How an asking price is set in Queensland, and what the law says about it

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Every home that goes on the market in Queensland carries at least three prices before it carries a buyer's. There is the figure the agent suggests at the kitchen table. There is the figure the seller writes on the appointment form. And there is the figure, or the absence of one, that appears in the advertisement. Sellers tend to treat the three as one decision made in one conversation. The law treats them separately, and attaches a different rule to each.

This guide follows a price from the first appraisal to the listing and through a campaign. It sets out what the Office of Fair Trading requires of an agent who estimates a value, what an "offers over" figure is taken to mean, why an auction listing shows no price at all, what the property websites do with the number they are given, and where the Australian Consumer Law steps in. It describes the general rules as the Queensland Government publishes them. It does not suggest what any home should be priced at: that depends on the property and on evidence no guide can see.

Office of Fair Trading guidance on estimating the value of a property.

Three prices, not one

It helps to name the three before looking at the rules.

The appraisal is the agent's opinion of what the home is likely to sell for. It is given before the agent is appointed, often by several agents competing for the listing, and it costs the seller nothing.

The instructed price is what the seller tells the agent in writing. It is recorded when the agent is appointed, on the prescribed appointment form, and for an auction it takes the form of a reserve.

The advertised price is what buyers see. It may be a single figure, an "offers over" figure, a range, a phrase such as "by negotiation", or nothing.

Finally there is the price that matters, the one in the contract. Cotality's chart pack for July 2026 put the median vendor discount across the combined capital cities at 3.6 per cent over the three months to June: the typical gap between what was advertised and what was paid. The gap exists because an asking price is an opening position, and the rules below are about keeping that opening position honest, not about making it accurate.

The agent's appraisal and the three-sale rule

An agent is not free to pluck a number from the air. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on valuing property states that an agent who gives an estimate of a property's value must do so by way of a comparative market analysis. The analysis has to compare the home with at least three properties that are of a similar standard or condition, that sold within five kilometres of it, and that sold in the last six months.

Each of the three limits does a job. Similar standard or condition stops a renovated house being used to price an original one. Five kilometres keeps the comparison local. Six months keeps it current, which matters most when a market is changing direction: a sale from five months ago was struck under different conditions from one struck last week, and the rule allows both to be used. A seller reading an analysis is entitled to look at the dates.

The guidance also covers the home with no true comparables. A rural property, an unusual building or a house in a small town may not have three similar sales within five kilometres in half a year. In that case the agent must give the market advice in writing and justify how the opinion was reached. The absence of evidence does not excuse the agent from explaining the figure. It changes the form the explanation takes.

Behind the specific rule sits a general one. The same guidance says an agent must not make any false or misleading claims about a property, and that includes its estimated value. An appraisal pitched high in order to win a listing, with no sales to support it, is the conduct the comparative analysis is designed to expose.

The practical use of the rule for a seller is simple. When three agents give three different figures, the analyses can be laid side by side. The agents will often have drawn on the same recent sales. The differences between their figures then come down to which sales each chose and how each adjusted for the differences between those homes and this one, and those are choices a seller can ask about.

Appraisal or valuation

An appraisal is sometimes loosely called a valuation. They are different things, produced by different people for different purposes.

An appraisal is an agent's estimate, given in the course of seeking or carrying out an appointment to sell. Its discipline is the comparative market analysis described above.

A valuation, in the formal sense, is an opinion of value prepared by a valuer, a separate profession with its own registration in Queensland. It is a paid service. Lenders commission valuations to decide how much to lend against a property, and courts, tax authorities and estates rely on them when a figure has to withstand scrutiny.

A seller does not need a valuation to sell, and most do not obtain one. The distinction matters for two reasons. The first is that the buyer's lender will usually order its own valuation after a contract is signed, so a valuer's view of the home enters the sale whether or not the seller sought one. The second is that the two figures answer different questions. An appraisal asks what a campaign might achieve. A valuation asks what the property is worth on evidence, on a given day, to a cautious reader.

The figure on the appointment form

Before an agent can market a home, the seller and the agent sign the prescribed appointment form, known as Form 6. Commission, marketing costs and the length of the appointment are set out there. So is the price.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on property advertising refers to the form as the place where the seller's price is recorded, and it uses that record as the benchmark for everything the agent later advertises. The guidance puts the responsibility on the agent to make sure the seller understands the legal position and has not given false details.

This changes the character of the number. Sellers often think of the price on the form as an aspiration, a private hope written down in a moment of optimism. The regulator treats it as an instruction: the lowest figure the seller is prepared to accept, against which the advertisement will be checked. A hopeful figure on the form and a tempting figure in the advertisement cannot both stand.

It also means the conversation about price belongs before the signature, not after it. The analysis of comparable sales, the seller's own needs and the state of the market all feed into one figure, and that figure then governs the campaign until the seller changes it in writing.

Offers over: what the number must mean

The most common way of advertising a Queensland home sold by private treaty, apart from a plain asking price, is "offers over" a stated figure. It looks like an invitation to bid upwards from a low starting point. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance gives it a precise meaning.

Where a property is marketed with an offers-over price, the guidance says, that figure should be the minimum amount the seller is willing to accept. The regulator gives a pair of examples. If the form records a minimum of $450,000 and the home is advertised as "offers over $450,000", the advertisement is correct. If the form records a minimum of $500,000 and the home is advertised as "offers over $475,000", the advertisement is misleading, because a buyer offering $480,000 has been led to believe the offer is in range when it is not.

The reason is not technical. A buyer who sees a figure spends money on the strength of it: a building and pest inspection, a solicitor's review, a loan application, time away from other homes. If the figure was never achievable, that money was spent on a false premise.

