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 looks like the seller's show. The home is theirs, the date is theirs, and the reserve is a number only they and their agent know. In Queensland a good part of what happens on the day is nonetheless written into law, and neither the seller nor the auctioneer can vary it.
That split is worth understanding before signing anything. Some decisions belong to the seller alone and are hard to undo once the auctioneer starts. Others are not decisions at all: they are rules the auctioneer has to follow whatever the seller would prefer. Knowing which is which makes the weeks before an auction calmer, and the conversation with an agent more useful.
This guide follows a Queensland auction from the seller's side. It covers appointing the agent and the auctioneer, setting the reserve in writing, the ban on price guides, vendor bids, the bidder register, the disclosure documents that must reach bidders before the hammer, and what the seller may do if the property is passed in. It draws on the Queensland Government's pages on selling and buying at auction, the Office of Fair Trading's requirements for auctioneers, its pages on appointing an agent, and the state's seller disclosure scheme. It describes the general rules. A seller's own contract and circumstances are a matter for their solicitor or conveyancer.
Two lists: the seller's and the law's
Most of what follows can be sorted into one of two columns.
| Matter | The seller decides | The law fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | Who to appoint, on what type of appointment and for how long, within the limits. | The appointment is in writing on the approved form, and its term is capped. |
| Reserve price | Whether to set one, and at what figure. | It is set in writing. The amount is never told to bidders. |
| Price information | Nothing. | No price guide may be published for an auction property. |
| Vendor bids | Whether to use them at all. | Only up to the reserve, and each one is announced. |
| Bidders | Nothing. | Only registered bidders may bid, and they are not named during the auction. |
| Passed in | Whether to negotiate, with whom, or to walk away. | No cooling-off for a registered bidder who buys within 2 business days. |
The rest of this guide takes those rows in the order a seller meets them.
Appointing the agent and the auctioneer
The first document is the appointment. The Office of Fair Trading requires a property agent to be appointed in writing before acting, on Form 6 for a residential sale, signed by the agent and the client. According to the Office of Fair Trading's page on appointments, the form has to state the services to be provided, any limits or conditions on them, the commission, fees and expenses and when they fall due, and the end date where the appointment is a sole or exclusive agency. It also carries a declaration of any financial benefit the agent expects from a third party, such as a rebate.
Related readMore Brisbane auctions, same result: 164 homes and 35.4 per centAgents in Queensland must be licensed, and the Queensland Government's page on appointing a sales agent points sellers to the public register where a licence can be checked before the form is signed.
The auctioneer needs a licence of a particular kind. The Queensland Government's guidance on buying at auction states that an auctioneer licence is the only type of licence that permits a person to auction real estate. A real estate agent licence does not cover it. On the day, the auctioneer must display their name prominently at the site, or announce it at the start. A seller can ask who will call the auction and check that licence in the same way as the agent's.
Open, sole or exclusive: the appointment types
The Queensland Government describes three ways to list a home for sale, and they differ mainly in when commission is owed.
| Type | How it works | When commission is owed |
|---|---|---|
| Open listing | Several agents may market the home at once. Either side can end it at any time in writing. | Only to the agent who is the effective cause of the sale. |
| Sole agency | One agent for a set term. | On a sale during the term, except where the seller sells the home themselves. |
| Exclusive agency | One agent for a set term. | On a sale during the term, whoever finds the buyer, the seller included. |
The difference between the last two is easy to miss on the form and matters most if the seller already knows someone who might buy. Under an exclusive agency, the Queensland Government's page warns, a seller who lets a second agent complete the sale can end up owing two commissions.
Time limits apply. The maximum term for an appointment to sell a home is 90 days, according to both government pages. The Queensland Government's page adds that where an appointment runs for longer than 60 days, either party may end it with 30 days' written notice, provided it has run for at least 60 days in total.
Commission is recorded on the form along with every other cost. A seller is free to ask what the marketing, the auctioneer's fee and any other expenses will be, and when each is payable, before signing.
Related readBrisbane auction clearance sits 30 points under last year's levelThe reserve price, in writing
The reserve is the lowest price the seller will accept under the hammer. It is the seller's most important decision of the campaign, and Queensland law attaches a procedure to it.
