A price you can see: what Victoria's reserve rules get right, and what they can't fix

Do Victoria's reserve price rules make buying more transparent? Yes, in part. For auctions and fixed-date sales held from 16 October 2026, agents must publish the seller's reserve as a single dollar figure at least 7 days before the sale, and that's a real step forward. But a published reserve still arrives late in the campaign, and much of the actual negotiating can happen before or after the auction, where other buyers can't see it.

What changed, and why it's welcome

The reforms commenced on 1 October 2026. According to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), for auctions and fixed-date sales held on and from 16 October 2026, agents must publish the seller's reserve at least 7 days beforehand, as a single dollar amount with no "from", "over" or "+". If the reserve isn't published in time, the sale can't go ahead. A new Property Price Statement replaces the Statement of Information, and agents must publish the sale price within 7 days of a sale becoming unconditional.

CAV says the changes are "designed to improve price transparency for homebuyers, help tackle underquoting, and make property sales fairer and clearer." For anyone who has spent weekends at auctions where the quoted range bore little relation to the result, that's welcome. A published reserve is a real number from the seller, not just an agent's estimate.

Early evidence from October 2026

The first results came in a market that was already soft, so they're early evidence rather than a verdict. What was reported in the weeks after the rules applied:

• Fewer auctions. Cotality reported 500 Melbourne auctions in the week to 18 October 2026, the first week of the disclosure requirements. That compared with 703 the week before and 1,142 in the same week of 2025. Cotality said the drop "coincided with" the new requirements. Melbourne's preliminary clearance rate that week was 56.2%, a four-week high, on smaller volumes.
• A market already under pressure. The AFR reported on 11 October 2026, before the rules applied, that the combined-capitals clearance rate had been below 50% for two weeks in a row, with volumes well down on a year earlier. So not all of the fall can be put down to the reforms.
• Sales below the reserve after passing in. The Age reported that on Saturday 17 October 2026 a Newport home with a $1.8 million reserve passed in at $1,735,000 and then sold after negotiation for $1.79 million. A Carlton North terrace with a $1.09 million reserve passed in the same day and sold afterwards for $1 million. realestate.com.au reported a similar outcome in Heidelberg.
• Mixed industry reaction. In the same realestate.com.au report, some agents and auctioneers called the rollout confusing. One agency director said many buyers didn't realise vendors could still sell below the reserve, and predicted "many more closed door negotiations". Others, including the REIV, said the first results looked reasonable and expected the market to settle as everyone adjusted.

The gaps the rules can't close

None of this means the reforms have failed. But it does show what a reserve rule, on its own, can and can't do.

The price still arrives late. The reserve only has to appear 7 days before the auction. For most of a campaign, buyers still work from an indicative selling price, the agent's estimate, and decide whether to pay for inspections, legal review and finance without knowing the seller's number.

The negotiation can move out of view. CAV's Industry Q&As say pre-auction offers "are treated as a private sale" and can happen "as normal, without the 7 day-requirement", and that the auction can then be cancelled. CAV also says a seller can accept bids higher or lower than the published reserve during the auction. The October 2026 reports show the next step: when a property passes in, the deal can be done privately, at a figure other bidders never see until the sale price is published.

Not every buyer gets the same information. Agents and buyer's advocates have raised questions about how competing early offers should be handled. CAV's guidance covers some of this. It says inviting offers by a set date and time "could constitute a fixed-date sale" that needs the reserve published for 7 days first. It also explains when rejecting a pre-auction offer requires changes to the indicative selling price. Beyond that, it's largely silent on how competing private offers should be run. Where a process relies on private conversations, one buyer can know more than another. That isn't a legal failing. It's simply the nature of a negotiated sale.

What "a price you can see" looks like

If the aim is transparency, the logical end point has three parts:

1. A fixed price that's visible from day one, set by the seller, not estimated by someone else and not revealed a week before the sale.
2. Equal access for buyers, so anyone willing to pay that price can secure it on the same terms, without private rounds or competing offers they can't see.
3. An exclusive window for due diligence, so the buyer who secures the price has time to check the property before committing to a contract.

The third point matters more than it might seem. At auction in Victoria, the contract is unconditional and there's no cooling-off period, so buyers commonly pay for building and pest inspections, legal review of the Section 32 vendor statement and finance arrangements before they know whether they'll secure the home. The same is often true in competitive private sales. If another buyer wins, that money and time may be lost. In a fixed-price model with a due-diligence period, the order is reversed. The buyer who meets the price takes an exclusive option, so for a set period the home is held for them alone. That's when they commission the building report and other checks, rather than the week before an auction in the hope of winning. If they decide to proceed, they sign the contract of sale, and the statutory cooling-off period still applies at that point.

This is the model StrikePrice uses, with a 14-day due-diligence period. Sales made without an agent sit outside Victoria's reserve rules, so the most that can be said is that the approach is aligned with the intent of the reforms: showing buyers a real number early. It won't suit every seller or every property, and auctions will remain a central part of how Victorians buy and sell.

Where this lands

Victoria's reserve rules are a genuine improvement, and the people who designed them deserve credit for putting a real number in front of buyers. Early results were shaped by a falling market as well as new rules, so they're only a first indication. But they point to a lasting lesson. Transparency depends on when buyers see the price, whether every buyer can act on it on the same terms, and whether they can check the property before they're bound. The closer all three get to day one, the less buyers have to guess, and the less they risk spending on homes they never get to buy.