in a property purchase. They are also unusually specific to this state. Queensland bans price guides for auction properties, requires every bidder to be registered and identified, limits what an auctioneer may do on the seller's behalf, and, since August 2025, requires a seller disclosure statement to be available before the hammer falls. A buyer who has attended auctions in another state will find that some of what they learned does not apply here.
This guide sets out those rules one by one, and names where each is published: mainly the Queensland Government's consumer pages on buying at auction and on cooling-off, the Office of Fair Trading's guidance for auctioneers, and the government's page on the seller disclosure scheme. It describes the general position. How a rule applies to a particular property or contract depends on the facts, and that is a question for a solicitor or conveyancer before auction day, not after.
Queensland Government pages "Buying property at auction" and "Cooling-off period".
No cooling-off period at auction
The standard contract for buying a home in Queensland comes with a cooling-off period of 5 business days, according to the Queensland Government's page on cooling-off. During that time the buyer can withdraw. The same page says the seller may then keep a penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price and must refund the rest of the deposit within 14 days.
Related readJust over half of Brisbane's reported auctions sell in mid-AugustAuctions are the exception. The Queensland Government's page "Buying property at auction" states it without qualification: there is no cooling-off period for buying at auction. The successful bidder must sign the contract immediately and go on to settle.
The practical meaning is that the decision is final at the moment the bidding ends. The government's guidance is explicit that a buyer cannot later step away because an inspection turned up a problem or because their circumstances changed. Everything a private buyer might do during a cooling-off period, an auction buyer has to have done beforehand.
The two business days after a failed auction
A property that does not sell under the hammer can still be sold in the hours or days that follow, by ordinary negotiation between the seller and one of the people who bid. It would be natural to assume that such a sale is a private one and carries the usual 5 business days. In one case it does not.
The Queensland Government's auction page says the cooling-off period also does not apply to a private treaty contract entered into within 2 business days of an unsuccessful auction of that property, where the buyer was a registered bidder at that auction. The Office of Fair Trading's page on cooling-off describes the same exception as a follow-up sale made before 5pm on the second business day, in which the buyer was a registered bidder.
Both conditions have to be met. A sale after that window carries the cooling-off period, and so does a sale to a buyer who had not registered to bid. The table below sets the three situations side by side.
Related readMore than half of Brisbane auctions passed in during first week of June| How the property is bought | Cooling-off period | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| Under the hammer at auction | None | The contract is signed immediately. |
| By private contract within 2 business days of a failed auction, by a registered bidder | None | The contract is final once signed. |
| By private contract outside those two cases | 5 business days | Withdrawing may cost up to 0.25% of the price. |
Queensland Government, "Buying property at auction" and "Cooling-off period"; Office of Fair Trading, "Cooling-off period for residential property contracts".
For a bidder who was outbid by the reserve rather than by a rival, this is the rule most easily missed. A conversation with the agent on the footpath after the auction can lead to a contract that is as final as a winning bid would have been.
Why there is no price guide
Buyers used to auctions elsewhere may look for a price guide and find none. That is the law in Queensland, not a marketing choice. The Queensland Government's auction page says it is illegal for a seller or their agent to give a price guide for an auction property.
The Office of Fair Trading's guidance for auctioneers gives the reasoning: price guidance may mislead consumers or influence the bidding. The same guidance explains the one place a figure is allowed to exist. Property websites sort listings by price, so an agent may supply a price range to a listing site for the sole purpose of making the search filters work. The listing itself must then show a disclaimer in place of a price. The wording the Office of Fair Trading gives is that the property is being sold by auction or without a price and therefore a price guide cannot be provided.
An agent who declines to name a price is following the law
The Queensland Government says it is illegal for a seller or agent to give a price guide for an auction property. What a bidder may be given instead, with the seller's approval, is a comparative market analysis of recent sales.
That document is the lawful alternative. The Office of Fair Trading describes a comparative market analysis, or CMA, as a comparison of at least 3 properties of similar standard or condition, sold within 5km of the property and within the last 6 months. Its guidance says an agent may give a CMA to bidders only with the seller's written consent, so whether one is available depends on the seller. Where it is not, the same kind of evidence, recent comparable sales nearby, is what a buyer is left to assemble independently.