Nothing in the guidance stops a seller from accepting less than the advertised figure in the end. Sellers change their minds, campaigns run longer than planned and offers arrive below expectations. The rule is about what the seller would accept when the advertisement is published, not about what happens after weeks of negotiation.

Fixed prices, ranges and no price at all

Offers-over is one of several formats, and the others raise the same question in different words.

The regulator's published examples deal with offers-over. For a range, the same reasoning applies to the bottom figure: if the seller would not sell at the lower end, the range tells buyers something untrue. For a fixed price, the question is whether the home is really for sale at or about that figure.

Advertising with no price is lawful and common, particularly in a changing market where a seller would sooner hear what buyers think than commit to a number. It moves the price conversation from the advertisement to the telephone. The rule against misleading conduct moves with it. An agent who is asked what the seller wants and answers with a figure is making a representation about price, and it has to be one the seller's instructions support.

Auctions: why there is no price guide

Auctions follow rules of their own, and they are stricter than those for private treaty.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on auctioning a property states that an agent cannot give potential buyers a price guide for a home going to auction. The stated reasoning is that the market value will be determined at the auction, and that a guide risks misleading buyers and may amount to bait advertising. This is a Queensland rule. Buyers who have looked at property in other states, where price guides at auction are part of the routine, are often surprised by it.

The reserve is protected the same way. The guidance says the agent must ask the seller in writing whether a reserve has been set. If the seller chooses not to set one, the agent must tell the seller, also in writing, that the highest bid will have to be accepted. Where there is a reserve, the agent may not disclose it to anyone but the seller's representative, and the guidance quotes a penalty of $34,540 for doing so.

The comparative market analysis reappears here. When an agent recommends a reserve, the guidance says the seller should be given an analysis on the same terms as for any other estimate: at least three similar properties, sold within five kilometres, in the previous six months, or written market advice where three cannot be found. There is one further use for the document. With the seller's written consent, the agent may give the analysis to people interested in bidding. That is the lawful way for an auction buyer to be shown evidence about price: recent sales, on paper, with the seller's permission, in place of a figure offered across the driveway.

What the property websites show

Buyers search the large property websites by price bracket, which creates a puzzle for a listing with no price. A home has to be placed in some bracket or it will not appear in a search at all.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance deals with this directly. An agent may give a website a price for search purposes. Where that is done, the listing must carry a set form of words: "This property is being sold by auction or without a price and therefore a price guide cannot be provided. The website may have filtered the property into a price bracket for website functionality purposes."

For a seller, two things follow. The bracket the agent chooses is a decision about which buyers will see the home, so it is worth knowing what it is. And the bracket is not a price guide, a point the mandatory wording makes for the buyer's benefit. A buyer who finds an auction property in a search between two figures has learnt how the listing was filed, not what the seller will take.

Bait advertising and the penalties

The term the regulator uses for advertising a home below what the seller will accept is bait advertising. The Office of Fair Trading describes it as setting a price in an advertisement while knowing the seller will not accept it, or otherwise misrepresenting the price the seller would take.

The law behind it is federal as well as State. The Australian Consumer Law prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct in trade or commerce. It also contains a provision aimed specifically at land, which bars false or misleading representations about, among other things, the price payable for the land, its location, its characteristics, the use to which it can be put and the facilities associated with it. Price is one item on a list that covers most of what an advertisement says.

The penalties are set at a level meant for large companies and apply to small ones too. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance gives the maximum for a corporation as the greatest of $100 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of annual turnover, and for an individual as up to $2.5 million for each breach. Those are ceilings, not typical outcomes. Their size indicates how the law ranks the conduct.

None of this is aimed at the ordinary gap between asking and selling prices. A home advertised at a figure the seller would have taken, which then sells for less after a long campaign, is not bait advertising. The offence lies in the knowledge: publishing a figure that the seller and agent already know is not available.

Changing the price during a campaign

Prices move during a campaign, usually downwards. An advertised figure that drew no offers in four weeks is information, and sellers act on it.

The rules do not prevent a change. They require the pieces to stay aligned. If the advertisement is tied to the seller's instructed minimum, then a lower advertised figure reflects a lower minimum, and the sensible course is for that new instruction to be given to the agent in writing before the advertisement changes. The reverse also holds. A seller who decides, after early interest, that the home is worth more cannot leave an offers-over figure standing below the new minimum.

A price reduction is visible to buyers, since listing histories are widely tracked. That is a commercial consideration and not a legal one, but it explains why many agents would sooner see a home launched at a figure supported by the comparative analysis than launched high and reduced.

The six-month window on comparable sales has a bearing here as well. An analysis prepared at the start of a campaign ages as the campaign runs. If a home has been on the market for three months, half of the sales that supported its original figure may have slipped out of the window, and newer ones will have taken their place. Asking the agent for an updated analysis before deciding on a change puts the decision on current evidence.

What the seller answers for

It would be easy to read all of this as a set of rules for agents. Most of the obligations are theirs: the analysis, the written advice, the wording on the website, the silence on the reserve. The licence at risk is the agent's.

The seller is not a bystander, though. The figure on the appointment form is the seller's statement, and the guidance expects the agent to make sure the seller has not supplied false details. A seller who writes one minimum on the form and asks for another to be advertised is asking the agent to break the law. An agent who declines is not being difficult.

There is a quieter protection for the seller in the same rules. An appraisal that cannot be supported by three recent, nearby, similar sales, or by a written justification, does not meet the regulator's standard. A seller choosing between agents is entitled to see the evidence behind each figure and to prefer the figure that has some.

The law does not tell a Queensland seller what to ask for a home. It requires that whatever buyers are told about the price is something the seller would stand behind.

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.

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