A real estate trick that has frustrated and dragged out the buying process for Australians looking to get into the housing market is finally being put to bed.
No longer will real estate agents in NSW be able to merely list a property with a vague description stating “for sale”, “expressions of interest”, “contact agent” or be permitted to advertise an unrealistic sale price.
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Instead, agents will be required to set an estimated selling price and include a selling price or price range on advertisements, under new laws by the NSW government aimed at cracking down on underquoting and improving transparency in the housing market.
For Brittany Daisy, these new laws would have saved her countless weekends, hundreds of hours, and lots of tears when she was searching for an apartment back in 2024.
“I had in my filters set in the Real Estate and Domain apps, and I would find that the filters meant absolutely nothing, because I would go to a property and it would be sometimes $400,000 over what the guide was,” she told news.com.au.
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“If there was property guiding for $800,000, it could go for $1.3m, and that happened a lot, and it was really frustrating”.
“Sometimes they wouldn’t have any guide at all, and it would be even worse, and it was a complete waste of time”.
The 32-year-old believes the new laws will help those with a specific budget to save time.
“When you are trying to buy a property, time is of the essence, and you can be more intentional with the properties that you look at”.
“People can get fed up looking, and they may not make the right decision, so if it can reduce searching fatigue, and help people make informed decisions before they inspect or get emotionally invested in a property, I think that is a really good thing”.
Michael Kavvalos, Sales Associate at Cobden Hayson, has praised the laws as cultivating “more trust” for home buyers who are stuck on the back fence due to the lack of transparency by some agents.
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“Buyers will see a guide and feel more comfortable with what the guide (is) advertising, and will go for the property, instead of being on the back fence …(and) more people will turn up at auction and start bidding for the property”.
“It gets rid of all the old school cowboy methods of agents underquoting and it creates more transparency (for) buyers,” he added.
Estimated selling prices required to be listed on a property
NSW real estate agents will have to set an estimated selling price, with a consideration of the sold prices of comparable properties when determining the estimated selling prices.
Agents will also need to ensure that their estimated selling price for a property is, and remains, a reasonable estimate of the likely selling price of the property during the campaign.
That means the new laws will give buyers the opportunity to understand the evidence where that guide came from, and know that it will be updated when the campaign produces better and more accurate information, North Shore buyers agent, Ben Drayton told news.com.au.
The new laws will iron out the real estate agent method of choosing a comparable sale which often sits at the lower end of similar sales for a certain property, he added.
Mr Drayton also highlighted the “significantly higher” consequences for real estate agents falling short of providing correct estimated selling price information.
“There is $110,000 (penalty) or three times the commission price for the property, which is significantly more than what the current penalties are, so it is a significantly higher disincentive to engage in that”.
Selling price or price range mandated on advertisements
By the end of 2026, agents will need to include a selling price or price range in advertisements for the sale of a property via websites, social media platforms or email.
Real estate agent Rebecca Reid from John Pye Real Estate said these changes will “really impact the market”.
“It is actually forcing the agencies who never actually advertise properties with a price to do that … so, where there hasn’t been transparency, it’s forcing people to become transparent — both agencies and also sellers”.
“I really believe it will be a positive outcome for the entire property industry in NSW”.
The laws will prohibit agents from advertising or representing selling prices for residential property that are lower than the agent’s estimated selling price and the highest bid that the agent knows, or should reasonably know, which was made by a registered bidder at an auction, among other requirements.
Agents will also need to update or remove advertisements within one business day to ensure they remain compliant with these requirements.
Mrs Reid welcomed the new laws as desperate reform needed within the industry, which has left many buyers frustrated, yet warned those looking to buy that an estimated price is not the final price of the property.
“One thing that we need to be very mindful of is that the market sets the price”.
“Regardless of what our estimated selling price is, it actually doesn’t really matter at the end of the day if a buyer is not willing to pay what a seller is willing to sell for”.
A spokesman for the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the new laws have been backed by an $8.4 million investment, which will help enforce the legislation and ensure homebuyers’ rights are protected.
“Underquoting is unlawful. It wastes homebuyers’ valuable time and their hard-earned money,” he said.
“Our reforms mandating a price or price guide on all advertising and requiring agents to publish a Statement of Information on all properties are focused on improving the accuracy and integrity of advertised price guides”.
“The laws provide greater certainty to industry, while delivering greater transparency for homebuyers from the outset of the sales process as they make one of the most significant financial decisions of their lives”.
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