Victoria’s reserve price laws: a Melbourne buyer’s guide

From 1 October 2026, anyone selling a Victorian home by auction or fixed-date sale has to publish their reserve as a single dollar figure at least seven days before the sale. The change arrives in a spring market already short on bidders, and two days after the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate to 4.60 per cent.

Cohen Handler’s Victorian business director Zac Jacobs was one of the buyer’s agents interviewed by realestate.com.au about the rollout. His expectation for the next three months is “a lot of flux”. This article expands on the points Zac raised and what they mean for anyone planning to bid in Melbourne before the end of the year.

What Victoria’s new reserve price laws require

The changes come through the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026, which the Victorian Parliament passed to target underquoting. For residential auctions and fixed-date sales, the main requirements are:

• The reserve is published as one dollar amount. Ranges and qualifiers such as “from”, “over” or “+” don’t comply.
• It must be public at least seven days before the auction or fixed-date sale. If it isn’t, the sale can’t go ahead.
• If the vendor changes the published reserve, the sale date has to move so buyers still get seven days’ notice of the new figure.
• The Statement of Information is replaced by a Property Price Statement. Agents must add the sold price within seven days of the sale going unconditional and keep the statement public for 18 months.
• The laws start on 1 October, with a grace period until 16 October. Auctions and fixed-date sales held from that date must comply.

Most Melbourne campaigns run for about four weeks, so nearly every home listed for auction from late September falls under the new rules. A vendor can still decide not to sell up until contracts are signed.

Two very different ways sellers are setting reserves

Zac is already seeing vendors take opposite approaches. Some are publishing a high reserve. Others are setting a lower figure based on an offer they’ve already received.

A high reserve usually means the vendor hasn’t yet accepted where the market sits, or their agent wants room to negotiate if the property passes in. With one or two bidders now common, many of those homes won’t reach the reserve under the hammer. The real negotiation happens afterwards, and in Melbourne the highest bidder is normally first in line to talk to the vendor.

A reserve built on an existing offer sends a different signal. Someone is already at or near that number, and the auction is the vendor’s attempt to find a buyer above it. Bidding in that campaign starts from a floor another buyer has set.

Neither figure is a valuation. The reserve is the lowest price the vendor will accept on the day, set on their agent’s advice. What the home is worth to you still comes from comparable sales, condition and how well it fits your brief. We’d suggest settling on your limit before the reserve is published, as part of an auction strategy worked out in advance, so the vendor’s number doesn’t become your anchor.

Why pre-auction sales are likely to rise

Zac expects the new laws to push more Melbourne homes to sell before auction day, and the mechanics explain why.

Say a vendor has published their reserve, then receives a pre-auction offer they won’t accept but which convinces them the home is worth more. To lift the reserve, they have to publish the new figure, call off Saturday’s auction and wait another seven days. “That is quite complicated,” Zac told realestate.com.au. Real Estate Institute of Victoria chief executive Toby Balazs raised the same problem, pointing to the difficulty of managing pre-auction offers without triggering another week’s delay.

Faced with a reset campaign, more advertising and the chance that buyer interest fades over the extra week, plenty of vendors will prefer to negotiate before the auction. That brings the decision point forward for buyers. A pre-auction offer carries more weight under these rules because the vendor’s alternative is now slower and less certain.

It only helps if you can act on it. Finance needs to be approved, the contract and Section 32 reviewed, and building and pest inspections completed before the offer goes in. Buyers who leave contract and inspection checks until auction week will find some of the homes on their shortlist sold before then.

There’s a risk on the other side as well. An early offer made without comparable sales behind it can simply tell the vendor their reserve was too low. Any pre-auction offer should be a price you’d be comfortable paying if it’s accepted on the spot.

Fewer auctions and fewer bidders in Melbourne

For the first full week under the new laws, 5 to 11 October, realestate.com.au has 707 auctions scheduled across Victoria against 841 in NSW. Melbourne is expecting 686, Sydney 718. Zac sees that as a sign Melbourne may have handed its title as Australia’s auction capital to Sydney, at least for now.