The Office of Fair Trading requires the auctioneer to ask the seller whether they want to set a reserve, and the reserve must be set in writing. A seller does not have to set one. The Queensland Government's guidance for sellers calls going without a reserve very risky, for a plain reason: with no reserve, the seller must accept the highest bid, even if it is well under what they hoped for.
Without a written reserve, the highest bid wins
If a seller chooses not to set a reserve, the auctioneer must tell them in writing that they will be obliged to accept the highest bid. The Office of Fair Trading lists a penalty of $34,540 for an auctioneer who does not ask about a reserve and give that written warning.
A seller who wants the agent's view on where to set the figure is entitled to evidence. Before recommending a reserve, the agent must give the seller a comparative market analysis: a comparison with at least three similar properties sold within 5 kilometres in the last six months. Where three comparable sales cannot be found, the agent gives a written explanation of how they arrived at the market value instead. The same rule applies when an agent suggests an asking price for a private treaty sale.
The analysis informs the reserve. It does not set it. The number written down is the seller's.
What bidders may be told about the reserve
The amount of the reserve is confidential. All three government pages agree that the auctioneer must not tell bidders the figure. The Office of Fair Trading adds that the auctioneer should also keep any estimate of the property's value to themselves.
On one narrower point the published pages do not match. The Office of Fair Trading's requirements for auctioneers, updated on 1 July 2026, and the Queensland Government's guidance for buyers both say the auctioneer is allowed to tell bidders whether a reserve has been set. The government's older page for sellers, last updated in October 2020, says the auctioneer must not indicate whether one exists. A seller for whom that distinction matters would do well to raise it with the auctioneer beforehand.
Related readBrisbane clearance rate jumps to 41.6 per cent but trails last yearWhen bidding reaches the reserve, the property is said to be on the market. The guidance for buyers notes that the auctioneer does not have to announce this, though they may. From that moment the auction must end in a sale: the highest bidder must buy and the seller must sell. The seller's power to say no ends at the reserve, which is why the figure deserves the care it gets.
No price guides, with one narrow exception
Queensland does not allow a price guide for an auction property. The Queensland Government tells buyers it is illegal for a seller or their agent to give one, and the Office of Fair Trading instructs auctioneers that they must not publish any price guides for potential bidders, on the ground that a guide may mislead when the result cannot be known in advance.
This is one of the rules a seller cannot waive. However confident a seller is in their price, and however many buyers ask, the agent cannot put a figure or a range in the advertising or offer one in conversation.
A price used for search is not a price guide
An agent may give a listing website a price so the property appears in searches sorted or filtered by price. The Office of Fair Trading requires the listing to say that a price guide cannot be provided, and the government's guidance for buyers says the search placement is not designed as a guide.
For a seller, the practical effect is that buyers arrive having formed their own view from recent sales. The comparative market analysis the agent prepared for the reserve is the seller's version of the same exercise.
Vendor bids and dummy bids
A seller may bid on their own property, through the auctioneer, to move the bidding towards the reserve. Queensland permits this within two limits set out by the Office of Fair Trading. A vendor bid may be made only up to the reserve price, and the auctioneer must disclose whenever a bid is a vendor bid.
Related readBrisbane is not the weakest capital at auction for once this springWhether to use vendor bids at all is the seller's call, and one to settle with the auctioneer before the day. An announced vendor bid tells the room the reserve has not yet been reached. Once the property is on the market, vendor bids stop. The Queensland Government's guidance describes a seller's bid made after the reserve is met as an illegal false bid.
Dummy bids are a different thing and are never allowed. The government's pages describe them as planted bids, whether placed by the seller, by people connected with the seller or by the auctioneer, and state simply that they are illegal.
The bidder register
Only registered bidders may bid at a Queensland property auction. The Office of Fair Trading requires the auctioneer to keep a register of bidders, to check each person's identity against a document such as a driver licence, and to give each one an identifying marker, usually a numbered paddle. At the start of the auction the auctioneer announces that only registered bidders may bid.
The seller plays no part in this and has no say over who registers. The auctioneer must not identify any bidder during the auction. The Office of Fair Trading allows a bidder to be identified afterwards to finalise the sale, or where a court or an inspector requires it.
