Put Your Reserve Where Your Mouth Is (or no Auction for you!)

From 16 October 2026, Victorian properties being sold by auction or fixed-date sale will have to have the vendor's reserve price publicly published for at least seven days before the auction. If the reserve changes, the seven-day clock starts again. No published reserve = no auction. On the surface, it sounds great.

Transparency! Clarity! No more underquoting! Everyone wins! Right?

Well, it sounds simple, until you factor in the complexity of property, human emotion and, you know, transacting huge amounts of money. Because here's the funny thing about selling property: the market doesn't always tell you what it thinks until you actually show it the house and let it see what everyone else thinks, too.