“Participation (in) auctions is very much lower this year,” he said. “We used to see three, four, five bidders in our auctions, and now … you see one, maybe two.”

The laws are only part of the story. Balazs also cited cost-of-living pressure and rising rates as reasons to expect subdued auction numbers through spring. The Reserve Bank raised the cash rate to 4.60 per cent on 29 September, its fourth increase this year, which reduces borrowing capacity for many of the buyers who would otherwise be bidding.

Not everyone sees the lower numbers as bad news. Matthew Scafidi, Victorian representative of the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia, expects the auctions that disappear to be mostly those where the vendor wants more than the home is worth, properties that would probably have passed in anyway. On that view, the auctions left on the calendar should be better matched to the market.

For a buyer, a thin field changes how auction day plays out. You’ll know the vendor’s floor a week before you arrive, and inspection numbers through the campaign usually give a fair indication of how many serious buyers there are. The choice then sits between bidding to the reserve, waiting for a pass-in and negotiating, or moving with an offer before the day. Each suits different circumstances, and the answer depends on how much competition that particular home has drawn.

Private sales need more scrutiny

Some vendors will move from auction to private sale rather than publish a reserve. Private listings still need a Property Price Statement, but the asking price has no seven-day reserve discipline behind it and no public test on the day. Scafidi warned that some homes in that segment will be overpriced.

Treat a private sale asking price as the vendor’s opening position. With no competing bidder to show you where the market sits, comparable sales are the only check on that number. It’s also one reason the search for the right property shouldn’t be limited to what’s scheduled for Saturday.

What Melbourne buyers should do in the first three months

• Set your limit before the reserve is published. Work from comparable sales, then compare your figure with the reserve once it appears.
• Watch for reserve changes and new sale dates. A lifted reserve after a reset usually means an offer has come in. A lowered one usually means interest has been weaker than the vendor expected. Ask the selling agent which it is.
• Do the groundwork early. Finance, contract review and inspections should be finished in time to make a credible pre-auction offer.
• Use the new sold-price data. Property Price Statements must show the sold price within seven days and stay public for 18 months, so recent comparable sales become visible to buyers faster than before.
• Price private listings yourself. Without a published reserve, the asking price is the vendor’s expectation and nothing more.

Transparency on the vendor’s floor is useful to buyers. The risk in the transition is that a published reserve starts to feel like the price, particularly in a quiet auction with one other bidder. We would generally rather a client miss a property than pay beyond defensible value because the vendor’s number set the terms of their thinking.

If you’re planning to buy in Melbourne this spring and want independent representation through the change, speak with our Melbourne buyer’s agent team.

Frequently asked questions

When do Victoria’s new reserve price laws start?

1 October 2026, with enforcement from 16 October. Auctions and fixed-date sales held on or after 16 October must have the reserve published as a single dollar figure at least seven days beforehand, or the sale can’t proceed.

Does the published reserve mean the property will sell at that price?

No. The reserve is the minimum the vendor will accept at auction. If bidding passes it, the home sells for the final bid, which can be well above the reserve. If bidding falls short, the property passes in and negotiation usually continues with the highest bidder.

Can a seller change the reserve after publishing it?

Only by moving the sale date. Buyers must get seven days’ notice of the figure, so a changed reserve means the auction or fixed-date sale is pushed back to allow a fresh seven-day window. Zac Jacobs expects this to encourage more vendors to sell before auction rather than reset their campaign.

Do the new rules apply to private sales in Victoria?

The reserve rule applies to auctions and fixed-date sales. Private sale listings still need a Property Price Statement and remain subject to underquoting laws, but there’s no published reserve. Buyers should rely on their own comparable sales analysis rather than the asking price.

How does a Melbourne buyer’s agent help under the new auction laws?

By setting the price independently of the vendor’s number. A buyer’s agent assesses value from comparable sales, advises whether to bid, wait for a pass-in or make a pre-auction offer, coordinates contract review and inspections early enough to act, and negotiates or bids on the client’s behalf. Cohen Handler acts only for buyers and never represents vendors.