Settling an off-the-plan purchase in Queensland: registration to keys

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Kooky

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

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An off-the-plan contract is signed on a promise. The unit, the townhouse or the block of land exists on paper, in a disclosure plan and a set of proposed documents, and the buyer pays a deposit for something that cannot yet be owned because the title for it does not exist. Months or years later, the building is finished or the subdivision is complete, the plan is registered, and the contract suddenly comes alive. From that point the timetable is short, and it is set by the seller.

This guide follows that last stretch: what registration means, the notice that starts the countdown, how long the buyer then has, why the valuation and the loan can become the hardest part, what happens to the deposit, what the Land Sales Act and the Body Corporate and Community Management Act require before settlement, and where defects fit. It does not repeat the rules for signing an off-the-plan contract, the sunset date or the mechanics of settlement day itself, which have their own guides. It describes the general rules; each contract has its own terms, and a lawyer reads them for a particular purchase.

Body Corporate and Community Management Act (section 212, as replaced in 2009) and Land Sales Act 1984 (sections 13 and 14).

Two Acts, depending on what is bought

Queensland has two statutes for off-the-plan sales, and which one applies depends on the kind of lot.

A unit or townhouse that will sit in a community titles scheme, the kind of development with a body corporate and common property, is governed by the Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997. The Office of Fair Trading's page on subdividing and selling land says community titles complexes such as apartment blocks are generally not treated as land sales and fall outside the Land Sales Act.

A proposed lot in an ordinary subdivision, a house block in a new estate for example, is governed by the Land Sales Act 1984. Section 3 of that Act leaves out sales that form part of a large transaction and sales arising from a reconfiguration of land into not more than five lots, and the Office of Fair Trading notes that small developers of five subdivisions or fewer may not be bound by some of its rules.

The two Acts share a logic: the buyer receives a disclosure statement and plan before signing, the seller corrects any inaccuracy with a further statement, and the buyer can walk away if a change leaves them materially worse off. The timings differ, and so do the documents that must arrive before settlement.

What registration actually means

Until registration, the buyer's lot has no title. The developer owns the parent parcel, and the lot is a line on a proposed plan.

For a unit or townhouse, Titles Queensland's Land Title Practice Manual explains that a community titles scheme is established by lodging the plan of subdivision together with a first community management statement, recorded by a general request form. The manual says the first community management statement must be lodged with the plan of survey that creates the lots and the common property. When the plan and the first statement are registered, the body corporate comes into existence, and an indefeasible title is created for each lot and for the common property. Each lot title then refers to the community management statement.

For a land lot, the equivalent moment is the registration of the plan of survey that creates the new lots.

Registration is not lodgement. A plan can sit in the registry's queue, or be sent back for correction, before it is registered. The standard-form contracts examined by the Supreme Court in a 2024 Gold Coast case defined plan registration as the registration, not the lodgement, of the plan creating the lot, and made settlement conditional on that registration and on the seller's written notice that it had happened.

The notice that starts the clock

Registration on its own does not tell the buyer anything. What starts the countdown in practice is the seller's written notice.

For a lot in a community titles scheme, the Body Corporate and Community Management Amendment Act 2009, assented to on 22 June 2009, replaced section 212 of the Act. Under the replacement section, a contract for a lot intended to exist in a scheme once it is established or changed is taken to include a term that settlement cannot take place until 14 days after the seller advises the buyer that the scheme has been established or changed. That term overrides any other settlement term in the contract, and a seller's notice inconsistent with it is void to that extent. The same amendment added section 212A, which lets the buyer cancel, before settlement, if no proposed community management statement existed when the contract was signed.

Before 2009, a contract that did not contain the 14-day term could be cancelled, and Supreme Court and Court of Appeal decisions of 2009 and 2010 turned on exactly that question. The replacement turned the 14 days into a deemed term, so the period applies whatever the contract says, and the buyer no longer has a cancellation right merely because the wording is missing.

Chamberlains, a law firm, says that in an off-the-plan contract settlement commonly falls within 14 days of registration unless the contract states otherwise. In the 2024 Gold Coast case, the contract required the seller to give written notice, at a time it reasonably chose, once a separate title for the lot had been created; settlement could not happen earlier than 14 days after that notice; and the settlement date was defined as 14 clear days after it. Time was of the essence, which means a buyer who failed to settle on that date risked termination.

