Vendors are turning to off market sales in a long-running trend as housing markets cool. (Source: Getty/TikTok)
There is something “funny” going on in the property market at the moment. A growing number of home sellers are going about it much more quietly, says Melbourne buyers agent Emily Wallace.
Prices in the city are falling, ever so slightly, and more landlords are selling up. And vendors are increasingly opting to sell in low visibility environments.
“I was chatting to an agent at an open [home] earlier in the day yesterday, and they basically said a lot of their vendors are going off market, because they just don’t want the exposure in this turbulent market,” Wallace told Yahoo Finance.
“They are prepared to sell, but not in public.”
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Wallace said going that route for a home seller is unlikely to be the most beneficial option, “but it seems to be like a safety blanket for vendors”.
“If they do an off market sale, they’re not committed to a price online, and they’re not up for scrutiny or up for a flopped campaign if they go through the traditional methods,” she said.
Of course it also costs a lot less, as home sellers don’t pay the major listing portals or pay for a marketing or potential auction campaign. So there’s also a portion of non-committal sellers who might try their luck.
Admittedly, that can be good news for buyers agents like Wallace, who spend their time hunting down the right property for clients. But she says selling off market has “certainly been a trend” lately.
“I’ve just noticed a definite increase in the volume of them that are off market. Like, for context, even last month, we bought six properties and five of them were off market.
“So that was 83 per cent [of purchases being off market sales] on that month. Our average for 2025 was 58 per cent overall.”
Melbourne’s median house price fell 0.6 per cent over the March quarter. (Source: Getty) ‘So many investors selling out’
Her agency predominantly helps first home buyers into the market, and doesn’t operate on behalf of investors, she said. But she has watched as many landlords sell their properties to new entrants as investors face higher holding costs and more onerous requirements in the state.
“We’re getting a lot of properties that do belong to investors, like so many investors are selling out,” she told Yahoo Finance.
“Also hearing of a lot of real estate agencies noticing a massive decline in their rent roll because they’re paying less properties on the books that are now sold to first home buyers. And so that’s a diminishing part of their business.”
That trend has been showing up in the data for months. Residential tenancy bond data in late 2025 showed there was 10,274 fewer rental bonds active across the state, REA reported.
In a video to social media this week, Wallace felt compelled to share what she’s been hearing and seeing in the market as challenging conditions take hold.
“There has been a surge in off market properties in the last couple of weeks,” she said.
“There’s a bit of uneasiness, a bit of uncertainty … and property is doing some funny things right now.
“If you’re a buyer in the market and feel like you’re not really seeing much come online, it’s probably offline.”
It’s thought that about one in five Australian properties, or roughly 100,000 each year, are estimated to be sold off-market before being listed on major property platforms like Domain and realestate.com.au.
The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA) estimates up to 20 per cent of properties nationwide are sold off-market, however, the group noted accurate figures were hard to come by, given the private nature of the transactions.
It costs as much as $5,000 to list a home on realestate.com.au, depending on the area. This price has risen dramatically, with a listing costing just $75 in 2009.
Proptrack, which is part of REA group, claims properties that sold off-market sold for 4.3 per cent less than those that had been listed on its website.
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