Related readNearly one in four auctions withdrawn as vendors step backIt follows that the price bracket in which an auction listing appears on a website is a product of a search filter. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance treats it as a technical necessity, not as a statement about what the seller will accept.
Registering to bid
Nobody can decide to bid on the spur of the moment. The Queensland Government's auction page says only registered bidders can bid on the day, and that the auctioneer gives each one a unique identifier such as a numbered paddle.
The Office of Fair Trading's guidance sets out the auctioneer's side of that duty. The auctioneer must keep a register of all bidders and register them before the auction starts. They must see suitable identification, and the example given is a driver licence. They must give each bidder an identifying marker, such as a numbered card or baton, which the bidder has to use. And they must announce that only registered bidders may bid.
Neither source describes registration as a commitment to bid. It does have one consequence that outlasts the auction, already described above: a registered bidder who buys the property privately within 2 business days of a failed auction has no cooling-off period.
The register is not public. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance says the auctioneer must not identify any bidder during the auction, and that bidders' identities stay confidential except as needed to complete the sale. The crowd sees paddle numbers, not names.
The reserve and the words "on the market"
The reserve is defined on the Queensland Government's auction page as the minimum sale price the seller will accept. A seller may set one but does not have to. According to the Office of Fair Trading, a reserve must be set in writing, and the agent must tell the seller in writing that without one the highest bid has to be accepted.
Related readNo long weekend, yet Brisbane auction numbers fall by almost a thirdA bidder is entitled to know one thing about the reserve and not the other. The Queensland Government's page says the auctioneer is allowed to say whether or not a reserve has been set, but must not disclose the amount. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance adds that the reserve stays confidential to everyone except the seller's side.
Because the figure is secret, the moment it is reached has its own phrase, which the auctioneer may announce but does not have to. Once bidding reaches or passes the reserve, or where there is no reserve at all, the property is "on the market". The Queensland Government's page explains what that phrase commits the seller to: once a property is on the market, the auction must result in a sale. From then on the highest bidder will be the buyer.
Before that point, the highest bid does not bind the seller. Bidding that stops short of the reserve produces no sale, which is the situation the 2 business day rule is written for.
Vendor bids and dummy bids
Queensland allows the auctioneer to bid on the seller's behalf, within tight limits. The Queensland Government's auction page and the Office of Fair Trading's guidance describe the same two limits. Such a bid may be made only up to the reserve. And each one must be announced as a vendor bid when it is made.
The Office of Fair Trading's guidance closes the door at the reserve: once the property is on the market, the auctioneer may no longer accept vendor bids. A bid made for the seller after that point is illegal, the Queensland Government's page says.
Related readPassed in at auction: what happens next for seller and highest bidderA vendor bid has to be announced as one
According to the Office of Fair Trading, an auctioneer must disclose whenever a bid is a vendor bid, and may accept one only up to the reserve. A vendor bid therefore tells the room that the reserve has not yet been passed.
Dummy bids are a different thing and are banned outright. The Queensland Government's page describes them as false bids made by people planted in the crowd, and says plainly that they are illegal. The registration rules work against them: every bid has to come from a person the auctioneer has identified and entered in the register.
The distinction is worth holding on to. An announced vendor bid below the reserve is a lawful part of a Queensland auction. An unannounced bid for the seller, a bid for the seller above the reserve, or a bid from a planted bystander is not.
Bidding without conditions
In a private sale, buyers commonly make an offer "subject to finance" or "subject to building and pest inspection". The contract then falls away if the loan is refused or the inspection is unsatisfactory. The Queensland Government's auction page says auction terms generally require bids to be unconditional. Its two examples are precisely those a private buyer relies on most: no "subject to finance" and no "subject to sale" of another property.
So the order of events is reversed. The checks come first and the commitment second, with no way back. The government's page lists the checks it expects a bidder to have completed before auction day:
- a title search
- a building inspection
- a pest inspection
- a land tax clearance search
- a pool inspection, where the property has a pool
The same page points buyers to inspecting the property, arranging finance, obtaining a valuation and taking legal advice before bidding, and offers a pre-auction checklist for the purpose. It also suggests settling on a firm budget in advance.
One consequence follows directly: the searches and inspections are paid for before the bidder knows whether they will win the property. That is the trade for bidding on terms that cannot be undone.
