‘Name and shame’: Crackdown on underquoting begins

NSW is launching a widespread crackdown on the real estate industry, that is set to zero in on the loathed practice of agents underquoting home sale prices.

OPINION

New South Wales estate agents will hopefully soon be required to issue public price guidance on their auction listings. It is a long overdue reform as agents regularly list homes with no price guide.

And while advertised prices can’t be less than the estimated selling price included in the listing agency agreement, other agents often only reveal the lower estimate rather than the full range of up to 10 per cent. All this leads to buyers facing greater expense, time and emotion in their forlorn home search.

The estimated selling price comes from estate agents using their professional skills and local market knowledge of recent comparable sales. It can be wrong, and not just too low.

The just right Goldilocks pricing scenario is not necessarily going to happen, as houses across the suburbs can often attract an emotional commitment that sees the sale price soar past the agent guidance and seller reserve.

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New South Wales estate agents will hopefully soon be required to issue public price guidance on their auction listings.

It is unlikely buyers will ever get pre-knowledge of the reserve price, as it’s common for reserves to be set on auction day, with the agent often gleaning it in the minutes before.

But the NSW Better Regulation and Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong is considering legislative changes to make the pricing disclosure rules clearer and easier to enforce.

It follows a series of articles by The Daily Telegraph highlighting the issue faced by frustrated buyers. Many agents avoid published pricing so they can boost their all-important email lists, and then potentially be in direct conversation with buyers.

The reform, which ought to be as much about transparency as it is about addressing underquoting, is likely to see an outcome that will mimic the regulations that have applied in Melbourne since 2016.

If the NSW government wants to go further they could legislate that the auction reserve must sit within the official 10 per cent range.

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It is unlikely buyers will ever get pre-knowledge of the reserve price

Of course agents can always revise the estimated selling price higher, or lower, during the marketing period as they get buyer feedback.

Fair Trading is apparently even investigating creating a “name and shame” register to increase transparency and compliance within the real estate industry.

There is certainly a need for NSW Fair Trading to conduct more checks on the overlay between private and public guidance.

Sydney buyers recently saw an upper north shore house, guided at $7 million, only sell after bidding hit its $9 million reserve with just five of the 28 registered bidders managing to get in a bid.

Last year Fair Trading issued about 100 penalty notices with $221,000 in fines for underquoting offences, having received 270 complaints about underquoting. So far in 2025, there have been about 125 complaints.

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