What does “off-market” mean?
Consumer Affairs Victoria uses the term twice. In describing what a buyer’s agent can do, it lists access to off-market properties, which it explains as properties that have yet to be advertised. In its guidance on the new sales laws, it describes an agent “selling a residential property without publicly advertising the sale”.
The guidance then answers a set of questions about these sales, set out below in the order a buyer meets them.
Victoria: the questions and the answers
Does the seven-day reserve rule apply?
No. An agent selling without publicly advertising doesn’t have to advertise the reserve price seven days before the sale.
Is there still a Property Price Statement?
Yes. The agent must prepare one and provide copies at inspections or on request. The statement must include a selling price or a price range of up to 10 per cent, the key features of the property, and details of the three most comparable sales.
Does the price become public afterwards?
Yes. The agent must add the sale price to the Property Price Statement within seven days of the sale becoming unconditional, and publish the statement online with the price, even though the property was never publicly advertised or listed. Agents must keep the statement published online, free of charge, for at least 18 months after the sale becomes unconditional.
When does the buyer see the section 32 statement?
From 1 June 2027, if a property isn’t advertised, or will be sold within 14 days of being advertised, the agent must make the section 32 statement (the vendor statement) available before the buyer signs the contract.
Can the sale price be kept private?
In two situations. Where family violence or personal violence involves the seller or the buyer, either of them (or their agent) may ask Consumer Affairs Victoria for an exemption. And there is a transitional exception: the rule doesn’t apply where the agent’s written engagement to sell was entered into before 1 October 2026 and includes a term requiring the sale price not to be disclosed.
Elsewhere: duties that come with every sale
In the other states, the pages charted here describe obligations attached to selling a home. These are the ones that bear on what a buyer learns before signing.
- QLD Since 1 August 2025, sellers must give buyers key information about the property, in a seller disclosure statement, before a contract is signed. The buyer may be able to terminate if the seller doesn’t comply.
- WA There is no mandatory seller disclosure statement, but the agent must disclose relevant facts about the property, especially when asked directly. Consumer Protection WA lists facts agents must tell buyers, including whether the property was used as a drug laboratory, has structural issues, or was affected by major incidents such as fire or flood, and says agents must answer questions honestly.
- SA A buyer’s information notice (Form R3) must be available to potential buyers during open inspections, and every offer must be in writing and reported to the seller within 48 hours.
- ACT A seller must provide certain documents and reports, including a draft contract, before the property is first offered to buyers.
- TAS There is no requirement under the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 to disclose defects in the quality of the property. CBOS’s phrase for the buyer’s position is “buyer beware”.