New rules coming into effect from 1 October 2026 will change the way residential property is priced, marketed and reported in Victoria. Here is what buyers and sellers need to know — and why some of the changes could have wider implications.
Victoria’s property sales process is about to change.
From 1 October 2026, new rules will bring greater transparency to property pricing, comparable sales, reserve prices and the eventual sale price of residential property.
The intention is clear. Buyers should have access to better information when making one of the biggest financial decisions they are likely to make.
At Inview Property Group, we welcome better information for buyers. However, more information does not automatically make a property easier to assess. The real value comes from understanding the information, questioning it and putting it into context.
Some of these reforms could also have an impact beyond simply giving buyers more information. They could influence how properties are marketed, how vendors approach auctions and potentially even how buyers view off-market opportunities.
What Are the New Property Sales Rules in Victoria From 1 October 2026?
From 1 October 2026, new Victorian property sales rules will introduce changes aimed at making property pricing and sales more transparent. The changes cover Property Price Statements, comparable sales, online advertising, reserve prices and the publication of sold prices.
The key changes include:
- Property Price Statements: Statements of Information will be replaced with a new Property Price Statement (PPS).
- Comparable sales: More information will be provided about the property and the sales used to support the indicative price.
- Advertising: Property Price Statements and indicative selling prices will need to be more prominently displayed online.
- Reserve prices: For auctions and fixed-date sales, the vendor’s reserve will need to be published seven days before the sale.
- Sold prices: The Property Price Statement will be updated with the property’s sale price after the sale becomes unconditional.
- Public access: Property Price Statements will remain publicly available online for at least 18 months.
These changes are intended to give buyers greater access to information when assessing a property. They will also allow buyers to see more of the evidence behind the advertised price.
The interesting question is what buyers and sellers will actually do with that information.
What Is a Property Price Statement?
A Property Price Statement (PPS) is the document that will replace the Statement of Information for Victorian residential property sales from 1 October 2026. It will give buyers more information about the property and the sales evidence being used to support its indicative price.
The PPS will include key features of the property being sold, as well as key features of each comparable property used to support the indicative selling price. These include the type of building, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, number of car spaces, internal floor area and land size.
The PPS and indicative selling price will also need to be displayed prominently on internet advertising.
For buyers, this should make it easier to access the information being used to support a property’s advertised price, rather than having to search for it or request it separately.
However, there is an important distinction between having comparable sales and having genuinely comparable sales.
A three-bedroom house on 700 square metres is not necessarily comparable to another three-bedroom house on 700 square metres simply because the basic property details are similar.
Condition, renovation, position, orientation, views, layout, land configuration, street appeal and the quality of improvements can all influence value.
The Inview Perspective
A Property Price Statement will show you three comparable properties.
Our role is to ask whether they really are comparable.
That is where experience and local knowledge remain important. More information is useful. Knowing how to interpret it is just as important.
What Are the New Reserve Price Rules in Victoria?
From 1 October 2026, vendors selling by auction or fixed-date sale will need to have their reserve price published at least seven days before the auction or fixed date. The agent must request the vendor’s reserve price in writing, including the agent’s proposed reserve and the reasons supporting that recommendation.
The written request must also remind the vendor that the reserve must be a single dollar figure. It cannot be expressed with qualifying terms such as “from”, “+”, “over” or “starting at”. The sale cannot proceed unless the reserve has been published for the required period.
The intention is to give buyers greater visibility of the vendor’s position before the day of the sale.
However, a reserve price is not the same thing as a property’s market value.
A reserve reflects the vendor’s position at a particular point in time. It may be influenced by their financial circumstances, their plans after the sale and their willingness to sell. It does not necessarily represent what an independent assessment would consider the property’s worth.
The Inview Perspective
A reserve price may tell you where the vendor currently sits. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what the property is worth.
Buyers will still need to assess the property against comparable sales and its individual characteristics, rather than simply using the published reserve as their guide.
For vendors, the change also means the timing and strategy around setting a reserve will become more important.
The REIV has already raised questions about how the seven day disclosure period will work in practice. These include what happens if a vendor wants to change their reserve or receives an acceptable offer during that period.
These are practical issues that will become clearer as the reforms are implemented.
When Will Sold Prices Be Available in Victoria?
From 1 October 2026, once a residential property sale becomes unconditional, the Property Price Statement will need to be updated with the sale price within seven days. The PPS must then be published online and remain freely accessible for at least 18 months.
Over time, this should create a much richer pool of publicly available sales information for buyers researching suburbs and individual properties.
That could be particularly useful when trying to understand how similar properties have actually performed, rather than relying solely on advertised prices.
However, the same principle applies here as it does with the PPS.
A sold price is a piece of evidence, not a valuation.
