The Reserve Price Goes Public
Victoria’s price transparency reforms will now become law. From 1 October 2026, the statement of information is renamed and rebuilt, the vendor’s reserve must be published a week before every auction, and the sale price has to stay online for eighteen months afterward. This is a fixed date in the legislation, not a proclamation, so it will not move.
Your statement of information becomes a property price statement
Same document, new name, more content. It must now carry:
Key features of the property, building type, bedrooms, bathrooms, car spaces, internal floor area and land size in square metres.
Key features of every comparable sale, not just address, price and date.
The seller’s reserve price, once you have it, as a single dollar amount with no qualifiers.
Your reason for using fewer than three comparable sales, where that applies.
The all-or-nothing gap on comparables closes too. Where only one or two comparable sales exist, you must use them. A belief that fewer than three sold no longer takes you out of the requirement.
Online, the statement must sit on the first visible part of the listing, immediately next to the advertised price. A link at the foot of the page will not meet the test. Boards and brochures need a web address or QR code.
Asking for the reserve, and publishing it
Before any auction or fixed-date sale, you must request the reserve from your vendor in writing, setting out your proposed figure, your reasons for it, and the requirement that the reserve be a single dollar amount. The vendor replies in writing with signed confirmation, or nominates a different figure.
From then, the reserve must appear in every advertisement carrying a price, and prominently in your online listing, for at least seven days before the auction.
No reserve published, no auction
New section 47AI prohibits conducting an auction or fixed-date sale where the reserve has not been published for the full seven days immediately beforehand. There is no discretion and no way to cure it on the day. If the reserve went up on day five, the auction cannot proceed.
Build your campaign timetable backwards from this. Have the confirmed reserve ten days out, not seven.
Underquoting gets a third benchmark
In addition to not quoting below the estimated selling price or the lower limit of a range, you must not quote below the reserve once you have received it.
Then a clock starts. Online advertising that shows a price below the reserve must be removed or corrected within 1 day. Other advertising, as soon as practicable. The reserve publication rule and both cleanup obligations are added to the profit forfeiture provision, so a conviction can cost you the commission as well as the penalty.
After the sale, the statement stays up
Within seven days of the unconditional sale date, you must add the sale price to the property price statement, publish it online, and keep it freely accessible for at least eighteen months.
An exemption runs through the Director where family violence or personal violence is involved. Note the trap: while an exemption application is pending, publishing the sale price is itself an offence. Your post-sale workflow needs a hold step, not just a seven-day timer.
Two dates to diarise
1 October 2026
Everything above. Auctions and fixed-date sales held within the first 14 days are exempt and stay under the current rules, a fortnight, no more.
By 1 December 2027
Mandatory reporting of sale data to Consumer Affairs Victoria within seven days of the unconditional sale date, for publication. This one commences on proclamation, so it may arrive earlier.
Based on the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026 as passed with the amendments made by the Legislative Council. Section numbering may change on assent. This is general information, not legal advice, obtain your own advice on how the changes apply to your agency.