On 16 September 2026 realestate.com.au emailed its Victorian subscribers about changes to listings from 1 October. The email is about listing fields and uploads. The law behind it is bigger than that. The Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 8 September, and it rewrites how residential sales are priced, advertised and reported in Victoria.
Most of the coverage has been about reserve prices, and fair enough. But the same Act also gives the Business Licensing Authority a new power to suspend an estate agent’s licence over a late trust account audit, and that part is already in force. Here’s what starts on 1 October, what it means for a sales campaign, and where the trust account comes into it.
The short version
- From 1 October 2026, the seller’s reserve price has to be published at least seven days before an auction or fixed-date sale, as a single dollar figure. No published reserve, no auction.
- The Statement of Information becomes the Property Price Statement (PPS). It sits next to the price on the listing and shows the key features of the property and each comparable sale.
- The sold price goes on the PPS within seven days of the sale going unconditional, and the PPS stays online for at least 18 months.
- Each breach carries up to 240 penalty units, $50,184 at the 2026-27 rate.
- Since 9 September 2026 the Business Licensing Authority can suspend a licence for up to 12 months over an unlodged trust account audit.
What starts when
Most of the sales changes start on 1 October 2026. For auctions and fixed-date sales there’s a 14-day transition, so the reserve price and new PPS rules apply to those held on or after 16 October. Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) puts it plainly: an auction on 16 October needs its reserve published by 9 October. CAV also says it understands agents will need some time to move existing listings across.
The sold-price rule runs on a different clock. It applies to any sale that becomes unconditional on or after 1 October, even if the contract was signed in September. The one carve-out is an engagement or appointment signed before 1 October that includes a term not to disclose the sale price.
The changes only cover residential property. Commercial sales sit outside them.
The reserve price: ask, confirm, publish, wait
The reserve process now has a set shape. Before the auction or fixed-date sale you have to ask the seller for their reserve in writing. The request has to include your proposed reserve, your reasons for it, and a note that the reserve must be a single dollar amount. The seller answers in writing too. They can sign off on your figure, nominate a different one with a signed confirmation, or ask you to propose again.
Once you have the reserve, it goes into every advertisement, at least seven days before the auction and right up until it happens. On internet listings it has to be prominent. The Act defines that as the first visible part of the main listing, immediately next to the advertised price. It’s a single dollar figure. No “from”, no “over”, no “starting at”, no trailing ”+”.
If the reserve hasn’t been published for the full seven days, you can’t conduct the auction or fixed-date sale. That’s an offence in its own right, not a paperwork slip.
A few practical points from CAV’s industry Q&A:
- The seller can still change the reserve. Up or down, either way the seven days start again and the auction moves.
- Boardroom auctions count as fixed-date sales. So does inviting offers by a set date and time. Both need the reserve published for seven days first.
- Pre-auction offers are treated as a private sale. They can be made and accepted as they are now, and the auction cancelled if it’s no longer needed.
- Advertising below the reserve becomes a false representation. Within one day of receiving the reserve, you have to take reasonable steps to pull or fix any online ad showing a lower price. Print and signboards follow as soon as practicable.
Until you have the reserve, online ads still need the indicative selling price shown prominently. So the listing carries the indicative price first, and the reserve replaces it once the seller confirms one.
The Property Price Statement replaces the Statement of Information
The Statement of Information (SOI) is renamed the Property Price Statement, and it gets heavier. On top of what the SOI already carried, the PPS has to include:
- the key features of the property for sale: building type, bedrooms, bathrooms, car spaces, internal floor space in square metres and land size in square metres
- the same key features for each comparable property, alongside the address, sale price and date of sale
- the seller’s reserve price, once you have it, as a single dollar figure
Placement changes too. The PPS can’t live at the bottom of the listing any more. Online, it has to be displayed or linked on the first visible part of the main advertisement, next to the price. Any physical advertising that gives details of the property, whether a brochure, a signboard or a press ad, needs a web address or QR code that leads to the PPS.
The comparables test has been tightened as well. The law now says the three most comparable properties, full stop. The old wording, properties the agent “reasonably considers” to be the most comparable, is gone. And if only one or two comparable sales exist in the period, you have to take those into account and list them on the PPS, with a reason why fewer than three were sold. The definition of comparable hasn’t moved: sold within six months and two kilometres in metropolitan Melbourne, or 18 months and five kilometres elsewhere.
CAV will publish the approved PPS template before 1 October. On the portal side, realestate.com.au says it will read an uploaded PPS and pull the reserve into the listing automatically. It’s also looking at a dedicated reserve-price field with the CRM (customer relationship management) software vendors. Until that exists, the reserve goes into the existing display price field, with the search price updated to match.
