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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Search the Queensland rules on property auctions for the word "online" as it applies to bidding for a house and very little comes back. The Property Occupations Regulation 2014 mentions the telephone once, in the section on registering bidders. The Office of Fair Trading's page for auctioneers, updated on 1 July 2026, does not mention telephone, online or livestream bidding at all. Yet a bid may reach an auctioneer from a person who is not standing in the room, relayed by phone or sent through a screen.
The gap is smaller than it looks. Queensland did not write a separate rule book for remote bidding because the ordinary one is not tied to a lawn or a boardroom. Its duties attach to the auctioneer and to the bid, wherever the bidder happens to be. This guide takes the three common arrangements in turn (a telephone bid placed through someone at the auction, a bid sent through an online platform, and a livestream that lets people watch) and then works through the rules one at a time: registration and proof of identity, the bidders register, the announcements, seller bids, and the confidentiality of bidders. It also says what the published sources leave open, including what happens when a line drops and how common remote bidding is. It describes general rules, not the position at any particular sale.
Three ways to bid without being there
The arrangements differ in one respect that matters legally: who actually makes the bid the auctioneer hears.
Telephone. The remote buyer is on a call with a person who is at the auction and who bids aloud for them. This is the only remote method Queensland's regulation names. Section 23 of the Property Occupations Regulation 2014, which deals with registering bidders, refers to a person who will place telephone bids on behalf of someone else.
Related readFrom preamble to hammer: how a Queensland auction call is builtOnline platform. The remote buyer logs in to software and submits a bid that appears on a screen in front of the auctioneer or a member of staff. No person in the room speaks for the bidder. The bid is the bidder's own.
Livestream. A camera broadcasts the auction. On its own a livestream is a way of watching, not of bidding. A viewer becomes a bidder only by being registered and by having a channel, a phone line or a platform, through which a bid can reach the auctioneer.
Many sales combine the three: bidders in the room, one or two on the phone, a platform open on a tablet and a camera running. For the rules that follow, the combination changes nothing. Each person who bids is a bidder, and each must be on the register.
The rule book was written for one room
The duties of a Queensland property auctioneer come from the Property Occupations Act 2014 and the Property Occupations Regulation 2014, and the Office of Fair Trading summarises them on the Queensland Government page titled "Auctioning a property". Read as a whole, that page pictures a physical event. It speaks of numbered cards or batons as the markers that identify bidders. It asks for the auctioneer's name to be shown in clear and legible text in a conspicuous position, at the entrance or another obvious place. It makes an exception for large outdoor areas and for bad weather.
The regulation itself is drafted more neutrally. Section 23 requires a register for the bidders at auctions held at the same place on the same day, and it sets out what must be collected from each person. It does not say that the person must be present. The regulation as in force is silent on internet bidding for property, and its one reference to the telephone treats a remote buyer as someone represented by a bidder at the auction.
Related readHow auctioneering competitions are judged, from the REIQ to the AustrosThe Queensland Government's page for buyers, "Buying property at auction", last updated on 14 October 2024, is silent as well. It tells a buyer to register with the auctioneer, who will provide a unique identifier such as a numbered paddle, and it does not discuss telephone, online or absentee bidding.
No separate Queensland rule set for online property auctions
The regulation and the two Queensland Government auction pages read for this guide contain no provisions written only for online or livestreamed property auctions. The ordinary auction rules are the ones that apply, and a remote bidder is a bidder like any other.
Registration: the gate every bidder passes
The central rule is in section 23 of the regulation. The auctioneer must tell prospective bidders that only registered persons may bid, and must check that a person is registered before accepting a bid from them. The Office of Fair Trading puts the same duty in plain terms: registration happens before bidding begins, and the auctioneer announces that only registered bidders may bid.
To be registered, a person gives the auctioneer three things under section 23:
- their name and address;
- satisfactory proof of their identity, for which the regulation's own example is a driver licence with the person's photo;
- where they will place telephone bids for someone else, the name and address of that other person.
Once the details are checked, the auctioneer gives the person a unique bidder identifier and records it against those details.
Nothing in that list is waived for a bidder who is not present. A person bidding through an online platform is making bids in their own name and so, on the wording of the section, is a person who must be registered, with a name, an address and proof of identity. The regulation does not say how that proof has to be shown. Its example is a photo licence, and it does not go on to deal with whether the licence is handed over at a table or supplied in some other way. The published guidance does not settle the point either, so how a given auctioneer satisfies themselves about a remote bidder's identity is a matter of that auctioneer's own procedure.
Related readWhen the seller is a lender, an estate or a court: the auctioneer's sideSection 23 also contains a convenience that suits repeat remote bidders. A registration made earlier with the same auctioneer may be used again for a later auction, so a buyer who has been identified once by an auctioneer need not start from nothing at the next sale that auctioneer conducts.
