In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →"Off-market" is one of the most used phrases in the vocabulary of buyer's agents, and one of the least defined. It appears in advertisements for the profession as a reason to engage one: access to homes the public never sees. It appears in conversations between selling agents as a way of describing a listing that is not quite a listing yet. And it is sometimes used of any sale that happened quickly.
The term is not a legal category in Queensland. It does not appear among the rules the Office of Fair Trading publishes for agents, and no separate set of requirements applies to a sale described that way. What the phrase describes is a marketing choice: a property offered to some buyers without being advertised to all of them. Everything else about the sale, from the agent's appointment to the seller's disclosure to the buyer's cooling-off period, is governed by the same law as a home with a sign on the fence. This guide explains the different things the term covers, why a seller might choose that route, how buyer's agents come to hear of such properties, what the rules require of the agents involved and what a buyer should expect to be the same as in any other purchase. It is a description of a practice, not a recommendation of it.
Office of Fair Trading guidance on appointments; Queensland Government guidance for buyers on cooling-off. Days are business days.
What the term covers
Three different situations are commonly called off-market, and they are worth separating because the buyer's position differs in each.
The first is the pre-market period. A seller has appointed an agent and a public campaign is being prepared, with photographs booked and advertising ordered. In the week or two before the listing goes live, the agent may tell buyers already known to the agency, and buyer's agents, that the home is coming. If one of them makes an acceptable offer, the campaign never starts.
Related readAppointing a buyer's agent in Queensland: what Form 6 must containThe second is the quiet listing. A seller has appointed an agent but has decided against public advertising altogether. The home is offered only through the agent's own network. It can stay in that state for months.
The third is the direct approach. The owner has not decided to sell at all. A buyer's agent, acting for a client who wants a particular street or a particular kind of house, identifies the property and asks the owner whether they would consider an offer.
| Form | Seller's position | Selling agent appointed |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-market | Has decided to sell; campaign not yet public. | Yes |
| Quiet listing | Has decided to sell; wants no public campaign. | Yes |
| Direct approach | Has not decided to sell. | Not necessarily |
A fourth use of the phrase is looser. A home that was advertised, failed to sell and was withdrawn may be offered again privately. A home whose advertisement has simply expired may be described the same way. A buyer told that a property is off-market can reasonably ask which of these it is, because a home nobody has seen and a home that many people have seen and passed over are different propositions.
An off-market sale still has an appointment
The absence of advertising does not mean the absence of paperwork. In Queensland a property agent cannot provide services to a client until appointed in writing, the Office of Fair Trading states, and for residential property that appointment is made on Form 6. The rule makes no exception for a sale conducted quietly.
So in the first two forms above, the selling agent holds a Form 6 signed by the owner. It records the services, the commission and expenses, the type of appointment and its end date. The conduct standards in the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 apply in full. The agent must have verified the ownership of the property and its description under section 19, and must take reasonable steps to establish the material facts about it under section 20.
Related readBidding at a Queensland auction through a buyer's agent: the rulesThe appointment also settles who may offer the property. Section 21 of the regulation requires an agent, before accepting an appointment, to find out whether the owner has already appointed someone else, because a second appointment can expose the owner to two commissions. A quiet listing held by one agency under a sole or exclusive appointment is that agency's to offer. A buyer's agent who hears of it from a third party will still end up dealing with the appointed agent.
For a buyer, or a buyer's agent, this provides a simple check. An agent offering a property off-market on a seller's behalf should be able to confirm that a written appointment exists. An agent who says an owner "would probably sell" but holds no appointment is describing a possibility, not a listing.
The Office of Fair Trading lists acting without a written appointment among the breaches of the Act, with a maximum penalty of $34,540.
Why a seller might choose it
The choice belongs to the seller, and section 22 of the regulation requires the agent to act in accordance with the client's instructions. An agent cannot decide on their own account to keep a property quiet; the owner has to want that.
Owners have several reasons. Some value privacy and do not want photographs of their home on the internet or neighbours walking through on a Saturday. Some want to avoid the cost of an advertising campaign, which the seller normally pays. Some want to test a price without a public record of the home having been listed. Some are selling in circumstances, such as a separation or a death in the family, that they would prefer not to announce.
Related readBuyer's agency collapse leaves 695 clients owed $10.6 millionWhat the seller gives up is competition. A public campaign exists to put the property in front of every possible buyer so that they bid against one another. A home shown to three buyers has been tested against three opinions of its value. That may be enough to produce a good price, and sometimes produces a very good one from a buyer who wants to avoid an auction, but the seller cannot know what the wider market would have paid.
This trade-off is the selling agent's to explain to their own client. It matters to buyers because it explains the price behaviour of off-market homes. A seller who has chosen privacy over competition may well expect to be compensated for the choice by a firm price.
How buyer's agents hear of them
A buyer's agent's access to unadvertised property comes from three sources, and none of them is secret.
The most important is other agents. A selling agent with a pre-market or quiet listing needs buyers, and a buyer's agent represents buyers who are ready, financed and briefed. Telling the buyer's agents active in an area is an efficient way to reach serious purchasers without advertising. The relationship is commercial on both sides. The selling agent is paid by the seller, the buyer's agent by the buyer, and neither shares the other's fee.
The second is the agent's own approaches to owners, discussed in the next section.
The third is plain attention. A buyer's agent who works one area every week learns which homes were withdrawn from sale, which owners have had an appraisal done and which agents are preparing campaigns. Much of what is called off-market access is knowledge of this ordinary kind, gathered by being present.
Related readBuyer's agent or selling agent: who works for whom in QueenslandThe practical point for a client is that this access depends on relationships and locality. An agent who buys regularly in a group of Brisbane suburbs will hear of quiet listings there. The same agent working a regional town for the first time starts with no such network. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia makes a related point in its guidance on licensing, noting that an agent must be licensed in the state where purchases are made; local presence is a separate question again, and one a licence does not answer.