Sold prices go public within seven days
This is the change that will touch the most files. Once a sale goes unconditional, you have seven days to add the sale price to the PPS, publish it online, and leave it there, free to access, for at least 18 months. Today, sold prices reach the public through the Valuer-General after settlement, often one to three months later. Seven days from unconditional is a very different clock.
“Unconditional” has a precise meaning in the Act. For a contract with no conditions, it’s the day the contract is signed. For a conditional contract, it’s the day the last condition is satisfied. Your file needs to record that date, because the seven days run from it.
There’s an exemption for circumstances involving family violence or personal violence affecting the seller or buyer. Either party, or the agent on their behalf, applies to the Director of CAV within seven days of the unconditional date. While an application is pending, or once an exemption is granted, you must not publish the price. CAV has been clear that a general preference for privacy won’t get an exemption on its own.
CAV’s suggested records are worth adopting as they stand: the contract price, the date the sale went unconditional, the date the price was published, and whether any exemption applied and why. The Director can also ask for a copy of any PPS, and you have seven days to produce it.
The penalties
Nearly every new obligation carries a maximum of 240 penalty units. At the 2026-27 Victorian penalty unit of $209.10, that’s $50,184 per breach. CAV’s own pages still quote $48,842, which is last year’s unit value. The existing underquoting offences stay in place. And where a court finds an offence proven, it can order commission on the sale to be forfeited, which from 1 October reaches the reserve-price publication and ad-removal offences too.
The Underquoting Taskforce will keep doing what it did over winter: watching online campaigns, reviewing sales files and turning up at auctions. We wrote about what that looks like on the ground in August. The short version is that inspectors ask for the records, not your reasoning.
The clause for trust accounts: licence suspension for a late audit
Buried in the same Act, and in force since 9 September 2026, is a new section 24E of the Estate Agents Act 1980. It deals with the annual trust account audit.
The obligations themselves haven’t changed. Every Victorian estate agent has to have their trust accounts for the year to 30 June audited within three months of year end, by a qualified auditor. The report then has to be lodged with CAV within 10 business days of receiving it.
What’s new is what happens if you don’t. The Business Licensing Authority (BLA) can now give you written notice that your licence will be suspended for up to 12 months if the report isn’t lodged by a date it sets. Miss that date and the suspension starts. While it runs, you’re treated as unlicensed, and you can’t act as an agent’s representative either.
The BLA can extend the date or lift a suspension early. But the direction is obvious. A late audit used to be a fine. It can now be your licence, and with it the agency’s ability to trade. For the year to 30 June 2026, that means an audit completed by 30 September 2026.
If your reconciliations are current, the audit is a formality. If they aren’t, this is the year to find out before the auditor does. Our audit preparation guide covers what auditors look for, and the Victorian trust accounting page sets out the full obligations.
What’s coming in 2027
Two more parts of the Act will land on the sales desk and the trust account later. CAV currently lists 1 July 2027 for both.
Section 32 statements move earlier. The vendor statement has to be available at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale, and within 14 days of advertising for a private sale.
Deposits and commission change. The old section 27 early-release process is repealed. A deposit held as stakeholder can only be released before settlement if the contract has a condition allowing it. And where it is released early, the agent can’t keep commission or auction expenses out of it before settlement or rescission. The seller can still choose to pay you before settlement, but it has to come from them, not out of the deposit.
From 1 December 2027, agents will also have to report sold-price information to the Director of CAV.
A checklist for the next fortnight
- Write the reserve price request letter now, with the proposed reserve, reasons and single-figure rule built in, and a signed response section for the seller.
- Diarise the reserve seven days before every auction or fixed-date sale from 16 October, and note that any change restarts the clock.
- Review every current auction campaign. Anything going to auction from 16 October needs a PPS in the new format and the reserve published in time.
- Add a step to your sales process for the unconditional date. Record it, then publish the sold price within seven days.
- Decide where the PPS lives for 18 months after each sale, and who checks that it’s still there.
- Check your trust account audit. If the auditor hasn’t started, book them today. The report has to be lodged within 10 business days of receipt.
Where that leaves you
The reserve price rules will get the headlines, and the first auctions from 16 October will get the inspectors. For a principal, though, the quieter change is the one that ties your licence to a lodged audit. If you’d like a second set of eyes on your trust account before the 30 September deadline, or a hand setting up the sold-price and PPS records so they’re ready when CAV asks, get in touch.
Sources: Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2026 (No. 36 of 2026, assented to 8 September 2026); New changes to property sales and underquoting laws (updated 15 September 2026) and Industry Q&As (updated 10 September 2026), Consumer Affairs Victoria; Estate Agents Act 1980 (version 135, 9 September 2026); Indexation of fees and penalties, Department of Treasury and Finance Victoria; realestate.com.au customer email “Important changes to Victorian listings from 1 October” (16 September 2026). Dates current as at September 2026. This article is general information for agencies, not legal advice.