For a land lot under the Land Sales Act, section 14 works differently. Where the buyer was not given an approved plan of survey before signing, the seller must give the buyer, at least 14 days before settlement, a copy of the registered plan of survey and a statement from a cadastral surveyor confirming that the registered plan does not differ from the disclosure plan. If the disclosure plan was corrected by a further statement, the comparison is made against the corrected version. A seller who does not comply, where the failure is not caused by the buyer's own default, gives the buyer a right to terminate by written notice before settlement.

From notice to settlement: the usual sequence

The Acts set minimums; the contract sets the actual date. Where that date falls about two weeks after the seller's notice, as in the Gold Coast contracts, everything the buyer has deferred since signing has to happen inside that window.

The order of the middle steps varies, and some run in parallel. The point the sequence makes is that the buyer has no control over when it starts: the developer decides when to give notice, and the contract, not the buyer, fixes how many days follow.

The valuation and the loan

Off-the-plan buyers often sign long before they settle. Contracts in the 2024 Gold Coast case were signed between January 2021 and November 2023, and the notice requiring settlement came on 1 July 2024, for a settlement date of 16 July 2024. In that interval a lender's view of the buyer, of interest rates and of the lot itself can change.

A lender's valuer generally needs to see the finished lot, and the Supreme Court accepted that delayed inspections would delay valuation reports, the lender's review, approval and funding. In the Gold Coast case, the buyers' lawyers asked for access for finance valuations on 1 July 2024, the same day notice was given. The developer did not respond until 8 July, and said construction work on site made access unsafe before then. The contracts were not subject to finance and gave no express right of access for a valuer, though they referred to the buyer's financier.

The Supreme Court decided on 12 July 2024 that the seller had an implied duty to co-operate: once access was asked for, it had to allow a valuer in within a reasonable time so that the buyers could use the full 14 days to arrange their finance. By fixing the 16 July date without allowing time for valuation, and by leaving the requests unanswered for a week, the developer breached that duty and could not rely on the buyers' failure to settle on that date. The Court of Appeal dismissed the developer's appeal on 25 July 2024 and published its reasons on 13 August 2024. It held that the seller had to act reasonably in choosing when to give its notice, so that the buyers received their full 14-day period.

The decision did not create a general right to delay settlement. The court said its orders did not stop the developer settling with any buyer able to settle on the date fixed. What it established is narrower: a seller cannot run the clock in a way that prevents the buyer from obtaining the finance both sides expected the buyer to need.

A valuation that comes in below the contract price, and the options it leaves, is the subject of a separate guide in this magazine.

Further statements: the last chance to see a change

Between signing and settlement, plans change. Floor areas move, car parks are reallocated, a lot's boundaries shift, the proposed body corporate arrangements are revised. Both Acts require the seller to tell the buyer.

Under section 13 of the Land Sales Act, if the seller becomes aware that the disclosure plan was inaccurate when the contract was signed, or would be inaccurate if given now, the seller must give the buyer a further statement at least 21 days before the contract is settled. It must be signed by the seller, prepared by a cadastral surveyor, and explain in plain English what has changed. The buyer may terminate by written notice within 21 days after receiving it, or a longer period the parties agree, if the contract has not settled and the buyer would be materially prejudiced by being made to complete. If the seller does not comply with the section at all, the buyer can terminate before settlement on the same ground of material prejudice.

The Office of Fair Trading describes material prejudice as a change that causes the buyer a significant disadvantage, such as a significantly reduced size, and says the buyer must show it. The courts, it notes, have built up precedent on what counts.

For a lot in a community titles scheme, the Body Corporate and Community Management Act has its own further statement regime, in section 214. As the Supreme Court set it out in a 2010 decision, it applies while the contract is unsettled and the seller learns that the disclosure statement was inaccurate, or would be inaccurate if given again; the seller must then give a further statement correcting it, and the buyer may cancel by written notice within a limited period after receiving it, if being made to complete would materially prejudice them. Macpherson Kelley, writing in April 2026, adds that a further statement cannot cure an omission from the original disclosure. The 2010 decision, about an apartment in a Mirvac scheme, shows how the regime works in practice: after the first stage of the development was completed, the further statement omitted items such as security camera equipment and artworks from the list of body corporate assets, the buyer cancelled on the ground of material prejudice, and the court declared the cancellation valid.

For the buyer, the practical message is that the period just before settlement is when changes surface, and a right to terminate over them lasts only for a limited time after the further statement arrives.

The deposit until settlement

An off-the-plan deposit is often paid long before the lot exists, and for a proposed land lot the law keeps it away from the developer until the end.