Telephone bids and the person on the other end
The telephone case has its own line in the regulation, and it is easy to misread. The person who must be registered is the one who will make the bids at the auction. That may be a friend, a relative, a buyer's agent or a member of the selling agency's staff holding a phone. When that person registers, they give their own name, address and proof of identity, and they also give the name and address of the person they are bidding for.
The auctioneer is therefore given two names for a telephone bid: the bidder in the room and the buyer on the line. The regulation asks for proof of identity from the first. For the second it asks for a name and an address.
- Before the auctionThe person who will speak the bids registers with their own name, address and proof of identity.
- At the same timeThey give the name and address of the buyer they will bid for by telephone.
- At the auctionThe auctioneer issues one identifier and checks registration before taking any bid.
What the regulation does not cover is the relationship between the two people. Whether the buyer has given written instructions, what limit they have set and what happens if the person in the room exceeds it are matters between them. A separate guide in this magazine deals with bidding through a buyer's agent and the authority involved.
A further point arises where the person holding the phone works for the selling agency. The regulation's wording does not distinguish between a staff member and anyone else who places telephone bids for another person. The staff member is the registered bidder and gives the buyer's name and address when registering.
Related readBefore the first bid: the bidders register an auctioneer must keepThe bidders register and how long it is kept
The register is the auctioneer's record, not the platform's and not the agency's marketing list. Under section 23 it holds each registered person's name and address and the identifier issued to them. It must be kept for at least five years after the last entry is made in it.
Two other record rules in the regulation sit beside it. Section 11 requires an auction contract book in which the auctioneer records the property, the owner, the reserve price and the result after the auction, with a penalty of 10 penalty units for each failure. Section 14 allows these books to be kept either in hard copy or in electronic form.
Section 14 is the passage that connects the regulation most directly to digital practice. An auctioneer may hold the records electronically. What the regulation does not do is hand the duty to a software provider. If registrations are gathered through an online form, the obligation to have a complete register, and to keep it for the five years, stays with the auctioneer.
| Rule | What the source says | For a remote bidder |
|---|---|---|
| Only registered people bid | The auctioneer checks registration before accepting a bid. | The check applies to a bid by phone or screen. |
| Proof of identity | Satisfactory proof, such as a photo driver licence. | Required; the method of showing it is not prescribed. |
| Telephone bids for another | The bidder gives the other person's name and address. | Two names given at registration. |
| Bidder identifier | Easy for the bidder to use and for the auctioneer to recognise. | A number still has to be issued and recorded. |
| Seller bids | Only up to the reserve, and always disclosed. | The disclosure has to reach every bidder. |
| Bidder identities | Not disclosed, with narrow exceptions. | Covers names shown on a screen or a stream. |
Property Occupations Regulation 2014, sections 23 to 25; Office of Fair Trading, "Auctioning a property", updated 1 July 2026. The third column is this guide's reading, not a statement by the regulator.
Identifiers when there is no paddle
In a room the identifier is an object: the Office of Fair Trading mentions numbered cards or batons, and the buyers' page mentions a numbered paddle. The regulation describes the identifier by what it must achieve. For an auction of property it has to be easy for the bidder to use and easy for the auctioneer to identify.
That wording is about function, and it does not require a physical card. A telephone bidder's number is held up by the person in the room. For a platform bidder, the test in the regulation is whether the auctioneer can readily tell which registered person a bid on the screen has come from. A bid that arrives labelled only with a nickname the auctioneer cannot match to an entry in the register would sit uneasily with a rule that requires registration to be checked before a bid is accepted.
Related readTen units and a suitability test: Queensland's auctioneer licence pathThe same reasoning applies to the people watching a livestream. A viewer who is not registered is in the position of a passer-by at the back of a crowd. They may watch. They may not bid, and the auctioneer's duty to verify registration is what keeps the two groups apart.
Announcements a remote bidder has to hear
Several Queensland rules oblige the auctioneer to tell bidders something. Each was written with a listening crowd in mind, and each raises the same practical question for a remote auction: did the bidder on the line or on the screen receive it?
The Office of Fair Trading lists the items. The auctioneer announces that only registered bidders may bid. The conditions of sale are disclosed, including the deposit, inspection details and other information relevant to the sale and the property, which may be done by making an unsigned contract of sale available. The auctioneer's name is displayed, or announced at the start where display is not practical. The auctioneer may say that a reserve exists, and must not disclose the reserve itself or an estimate of the property's value.
For a bidder in the room, hearing these is a matter of standing close enough. For a telephone bidder, the announcements arrive only if the person holding the phone relays them or holds the phone to the auctioneer. For a platform or livestream bidder, they arrive if the audio is working at that moment. The published rules place the duty to announce on the auctioneer. They do not say how an auctioneer should confirm that a remote bidder has heard, and the government pages read for this guide give no instruction on it.