Related readPass-ins nearly double withdrawals as Brisbane clears 26 per centSeller disclosure before the hammer
The newest rule in this guide is the seller disclosure scheme. According to the Queensland Government's page on the scheme, since 1 August 2025 a seller must give the buyer a disclosure statement, known as Form 2, together with prescribed certificates, before the buyer signs the contract. The scheme was introduced by the Property Law Act 2023.
An auction leaves no gap between winning and signing, so the timing is adapted. The government's page says different rules apply for sales by auction, but the disclosure statement and prescribed certificates must still be given or made available to the buyer before the fall of the hammer.
What the statement contains, and what it leaves out, matters a great deal to a buyer with no cooling-off period.
| Matter | In the statement |
|---|---|
| Title and encumbrances | Yes |
| Tenancies | Yes |
| Zoning and environmental status | Yes |
| Building notices and pool | Yes |
| Body corporate details | Yes |
| Structural soundness of the building | No |
| Flooding history | No |
| Previous building or development approvals | No |
Queensland Government, "Seller disclosure scheme".
The three "No" rows are the ones an auction buyer has to notice. The statement does not replace a building inspection, and it says nothing about whether the land has flooded. Those remain the buyer's own enquiries, made before bidding.
The scheme does give buyers a remedy, with conditions. The government's page says a buyer may have a right to terminate the contract at any time up to settlement if the disclosure documents were not given at all, or if the information was inaccurate or incomplete. In the second case the buyer has to show that the matter was material, that they were not aware of it when signing, and that they would not have signed had they known. Whether those conditions are met in a given sale is a legal question that turns on the documents.
Related readReserve Bank holds at 4.35 per cent as Brisbane auctions stay subduedSome sales fall outside the scheme. The examples on the government's page include sales between related parties, sales to the State or a government body, and sales above $10 million where the buyer waives disclosure.
From the first bid to the signature
Put together, the rules give auction day a fixed order. Each stage below is drawn from the Queensland Government's auction page and the Office of Fair Trading's guidance for auctioneers.
- RegistrationBefore the auction starts, each bidder shows identification and receives a numbered marker.
- Opening announcementsThe auctioneer is named and announces that only registered bidders may bid.
- Bidding below the reserveVendor bids are allowed here, each one announced. No sale is yet certain.
- On the marketThe reserve is reached. Vendor bids stop and the property will sell.
- Fall of the hammerThe highest bidder signs the contract immediately, with no cooling-off period.
The fourth stage does not always arrive. Where bidding ends below the reserve there is no sale under the hammer, and any contract signed afterwards is a private one, subject to the 2 business day rule for registered bidders.
Deposit, contract and settlement
A winning bidder pays a deposit when the contract is signed. The Queensland Government's auction page does not set a figure. It tells buyers to ask the agent before the auction what percentage will be required and how it has to be paid, and notes that a personal cheque, a bank cheque or a deposit bond is usually accepted. Both points are settled by the terms of the particular auction, so they can differ from one property to the next.
The contract is signed immediately, the same page says. There is no interval in which to arrange funds or take advice, which is why the government's guidance places the legal advice before the auction.
After that, the obligation is to settle on time. The Queensland Government's page warns of very serious legal consequences for a buyer who cannot. They include liability for the costs of selling the property again and for any shortfall, meaning the difference if the property then sells for less. An unconditional contract offers no exit through a refused loan, which is why the same page puts arranging finance among the things to do before bidding.
At a Queensland auction the thinking has to be finished before the bidding starts, because nothing in the law reopens the question afterwards.
Checking the auctioneer's licence
The person conducting the auction is regulated too. The Queensland Government's auction page says an auctioneer must hold a current and valid auctioneer licence. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance requires the auctioneer's name to be displayed clearly at the auction, or announced at the start where a sign is not practical.
That name is what makes the licence checkable. The Queensland Government's page says licences can be verified through its check-a-licence service. A bidder who has the auctioneer's name before the day can confirm the licence before registering.
The rules in this guide sit in general consumer guidance published by the Queensland Government and the Office of Fair Trading. They describe what the law requires of sellers, agents and auctioneers, and what it does not offer buyers. The conditions of a specific auction, the terms of its contract and the contents of its disclosure statement are particular to each property, and they are what decide how the general rule lands in any one case.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