On its page about subdividing and selling land, the Office of Fair Trading says money paid towards a proposed lot must go into a trust account administered by a real estate agent, a law practice or the Public Trustee, and the contract must name who administers it. Breaching that requirement is an offence carrying a maximum penalty of $34,540 or one year's imprisonment. Since 22 November 2023, the Office says, a deposit under an off-the-plan contract can be released to the seller only at settlement, or when the contract otherwise ends and the seller is entitled to it; a seller cannot get early access.

At settlement, the deposit is credited against the price, and the balance is what the buyer brings, from savings, the loan or both. If the buyer validly terminates before settlement, for a material change, a disclosure failure or a missed registration, the contract's terms and the Act decide its return. If the buyer fails to settle on a valid notice where time is of the essence, the seller's remedies under the contract come into play, and the deposit is among the things at stake.

The outside dates

Settlement after registration is the normal ending, but the Acts also set limits for when registration never comes in time.

For a land lot, section 14 of the Land Sales Act requires the seller to settle no later than 18 months after the buyer enters the contract, and the Office of Fair Trading says the disclosure statement must state that deadline. If the seller does not comply, the buyer may terminate before settlement, provided the failure was not caused by the buyer.

For both kinds of lot, the sunset date in the contract is the other outside limit; Macpherson Kelley notes that both Acts require the disclosure statement to state it. For a land lot, the Office of Fair Trading says that since 22 November 2023 a seller can use a sunset clause to end the contract only with the buyer's written consent, under a Supreme Court order, or in another situation prescribed by regulation. How those rules work is set out in the magazine's guide to sunset clauses. For this guide, the point is that the seller's notice of registration is normally given well before that date, and the settlement countdown runs from the notice.

The finished lot and its defects

By the time the buyer receives the seller's notice, the building or the estate is usually physically complete. What remains is to find out whether it was built as promised.

The contract governs whether the buyer may inspect before settlement and on what terms; the 2024 Gold Coast contracts, for example, contained no express right of access for a valuer. Where the contract allows an inspection, the general rules on pre-settlement inspections apply, and they are covered in a separate guide. For an apartment, much of what a buyer may care about, such as the roof, the lifts, the facade and the waterproofing of shared areas, is common property rather than part of the buyer's lot.

Defects found after settlement are pursued through the builder and, for some homes, the State's insurance scheme. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission's home warranty insurance covers non-completion, defective work the contractor fails to fix, and subsidence, up to $200,000, with cover lasting six years and six months. It does not cover everything off the plan: the Commission says building work carried out in or for a multiple dwelling of more than three storeys is not residential construction work and cannot be insured under the scheme, and a storey used mainly for car parking is not counted.

Where the scheme does apply, its time limits are tight for minor problems. The Commission says a non-structural defect must first be noticed within six months after the work is substantially complete, and the claim made within seven months of that completion. A structural defect must first be noticed within six years and six months of the cover starting, and the claim made within three months of becoming aware of it. In an off-the-plan purchase, the work can be substantially complete some time before the buyer settles, so part of the six-month window may already have passed by the time the keys are handed over.

The Commission also explains that a property owner can lodge a defective work complaint when a contractor will not fix work believed to be defective. From 30 March 2026 its refined process for directions to rectify allows a direction to go first to a licensed subcontractor when the subcontractor clearly caused the defect, with the principal contractor still supervising the repair.

Questions to settle before the date arrives

Because the countdown is short, the work of an off-the-plan settlement is mostly done before the notice comes. The usual questions a buyer and their lawyer go through are these:

1. Which Act governs the lot, and what does the contract say about the notice and the number of days that follow it?
2. Is time of the essence for the settlement date, and what happens if finance is not ready?
3. Does the contract give a right of access for a valuer or an inspection, and how is it requested?
4. Has a further statement been received, when, and does anything in it change the lot materially?
5. Has the deposit been held in trust as the contract says, and how will it be credited at settlement?
6. For a land lot, has the registered plan and the surveyor's statement arrived at least 14 days before settlement?
7. For an apartment, is the building more than three storeys, and what does that mean for warranty cover?

An off-the-plan purchase takes years to arrive and days to finish. The rights that matter at the end run on short clocks, and most of them start with a letter from the seller.

Off-the-plan settlement is where the patience of the contract period meets a timetable the buyer does not set. The law gives the buyer a minimum window, documents to compare against the original promise, and, as the 2024 Gold Coast case shows, a seller who must not stand in the way of the finance both sides expected. Using those protections depends on knowing them before the notice arrives.

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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