Direct approaches to owners
The third form of off-market purchase works differently from the others, because at the outset there is no seller and no selling agent.
A buyer's agent who writes to or calls on an owner is acting for the buyer. The owner is not the agent's client. The agent holds a Form 6 from the buyer and none from the owner, and the fee comes from the buyer under that appointment.
That structure has consequences the owner should understand and that the conduct rules protect. The agent is seeking the lowest price the owner will accept, not the highest the property could achieve. Section 20 of the regulation requires the agent to avoid misrepresentation, so the approach must be honest about who the agent acts for. An owner who receives one has no agent of their own unless they appoint one, and is free to do exactly that before responding.
What a buyer's agent cannot properly do is collect from both sides. An agent who took a fee from the buyer for finding the property and then sought a selling commission from the owner would be acting for two parties with opposite interests in the price. Section 18 of the regulation says an agent must not accept an appointment if doing so will place the agent's duty or interests in conflict with the client's interests.
Related readBuyer's agent, property adviser or promoter: telling the roles apartAn agent who approaches you about selling may be working for the buyer
A buyer's agent making a direct approach is appointed and paid by the purchaser. The owner is not their client, and can appoint their own agent or seek advice before answering.
What does not change for the buyer
A buyer offered an off-market home sometimes senses that the usual steps are being hurried, on the footing that the opportunity is private and may not last. The legal steps are the same as for any private treaty sale.
The seller's disclosure obligations apply. Under Queensland's seller disclosure scheme the seller must give the buyer a disclosure statement and the prescribed certificates before the contract is signed, however the buyer was found.
The contract is the same. It is usually the standard residential contract, and it can be made subject to finance and to building and pest inspections in the usual way.
The cooling-off period applies. The Queensland Government's guidance for buyers says a residential contract carries a statutory cooling-off period of five business days, with a termination penalty of 0.25 per cent of the purchase price if the buyer withdraws during it. The exception is a purchase at auction, and an off-market sale is by definition not one.
The agents' disclosure duties apply. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance requires an agent to disclose to a prospective buyer any benefit connected with referring the buyer to a third party, and the buyer's own agent must have declared on the appointment form any benefit expected from anyone else.
And since 1 July 2026 the identity checks required of real estate businesses under federal anti-money-laundering law apply to both agents, whether the sale was advertised or not.
- IntroductionThe buyer's agent hears of the property and confirms a selling agent holds a written appointment.
- AssessmentThe buyer inspects, receives the seller's disclosure and forms a view on price from comparable sales.
- ContractThe standard contract is signed with the usual conditions, and the cooling-off period runs.
Price without a public test
The hardest part of an off-market purchase is knowing what the home is worth, because the usual signals are missing.
Related readBuyer's agents' national association elects a Brisbane-based presidentIn a public campaign a buyer can watch how many groups attend the open homes, hear what feedback the agent reports and see whether the price is adjusted. At an auction the bidding itself is evidence. Off-market there is one figure, the seller's, and no crowd to measure it against.
The rules on advertised prices help less here than usual. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on property advertising ties any advertised price to what the seller is actually prepared to accept, and treats a misleadingly low figure as bait advertising. A home that is not advertised has no advertised price to test. Whatever figure is mentioned is a figure in conversation, though section 20 of the regulation, with its duty to avoid exaggeration and misrepresentation, still applies to what the selling agent says.
The burden therefore falls on comparable sales and on judgement. This is the point at which a buyer's agent's opinion of value does the most work, and where it most needs to be independent. An agent who is paid only by the buyer and whose fee does not depend on this particular property being the one bought has no reason to shade the opinion. The lack of competing buyers cuts in both directions: it removes the pressure of a bidding contest, and it removes the reassurance that someone else thought the home was worth nearly as much.
The appeal in a slower market
Interest in quiet sales rises and falls with conditions in the wider market, and conditions have changed this year. Figures cited in API Magazine in early September, drawn from Cotality data, put Brisbane's median time on market at 28 days, against 19 days a year earlier, with sales volumes more than 20 per cent lower than the year before.
Related readHow buyer's agents are paid: fixed fees, percentages and disclosureWhen advertised homes take longer to sell, both sides have reasons to look at the private route. A seller may prefer not to have a listing sitting visibly unsold. A buyer has more time and more choice, and less reason to pay a premium for early access. The slower market also changes what exclusivity is worth. Being shown a home a week before the public matters a good deal when homes sell in a week, and much less when they take a month.
The Queensland representative of the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia, writing on the association's site on 1 September about working through a slowdown, advised buyer's agents to use the quieter period for prospecting, networking and building referral relationships. Those relationships are the same ones through which quiet listings travel.
Reading the claim of access
"Access to off-market properties" is a common line in the marketing of buyer's agencies, and it is a fair description of something real. Selling agents do share unadvertised listings with buyer's agents they know, and a private buyer without those relationships will not hear of them.
The claim is worth reading with three qualifications drawn from the points above. Access is local, so it is strongest where the agent works most. The phrase covers several different things, from a home a few days ahead of its campaign to one that has already failed to sell publicly. And an unadvertised home is not for that reason a cheaper or better one; it is a home whose price has not been tested in public.
A statement that a share of an agent's purchases are off-market is a statement about how the properties were found. It says nothing by itself about what was paid for them. Research for this guide found no official Queensland figure for the proportion of sales that occur without advertising, and figures quoted in the industry are the estimates of those quoting them.
An off-market home has skipped the advertising. It has not skipped the appointment, the disclosure, the contract or the cooling-off period.
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.
