NSW Property Marketing Law Changes 2026

The way residential property is marketed in NSW is undergoing one of its most significant changes in years. The Government has introduced tougher laws aimed at underquoting, misleading price guides and greater transparency for buyers.

For agents, the days of vague marketing strategies around price are becoming increasingly difficult. For vendors, the price strategy agreed with the agent will need to be supported by market evidence, and kept up to date throughout the campaign.

What follows is the detail — and a few things you can try for yourself, because the rules are easier to understand when you move the numbers around.

The crackdown on underquoting

Underquoting occurs when an agent advertises or represents a property at a price below the agent’s reasonable estimate of its likely selling price.

NSW Fair Trading has significantly increased its focus on the practice. The reforms substantially increase the potential penalty, with the new regime providing for maximum penalties of $110,000 or three times the agent’s commission, whichever is greater, once the relevant provisions commence.

Fair Trading is already inspecting open homes and checking what agents tell buyers against agency records, vendor discussions and advertising material. In September 2026 it reported that its taskforce had covertly attended almost 80 open homes during a two-month compliance operation.

Try it

What the maximum penalty becomes

Move the commission on a single sale and watch which limb of the test bites.

Agent’s commission on the sale $30,000

Maximum penalty

$110,000Three times the commission is $90,000, so the $110,000 maximum applies instead.

Illustrative only, and reflects the maximum available once the provisions commence rather than a penalty any particular conduct would attract.

Price guides will become compulsory

One of the biggest changes is the requirement for agents to include a selling price or price range in advertisements for residential property. It applies broadly to advertising the agent arranges.

Tap each one

Where will the price have to appear?

Select every channel you think is caught.

01Property websitesrealestate.com.au, Domain and the rest 02Agency websitesThe agency’s own listing pages 03Social mediaPosts and paid campaigns arranged by the agent 04AppsAny app listing arranged by the agent 05Email marketingDatabase alerts and campaign mailouts 06Other electronicAny other electronic communication

Your answer

0 of 6 selected. Keep going: the requirement covers advertising the agent arranges, whatever the channel.

An exemption is proposed for a simple “For Sale” sign on or adjacent to the property — but if a price appears on that sign, it still has to comply with the pricing rules.

Importantly, as at 8 October 2026 these particular requirements have not yet commenced. NSW Fair Trading says they are expected to commence later in 2026, once the supporting regulations and forms are complete.

Agents will have to show how they arrived at the price

Another major change is a compulsory Statement of Information. An agent engaged to sell a residential property will have to prepare one using an approved NSW Fair Trading form, setting out the information supporting the estimated selling price, including the comparable sales relied upon.

Open each line

Inside the Statement of Information

A plain-language view of what the form is expected to carry, and where it has to go.

Estimated selling priceRequiredA single figure or a range. This is the agent’s genuine estimate, not an attention-getting number, and the rest of the statement exists to support it. Comparable sales relied uponRequiredThe sales the agent actually used to reach the estimate. This is where a loose comparison stops working — the properties have to be genuinely comparable, not simply nearby. Where it must appearOnline and electronicOnce the provisions commence, the statement or a link to it must accompany online advertising and electronic marketing. At the inspectionProminently availableIt has to be prominently available at property inspections, not produced only when a buyer presses for it. If a buyer asksTwo business daysA buyer requesting the Statement of Information, or the contract for sale, will generally need to be given the statement within two business days.

A plain-language summary of the expected requirements, not the approved form itself.

This creates a much greater level of accountability. An agent will not simply be able to put a number on a property because it creates more enquiry. There will need to be a reasonable basis behind that number.

Comparable sales become even more important

Agents are already required to ensure their estimated selling price is reasonable. The reforms go further, requiring agents to consider the selling prices of comparable properties according to prescribed requirements when determining or revising the estimate, with greater record-keeping about how the estimate was calculated.

This matters because comparable sales are not simply about finding three properties in the same suburb. A proper comparison considers location, building, land or internal area, condition, aspect, floor level, parking, views, age, renovations, and the date of the transaction.

Build the difference

Two apartments. Same building.

Start them identical, then switch on what makes apartment B different.

• Four floors higher
• Secure parking
• Renovated
• North-east aspect
• District outlook

Apartment A

$1,000,000 The baseline

• Lower floor
• No parking
• Original condition
• South aspect
• Internal outlook

Apartment B

$1,000,000 Identical on every factor shown

• No differences selected

What it shows

Add a few differences. Floor level, parking, outlook and condition move value well beyond the address.

A hypothetical worked example to show how factors compound. The figures are illustrative and are not market data, a valuation, or sales evidence for any property.

Two apartments in the same suburb — or even the same building — can have substantially different values.

The price guide must move with the campaign

Property marketing is dynamic. What is known at the start of a campaign changes once buyers inspect and offers arrive.

Under the existing regime, if an agent’s estimated selling price is no longer reasonable, the estimate must be revised, the vendor notified in writing and the agency agreement amended. Advertising inconsistent with the revised estimate has to be corrected.

The new laws tighten this. Once the relevant provisions commence, an agent will not be permitted to advertise below the agent’s estimated selling price, the highest registered bid at an auction where the property was passed in, or a written offer rejected by the vendor solely because the amount was too low. Where a range is used, the bottom of the range cannot sit below those amounts.

Test a campaign

How low can the guide go?

Choose one thing that has happened, then move the advertised price and watch where it stops being allowed.

