Short answer: in South Australia, any likely selling price you put in an advert, including a listing on your own website, must be either one figure or a range where the top is no more than 10% above the bottom. No "plus", no "mid 600s", no "offers over". And the price can never sit below the agent's estimate or the seller's price in the sales agency agreement, whichever is higher.
The rule itself is short. The trouble is that a website template can break it without anyone typing a wrong price. This post explains the rule in plain words and gives you a checklist for your listing pages, price changes, auction listings and appraisal page. It is general information, not legal advice. For your own case, read the Land and Business (Sale and Conveyancing) Act 1994 or ask the Real Estate Institute of South Australia (REISA) or a lawyer.
The rule in one paragraph
Section 24A of the Act covers "representations as to likely selling price in marketing residential land". The current version of the Act (dated 15 January 2026) says a representation counts when it appears in an advertisement the agent publishes, or when it is said or written to a buyer who has not started negotiating. A likely price must be a single figure with no qualifying words or symbols. A price range must be two single figures joined only by range wording, the lower figure cannot be below the minimum advertising price, and the upper figure cannot exceed 110% of the lower one.
The minimum advertising price is the higher of the agent's estimate and the seller's price, as they stand in the sales agency agreement on the day the advert runs. Both are single figures. The Form R1 sales agency agreement guide from Consumer and Business Services (CBS) says the agent's estimate must come with comparable sales data, and that if a likely price is advertised it "cannot be lower than the higher of" the two.
The Law Handbook from the Legal Services Commission of SA gives two examples of wording that breaks the rule: "$400,000+" and "mid-$400,000's".
What is at stake for the agency
The Act sets a maximum penalty of $20,000 or 1 year in prison for a breach of section 24A(2). Under subsections (3) and (4), an agent who breaches it must not ask for or keep commission or expenses on that sale, and money already paid can be recovered as a debt. CBS has said in a media release on underquoting that it audits agents' sales files, and the Australian Consumer Law rules on misleading conduct apply on top of the state Act.
Losing the commission on even one sale is a good reason to spend 20 minutes checking how your site prints prices.
Where a website breaks the rule on its own
Your CRM holds the price. Your website shows it. In between sits a template that someone set up years ago, often for several states at once. These are the places we would look first.
1. Words the template adds around the price
Many listing templates have a "price prefix" or "price display" field. It might print "Offers over" or "From" before the figure, or "+" after it. Those words come from the template, not from the agent, so a correct figure in the CRM can still go live as "$650,000+". Open five current listings on your site, on a phone, and read exactly what the price line says.
2. Free text in the price field
Some sites let staff type anything into a "display price" box. That is how "Mid $600s" or "Low to mid 700s" reach the page. If your platform allows it, ask your developer to restrict the field to a single figure or two figures, so the 10% check can happen automatically.
3. Ranges wider than 10%
A quick test: multiply the lower figure by 1.1. If the upper figure is higher than the result, the range is too wide. $600,000 to $660,000 is fine. $600,000 to $680,000 is not. A website can run this check before a listing is published and flag it to the agent.
4. Rounding and "price on application" fallbacks
Some templates round prices for display (for example, $649,000 shown as "$650k") or fall back to a default text when the price field is empty. The risk is a figure rounded down below the minimum advertising price. Check what your site shows when a field is blank or unusual, because that default appears on every listing that hits it.
When the seller's price changes
The minimum advertising price is tied to the agreement "at the time" of the representation. CBS's tips for selling a home say a seller can change the price for a private treaty sale, but if the price goes up, the promoted price must go up with it.
That is where websites lag. The agreement is updated, the portal listing is updated, and the agency's own site still shows the old figure because it syncs once a night, caches pages, or copied the listing by hand. Ask your developer three questions:
- How often does the listing feed sync from the CRM to the website?
- Are listing pages cached, and for how long?
- Are there any copies of the listing (landing pages, email templates, featured property blocks on the homepage) that do not update from the feed?
A case CBS reported in 2018 shows why the dates matter. CBS said that an agency was found not guilty of alleged advertising breaches because the evidence did not prove the seller had agreed to a higher price before the ads ran. The timing of the agreement and the advert decided it. If your website keeps a record of when each price was published, you have one more piece of evidence on file.
Auction listings
Section 24A covers any likely price an agent advertises for residential land, so if you show a price on an auction listing, the same single figure and 10% range rules apply. Two other auction points from the Form R1 guide affect what the agent and the seller can do:
- For an auction, the seller cannot increase their acceptable price in the agreement.
- The reserve must not be set above 110% of the acceptable price at any time before or during the auction. With an acceptable price of $400,000, the reserve cannot be more than $440,000.
CBS also says the Form 1 vendor's statement must be available for 3 business days before the auction. Whether you share it online is your agency's call, but if the listing page says documents are available on request, make sure someone answers that request quickly.
If you sell across the border as well, our guide to Queensland's auction price guide ban covers a much stricter rule, where no price guide may be given at all.
Your appraisal page
The appraisal or "what is my home worth" page is where most seller leads start. In South Australia the agent's estimate in the agreement must be a genuine single figure, backed by comparable sales. A page that promises "the highest price in the suburb" sets up the kind of over-quote that makes the later advertising harder.
A better appraisal page tells the homeowner what they will get: a written estimate based on recent comparable sales nearby, a named agent who will call, and a reply time you can keep. A short form (name, phone, email, address, when they plan to sell) that works well on a phone does more than a long one.
Checklist for South Australian agency websites
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Price wording | One figure, or two figures joined only by range wording such as "to". No "+", "from", "offers over" or "mid". |
| Template prefixes | No price prefix added by the theme on SA listings |
| Range width | Upper figure no more than 1.1 times the lower figure |
| Price field | Accepts numbers only, not free text |
| Blank or odd prices | A default text that does not suggest a price |
| Price changes | Website updates within hours of the CRM, cache cleared |
| Copies of listings | Homepage blocks, landing pages and emails pull from the same feed |
| Price history | A dated record of each price the site published |
| Auction listings | Any shown price follows the same single figure or 10% range rule |
| Appraisal page | Promises an evidence-based estimate, names the agent, states a reply time |
Selling in Victoria too? Victoria now asks for a Property Price Statement beside the price and sold prices online for 18 months, which we cover in what your Victorian agency website must show. Western Australia has no 10% rule at all, but its Code of Conduct still ties every advertised price to the seller's authority, as we explain in what a WA agency website can show.
How we would approach it
For an agency, we would start with a short review of live listing pages on a phone, then look at how prices travel from the CRM to the site and where the template adds its own text. The fix is often a small change to the price field and the feed, not a new website. If a rebuild does make sense, our website development work and our page for real estate agencies explain how we plan it. Every project is scoped and quoted after a short call, based on what your agency needs.
If you want a second pair of eyes on your listing pages, book a free 15-minute call.