The register still matters to the seller for what follows a pass-in, because a registered bidder who buys shortly afterwards does so on different terms from an ordinary private buyer.
Seller disclosure before the hammer
Since 1 August 2025, Queensland's seller disclosure scheme has required a seller to give the buyer a disclosure statement, known as Form 2, together with a set of prescribed certificates, before the buyer signs the contract. The seller completes the statement. The seller, or the agent if authorised, gives it to the buyer.
Related readAugust's five early readings: Brisbane auctions peak, then slideAccording to the Queensland Government's page on the scheme, the statement covers the seller and the property, title details, encumbrances and tenancies, zoning, transport infrastructure and resumption notices, entries on environmental registers, heritage listings, tree orders, whether there is a pool, and building-related notices. The prescribed certificates include a title search and survey plan, relevant notices under environmental, building and planning legislation, a pool safety certificate where one applies, and for a unit or townhouse the community management statement and a body corporate certificate.
At an auction the buyer signs within minutes of the hammer, so the timing is brought forward. The government's page says different rules apply to sales by auction, but that the seller must still give or make available the statement and certificates to the buyer before the fall of the hammer. It refers sellers to the scheme's detailed guide for the auction procedure itself.
The consequence of getting this wrong falls on the seller. Where the documents are not given, or are inaccurate or incomplete, the buyer may have a right to terminate the contract at any time up to settlement. The page sets conditions on that right: the buyer has to show the problem was material, that they did not know of it when they signed, and that they would not have signed had they known.
The scheme has edges. The government's page lists matters the statement does not cover, among them the structural soundness of the building, flooding history and past building or development approvals. Certain sales are outside the scheme altogether, including some between related parties and sales involving government entities.
Related readBrisbane posts its best final auction result in three months: 38.5%For an auction, all of it has to be ready before bidding opens, which makes disclosure one of the first jobs of the campaign and not one of the last.
The order of events
Put together, the seller's side of an auction runs in five stages.
- AppointSign Form 6 with a licensed agent. Check the type of appointment, the term and every cost.
- Prepare disclosureComplete Form 2 and collect the prescribed certificates so bidders can have them before the hammer.
- Set the reserveReceive the comparative market analysis, then put the reserve in writing. Settle the use of vendor bids.
- Auction dayRegistered bidders only. Vendor bids are announced and stop at the reserve. At the reserve, the sale is binding.
- Hammer or pass-inThe successful bidder signs immediately. If the reserve is not met, the seller chooses whether to negotiate.
After the auction: passed in or sold
A property that does not reach its reserve is passed in, and control returns to the seller. The Queensland Government's guidance is brief on the point: the seller does not need to accept the sale if bidding did not reach the reserve, and may choose to enter into negotiations with a bidder.
Nothing in that guidance obliges the seller to deal with the highest bidder, or with anyone. The seller may negotiate that afternoon, wait for other approaches, relist the home by private treaty, or keep it.
One rule from the auction does carry over. A buyer at auction has no cooling-off period, and the government's guidance for buyers extends that to a private treaty contract entered into within 2 business days of an unsuccessful auction where the buyer was a registered bidder at it. For the seller, a deal struck with a registered bidder in that window is as firm as one made under the hammer. The guidance does not extend the exclusion beyond registered bidders or beyond those 2 business days.
The other outcome needs less from the seller. If bidding passes the reserve, the highest bid is binding on both sides and the successful bidder must sign the contract immediately. The auctioneer will have announced the conditions of sale beforehand, including the deposit and how it is to be paid, as the Office of Fair Trading requires.
The seller's protection at this point is considerable. The Queensland Government's guidance warns buyers of very serious legal consequences for failing to settle on time: a defaulting buyer may be made to pay the amount of the winning bid, the cost of auctioning the property again, and any shortfall between their bid and the price achieved at the next auction.
The same certainty binds the seller. Having set a reserve in writing and seen it met, the seller cannot reconsider. That is the bargain of the method: the seller chooses the floor in private and in advance, and the law holds everyone to what happens above it.
Before the auction, nearly everything is the seller's to decide. Once the reserve is met, nothing is.
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.