Two properties can sell for very different prices for perfectly valid reasons. The circumstances of the sale, the condition of the property, the land, the location and buyer demand at the time all matter.
More data is valuable. Understanding the context behind the data is what makes it useful.
Could greater transparency change how properties are sold?
Greater transparency is one of the main objectives of the reforms. However, when the rules around a particular method of sale change, there is always the potential for vendors and agents to reconsider how they approach it.
The REIV has argued that publishing auction reserves could encourage some vendors to consider alternative methods of sale and potentially move more negotiations away from the traditional public auction process.
Whether that happens on any meaningful scale remains to be seen. However, it raises a broader question.
Could greater transparency make off-market property more attractive?
The October 2026 reforms do not put an end to off-market property. A property can still be offered privately rather than through a broad public campaign.
However, if the requirements around publicly marketed property become more rigid, vendors and selling agents may think differently about when and how a property is exposed to the market. That could potentially create a greater distinction between a property that is genuinely off-market and one that is simply being quietly marketed before a public campaign.
For buyers, that distinction matters.
Being given an opportunity to inspect a property before it is publicly advertised can be useful. It can provide an opportunity to assess the property without competing against a large number of buyers.
However, the fact that a property is described as “off-market” does not automatically make it a better opportunity.
The price still needs to make sense. The property still needs to stand up to due diligence, and the buyer still needs to understand what comparable properties are selling for.
The opportunity still needs to make sense for the buyer.
It will be interesting to see whether the new transparency requirements ultimately change the balance between public campaigns, pre-market opportunities and genuinely off-market transactions.
At this stage, it is too early to know.
What Do the New Property Sales Rules Mean for Buyers?
The new Victorian property sales rules should give buyers access to more information at several stages of the purchasing process. This includes greater visibility of the property features being used to support comparable sales, the indicative selling price, the vendor’s published reserve for auctions and fixed-date sales, and eventually the property’s actual sale price.
That is positive.
However, buyers should be careful not to confuse more information with more certainty.
A Property Price Statement does not tell you what a property is worth. A published reserve does not tell you what you should pay. And a recent sale does not automatically provide a perfect comparison.
Buyers should still be asking questions such as:
- Are the comparable properties genuinely comparable?
- How does this property differ from those recent sales?
- Is the advertised price supported by the evidence?
- Are there property-specific issues that could affect value?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the property?
- What is the property worth to us based on the evidence?
The reforms may give buyers more information.
They don’t remove the need for judgement.
What Do the New Property Sales Rules Mean for Sellers?
The new rules will require sellers to operate in a more transparent sales environment. The evidence supporting the advertised price will receive greater attention, while vendors selling by auction or fixed date will have a published reserve before the sale.
That makes the strategy behind a campaign particularly important.
Vendors should be thinking about more than simply choosing an agent with the highest appraisal. They should understand how their proposed price has been formed, which comparable properties support it, how the property will be positioned and whether the proposed method of sale is appropriate.
Preparation also matters.
A property’s presentation, timing, marketing strategy and buyer appeal can all influence the outcome. Greater transparency around pricing does not change those fundamentals.
If anything, it makes having a clear strategy even more important.
What’s Coming Next for Victorian Property Sales?
The 1 October 2026 reforms are only the first stage of the changes to Victoria’s property sales process.
Further reforms are scheduled for 1 June 2027, including changes to when Section 32 statements need to be available and the abolishment of the existing Section 27 deposit-release process.
Those changes raise a different set of questions.
For example, how will earlier access to Section 32 information affect the timing of offers and negotiations? Could it change how pre-market and off-market opportunities are handled? And what will the removal of the existing Section 27 process mean for homeowners who are selling one property and relying on the deposit to help fund their next purchase?
These are important issues in their own right, particularly for buyers and sellers involved in linked transactions.
We’ll explore those changes separately as the June 2027 commencement date approaches.
The Inview Perspective
Greater transparency in property transactions is a positive objective. Buyers should have access to meaningful information when deciding whether to purchase a property and how much they are prepared to pay.
However, transparency is not the same as certainty. A Property Price Statement can give you more evidence. A published reserve can provide greater insight into the vendor’s position, while a sold price gives you another useful data point. None of these things, on its own, tells you exactly what a property is worth.
That still requires judgement. Property values are influenced by a combination of factors, including location, land, condition, layout, comparable sales and buyer demand. For buyers, the real benefit of these reforms will come from understanding how to assess and interpret the information available to them, rather than simply having access to more of it.
For sellers, the focus should be on having a clear strategy around pricing, preparation, method of sale and choosing the right agent for the property.
The rules are changing, and more information will be available.
Our view is that understanding what to do with that information will be just as important.
By Lynda McNeill
