The reserve is now public. What Victoria's new auction rules mean for buyers and sellers

For 25 years, the single most useful number at a Victorian auction was the one nobody would tell you.

Buyers asked the agent what the vendor wanted. The agent pointed at a range. The range bore a loose relationship to the reserve, which was set in a huddle on the lawn ten minutes before the auction started, and sometimes moved after bidding began. Everyone in the industry knew how it worked. Nobody outside it did.

That ended on 1 October 2026. The Consumer Legislation Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 8 September and the first tranche is now in force. Here is what changed, what is still coming, and what I am telling clients to do about it.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Three things, all for residential auctions and fixed-date sales. Commercial property is untouched for now.

1. The reserve is agreed in writing, then published. Before the sale the agent must ask the vendor for the reserve in writing, with the agent's own proposed figure and reasons. The vendor replies in writing: accept it, nominate a different figure, or ask for another proposal. The final reserve must be a single dollar amount, not a range, and it must be published for at least the seven days immediately before the sale. If it was not published for that period, the agent must not hold the sale. The penalty for a breach is 240 penalty units.
2. The Statement of Information is now the Property Price Statement. Every physical advertisement needs a link or QR code to it. Online listings must show it prominently with the pricing information. It still contains the indicative price, the comparable sales and the suburb median, but it now has to carry more about the features of the property and the comparables.
3. The sold price goes public, fast. Once a sale is unconditional the agent has seven days to update the Property Price Statement with the actual price, and it must stay online, free, for at least 18 months.

Sales held in the first 14 days after 1 October were exempt. That window has closed.

What this does to a seller’s campaign

The practical change is timing. Until October, the reserve conversation happened at the end of the campaign, after the agent had read the buyers. Now it happens at least a week before, in writing, and it is the number the market sees.

Three consequences:

• Your agent’s “proposed reserve” is now a document. Ask for the reasons. If the agent proposes a reserve well below where they have been quoting, that is information about how the campaign is actually going, and you should have it before you sign off.
• Buyers will arrive knowing the floor. Some vendors fear this suppresses competition. In my experience the opposite tends to happen at well-run auctions: buyers who were going to walk away at an unknown number now know they are in the race, and they turn up. The ones who were never going to reach the reserve stop wasting everyone’s Saturday.
• The published price will follow the property. For 18 months, every buyer looking at your street can see what you paid and what your neighbours paid. If you are selling an investment property you bought in the last 18 months, your purchase price is on the record.

What this does for a buyer

Buyers get two things they never had.

First, a real number to prepare against. If the reserve is $1.4 million and your pre-approval is $1.3 million, you can stop inspecting. If it is $1.4 million and you can go to $1.55 million, you know you are a genuine bidder and can plan the bidding accordingly.

Second, honest comparables. The sold prices behind a Property Price Statement are now the actual unconditional prices, published within a week. When the agent says “the one around the corner went for $1.6 million”, you can check.

What buyers do not get is a reason to skip the contract review. The reserve tells you the price. It tells you nothing about the special conditions, the easement across the backyard or the owners corporation levy. The seven days before an auction is exactly the window in which to get the contract and the section 32 reviewed, and the next tranche of these reforms is built around that.

What is still coming: section 32 and the deposit

The second part of the Act amends the Sale of Land Act 1962. It starts by proclamation, or on 1 June 2027 at the latest. Two changes matter.

For vendors, the deposit change is the one to plan for. A lot of vendors use an early-released deposit to fund the deposit on their next purchase. From commencement, that only works if the contract says so and the purchaser agrees. If you are selling and buying in the same window, raise it with us before the contract is drafted, not after the auction.

For purchasers, the 14-day section 32 rule is the one you have been waiting for. Today, a section 32 that arrives the Thursday before a Saturday auction is a problem we solve by working the Friday night. From commencement, that document has to exist two weeks out, and a vendor who changes it has to tell you.

What to do now

If you are selling at auction

1. Expect the reserve conversation a week earlier than you are used to, and expect it in writing. Decide your number before the campaign starts, not during it.
2. If you need the deposit before settlement, say so now so the contract is drafted with an early-release condition.
3. Get the section 32 prepared before the campaign launches. By mid-2027 that is the law; today it is simply how the good campaigns run.

If you are buying at auction

1. Read the Property Price Statement. Check the comparables against the published sold prices, which are now real.
2. Treat the published reserve as your planning number and have the contract reviewed in the seven days you now get.
3. Do not assume the published reserve is where bidding will end. Competition still sets the price. The reserve only tells you where it starts.

The underlying law of selling land in Victoria has not changed. What has changed is how much of it happens in daylight. That is good for buyers, and, on balance, good for vendors who have priced honestly. The vendors it is bad for are the ones who were relying on a number nobody could see.