The agent's estimate$2,300,000 Passed in at auctionHighest bid $2,250,000 An offer rejectedWritten offer $2,450,000

Advertised price $2,300,000

Cannot advertise here The guide may sit here

$1.80mFloor $2,300,000$2.70m

Compliant

$2,300,000 sits at or above $2,300,000, which is the agent's estimated selling price. Advertising at this price is fine.

Hypothetical figures, shown one event at a time for clarity. In a real campaign more than one of these can apply at once, and the highest of them sets the floor.

That could significantly change the way auction campaigns are conducted. If a vendor rejects a genuine written offer simply because the price is too low, the agent may no longer be able to continue marketing the property below that rejected amount once the provision takes effect.

“Offers over” remains a problem

NSW law already restricts agents from using expressions such as “offers over” or “offers above” a particular figure in residential property advertising. An agent also cannot tell a buyer that a property may sell below the agent’s genuine estimated selling price.

The obligation applies not only to what appears on the portals, but to what is said at the open home, on the telephone, and during negotiations.

Tap to check

Which of these can an agent say?

Six things buyers hear every weekend.

• Offers over $2,300,000CheckExpressions such as “offers over” or “offers above” a particular figure or range are already restricted in residential property advertising in NSW.
• $2,300,000CheckA single genuine figure, supported by evidence and consistent with the agent’s estimate, is exactly what the reforms are pushing towards.
• $2,300,000 – $2,500,000CheckA range is permitted. Once the new provisions commence, the bottom of that range cannot sit below the estimate, the highest passed-in bid, or a rejected written offer.
• $2,300,000+CheckThe plus sign does the same work as “offers over”. The number stops being a guide and becomes a starting point.
• Contact agentCheckOnce the provisions commence, advertising arranged by the agent will need to carry a selling price or range, so a blank guide will no longer be available.
• Between you and me, it may go under the guideCheckAn agent cannot communicate to a buyer that a property may sell below the agent’s genuine estimated selling price — in writing or in conversation.

General guidance on the direction of the rules, not legal advice on any particular advertisement.

Advertising photographs must tell the truth

Pricing is only one part of property advertising law. Photographs, descriptions and representations must not be false or misleading.

An advertisement should not create the impression that a spectacular water view is visible from a property when the photograph was taken somewhere nearby. NSW Fair Trading recommends that photographs of surrounding amenities or scenery not taken from the property be clearly identified as a location shot.

Claims about distance and facilities should be factual. “2 km from the beach”, where accurate, is considerably clearer than “close to the beach”. And an agent cannot advertise a property as being in a more desirable neighbouring suburb when it sits in another one.

Material facts still matter

Marketing is not only about what an agent says. Sometimes the failure to disclose something causes the problem. NSW agents have obligations concerning prescribed material facts they know, or ought reasonably to know.

Open each card

Examples of prescribed material facts

Silence can breach the legislation as readily as a misleading statement.

Flood or bushfireCertain circumstances involving recent natural flooding or bushfire affecting the property. Health and safety riskSignificant health or safety risks associated with the property. Loose-fill asbestosProperties affected by loose-fill asbestos insulation. A death at the propertyA murder or manslaughter having occurred at the property within the prescribed period. Prohibited drug useCertain recent uses of the property for manufacturing, cultivating or supplying prohibited drugs. The consequenceAn agent can potentially breach the legislation through a misleading representation or a failure to disclose a prescribed material fact.

A summary of examples, not the complete prescribed list.

A contract must exist before marketing starts

There is a basic requirement that sometimes gets overlooked. A residential property in NSW cannot simply be advertised for sale while the contract is still being prepared.

A proposed contract for sale must generally be available before the agent offers or advertises the property. Advertising, promoting the property, putting up a “For Sale” sign or otherwise representing that it is available can all amount to offering it for sale.

Switch the order

What has to happen first

Compare a compliant start with the way campaigns sometimes begin.

The right order The common shortcut

01Contract preparedA proposed contract for sale is ready

02Agency agreementPrice estimate and evidence agreed

03Sign goes upThe property is offered for sale

04Campaign liveAdvertising, portals, inspections

Reading

Correct. A proposed contract must generally be available before the property is offered or advertised for sale.

What this means for vendors

The legislation should not prevent an agent from trying to obtain the highest possible price. That remains the agent’s job. What is changing is the distinction between marketing aggressively and marketing misleadingly.

My view

These changes will alter the psychology of property marketing in NSW. For years some campaigns have relied on generating exceptionally high enquiry by setting an attractive guide and allowing competition to establish the final value.

The Government’s new approach is effectively saying: if you believe the property is worth a particular amount, the advertising needs to reflect that belief — and you need evidence to support it.

That does not eliminate competitive bidding. A property can still substantially exceed its guide where genuine competition develops. But agents are going to have to be far more disciplined about how the guide is established, what they tell purchasers during the campaign, and how quickly the guide changes when new evidence emerges.

Choosing an agent used to start with “how much can you get me?” The better question is becoming “show me the evidence behind your pricing”.

Before you list

What you should have in hand

Tick what you already have. The gaps are the conversation to have with your agent.

• A proposed contract for sale, prepared and available
• A written estimate of selling price, with the comparable sales behind it
• Comparables you can actually see — floor level, aspect, parking, condition, and the date of each sale
• An agreed position on what happens to the guide if an offer is rejected
• Photographs that represent the property honestly, with any location shots labelled
• A clear answer on any prescribed material fact affecting the property

0 of 6 — tick what you already have before you list.

That is ultimately where professional real estate agency should be heading.