Related readOn the rostrum: the auctioneer's legal duties on a Queensland auction dayThe weight of the point comes from the buyers' page. A person who buys at auction in Queensland has no cooling-off period, the terms usually require an unconditional bid with no finance or sale condition, and the successful bidder must sign a contract immediately. A remote bidder who missed the conditions is bound in the same way as one who heard them. Reading the contract and the conditions of sale before auction day, and not relying on the stream to deliver them, is the step that takes the connection out of the question.
Seller bids and the "on the market" call
Seller bids are the rule where hearing matters most. Under section 24 of the regulation, when the seller or someone acting for the seller bids, that fact must be disclosed to the other bidders, and such a bid cannot be above the reserve price. The Office of Fair Trading states the same rule: a seller may bid only up to the reserve, and all seller bids must be disclosed. The buyers' page adds that a seller bid made after the reserve has been reached is a false bid and is illegal.
The disclosure is made aloud, at the moment of the bid. A bidder who is following on a screen that shows only a rising figure, or on a phone line that cuts in and out, may see or hear a higher number without learning that it was the seller's. The rule gives no lesser standard for those bidders: the disclosure is owed to the other bidders, and a remote bidder is one of them.
The same applies to the moment the property goes on the market. According to the Office of Fair Trading, once bidding reaches or passes the reserve the property is on the market, seller bids stop and the seller accepts the highest bid. Where no reserve was set, the property is on the market from the first bid. For a remote bidder, an announcement that the property is on the market is the signal that the next bid may buy the house.
Keeping bidders' identities off the screen
Section 25 of the regulation restricts what the auctioneer may reveal about who is bidding. The identity of a bidder is not to be disclosed except to an inspector or a court, with one further exception: disclosure to the seller or the seller's agent where it is needed to negotiate after the auction or otherwise to bring about the sale. The Office of Fair Trading's page repeats the rule and notes that identities must not be disclosed during the auction.
Technology makes this rule easier to break by accident. A platform may display the names of the people logged in. A camera may capture the registration table, the register itself, or a staff member saying a telephone buyer's name aloud. The regulation was not written with a broadcast in mind, but its wording is general: the identity is confidential whether the audience is 30 people on a lawn or an unknown number watching a stream. Bidder numbers exist for this purpose. They let the auctioneer acknowledge a bid without naming anyone.
When the line drops
Neither the regulation nor either Queensland Government page says anything about a failed connection. There is no rule requiring an auction to pause when a stream freezes, none requiring the auctioneer to wait for a caller to redial, and none giving a remote bidder a right to reopen the bidding after the hammer. This silence is the most important thing a remote bidder can know in advance.
A dropped call or frozen stream has no rule of its own
The published Queensland rules do not deal with a lost connection during a property auction. What happens next depends on the conditions of that auction, the terms the bidder accepted to use a platform or a phone line, and the auctioneer's judgement on the day.
The documents that can answer the question for a particular sale are private ones, and they can be read beforehand. The conditions of sale, which the Office of Fair Trading says must be disclosed, may address disputed bids and the auctioneer's discretion. A platform's terms of use, or the form a buyer signs to bid by telephone, may say who carries the risk of a technical failure. Three questions cover most of the ground:
- If the connection fails mid-bidding, will the auctioneer pause, and for how long?
- Is there a second channel, such as a phone number for a platform bidder?
- Whose risk is a bid that was sent and not received before the hammer fell?
One fixed point can be stated. The law's protections do not grow because a bidder was remote. A sale at auction carries no cooling-off period, so a bid that did get through and proved to be the highest binds the bidder in the ordinary way, and a bid that did not get through was never made.
What 2020 and the published figures show
The public health limits of 2020 are the period most often linked to remote bidding. The documents from that time that were found for this guide deal with numbers of people, not with bidding technology. An REIQ notice headed as revised auction and open house inspection protocols, first dated 7 May 2020, set out the position that applied from noon on 1 June 2020 under the Chief Health Officer's direction on businesses, activities and undertakings. An auction could have no more than 20 attendees, plus up to three staff including the auctioneer, with at least four square metres per person and 1.5 metres between people. Agencies had to record the names, addresses and mobile numbers of everyone attending and keep them for 56 days.
The same notice recommended livestream technology, 360-degree virtual tours and video presentations as substitutes for physical inspections. It did not discuss online auctions, telephone bidding or the registration of remote bidders. With a crowd limited to 20, a phone line or a screen was an obvious way to let more buyers bid, but that notice did not turn the practice into guidance, and no Office of Fair Trading statement from 2020 specific to online auctions was located in the research for this guide.
On how common remote bidding is, published sources are thin. The regulation and the Queensland Government pages read for this guide carry no count of auctions conducted online or of bids placed remotely, and the bidders registers that would show it are private records held by each auctioneer. No dated figure from a regulator, the REIQ or a data provider was verified during the research, so this guide gives none.
A share quoted without a source and a date should be read with that in mind. A meaningful figure would also need to say what it counts: auctions that offered a remote channel, auctions where a remote bidder registered, or auctions where the winning bid came from outside the room. The three could differ widely.
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.
