Short answer: from 1 October 2026, every Victorian listing you advertise online needs the Property Price Statement displayed or linked right next to the price, on the first part of the page a visitor sees. Sold prices must be added to that statement within 7 days of the contract going unconditional and stay online for at least 18 months. Your portal listings are only half of it. Your own website's listing pages, sold pages and appraisal page need the same care.
This post walks through what changed, what it means on an agency website, and a checklist you can hand to whoever runs your site. It is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, check the Consumer Affairs Victoria page on the new laws or ask your industry body.
What changed on 1 October 2026
Consumer Affairs Victoria lists the start dates on its new laws page. Most changes began on 1 October 2026, and the auction and fixed-date sale rules on 16 October 2026. The ones that touch a website are these:
- The Property Price Statement replaces the Statement of Information. It must show key features of the property and of each comparable property. If three comparable sales cannot be found, the agent lists the one or two that can.
- Prices are stricter. An advertised price must be a single figure or a range of up to 10%, with no words or symbols like "from", "offers above" or "+", and never below the agent's estimated selling price, according to CAV's underquoting guidance.
- Reserves are published. The seller's reserve must be published at least 7 days before an auction or fixed-date sale, as a single dollar amount. CAV's industry Q&A says online advertising must be updated within 1 business day after the agent receives the reserve.
- Sold prices go public. The updated statement with the sold price must be published online within 7 days of the contract becoming unconditional and stay publicly available for at least 18 months. This applies to off-market sales too.
CAV says its Underquoting Taskforce will keep monitoring online sales campaigns. Failing to publish sold prices as required carries a maximum penalty of 240 penalty units, which CAV puts at $48,842 at the current rate.
Where to get the Property Price Statement template
You do not need to design your own. Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes the official forms as Word documents, marked "updated September 2026", on its underquoting information page for agents. There are four versions: one for metropolitan Melbourne and one for outside it, each for a single residential property or for multiple units of one type or class. If your CRM still offers a "Statement of Information" template, ask your CRM provider whether it has been switched to the new form.
According to that CAV page, the statement must include:
- An indicative selling price, as a single price or a range of up to 10%, never below the agent's estimated selling price, the seller's asking price or a rejected written offer
- The seller's reserve, once received and at least 7 days before an auction or fixed-date sale
- The key features of the property
- The most comparable properties, each with address, date of sale, sale price and key features
- A statement if fewer than 3 comparable sales were used
- The median price for the same type of property in the same suburb
- The sale price, within 7 days of the sale becoming unconditional, unless an exemption applies
The reserve and the sale price matter most for your website. The same document is updated after the sale, so the link on your listing page must keep pointing to the latest version, not a copy saved when the listing went live.
Why your own website is part of this
Most agencies will see the change first in their portal listings and their CRM, because that is where the statement is prepared and sent. The trouble is that a website often runs on its own template. It pulls listings from the CRM feed, but the price line, the "sold" behaviour and the layout were set up years ago.
CAV's wording is about online advertisements in general: the statement must be "displayed or linked on the first visible part" of the advertisement, "immediately next to the advertised price". It does not carve out an agency's own site. So if your listing page shows the price at the top and the statement link sits in a documents tab further down, or does not appear at all, that page is worth fixing now.
What to check on your listing pages
1. The statement link sits beside the price
On a phone, open three of your current Victorian listings. Look at the first screen only. The price and a clear link to the Property Price Statement should both be there, next to each other. A link buried in a "Documents" accordion or at the bottom of the description does not match the "first visible part" wording.
2. The price format the template prints
Some website templates add their own words around the price that comes in from the CRM, such as "Offers over", "From" or a "+" after the figure. Check what your site actually prints, not just what you typed into the CRM. Ranges wider than 10% need fixing in the source.
3. Reserve updates reach the website in time
If your site only refreshes listings once a day, or caches pages for longer, a reserve entered in the CRM may not show on your own site within 1 business day. Ask your developer how often the feed syncs and whether listing pages are cached.
4. Each statement has a stable web address
Signboards, brochures and window cards that give property details must include a web address or QR code that leads to the statement. If that address changes every time the listing is edited, the QR code on the board breaks. A stable address per property, hosted on your site or by your CRM, avoids that.
Sold listings: the part most websites get wrong
Many agency sites hide a listing the moment the CRM marks it sold, or move it to a sold archive that drops the documents. Under the new rules the updated statement with the sold price has to stay publicly available for at least 18 months. Check three things:
- When a property is marked sold, does the statement link stay live, and does it show the updated version with the sold price?
- Do sold pages stay online for at least 18 months, or does an old cleanup rule remove them sooner?
- Can you switch off the sold price for a single property? If the Director has granted an exemption (for example, for personal or family violence reasons), publishing the sold price is an offence, so the site must respect that flag.
There is an upside here. A sold page with the details you are allowed to publish is proof for the next homeowner that you sell in their street. Keeping those pages tidy for 18 months is a compliance task and good marketing at the same time.
Your appraisal page under the new rules
The appraisal or "what is my home worth" page is where most vendor enquiries start. The rules do not ban it, but they change what it should promise. In Victoria the estimated selling price in the sales authority has to be reasonable and backed by comparable sales, and the advertised price cannot sit below it.
That makes some common appraisal page lines risky. "We will get you the highest price in the suburb" or "Find out why our estimates beat the rest" invite exactly the kind of inflated quote the rules are designed to stop. A safer and more convincing page says what the homeowner will receive: an estimate based on recent comparable sales nearby, the key features you compared, and a conversation about how to sell.
A good appraisal page usually has:
- A short form that works with one thumb: name, phone, email, property address and when they are thinking of selling
- A plain sentence on what happens next and how quickly you will reply
- The agent's name, photo and direct number, so the homeowner knows who will call
- A note that the estimate will be based on comparable sales, which matches what the law asks for anyway
- Links to recent sold pages in the suburbs you cover
Reply speed still decides who gets the listing
A compliant appraisal page only helps if someone answers it. Pied Piper's 2026 Real Estate Lead Handling Effectiveness Study, reported by Florida Realtors in October 2026, sent 2,198 phone and website enquiries to offices of 21 large US real estate brands. 68% of the website enquiries got no response within 24 hours, only 10% heard from an agent within an hour, and nearly 1 in 10 enquiry forms did not work properly.
That study is from the US, but the lesson travels: test your own appraisal form this week, and decide who replies and how fast. If nobody can pick up web enquiries after hours, our comparison of an AI receptionist and an answering service covers the options.
What about New South Wales?
NSW has its own underquoting rules, and they are different. According to the NSW underquoting guidance, agents must include a reasonable estimate of the likely selling price in the agency agreement, give the seller evidence of how they reached it (including comparable sales), make a written record whenever they state a likely price to a buyer or seller, and never give a price, in advertising or in person, below their estimate. If the estimate is revised, adverts with a lower price must be amended or withdrawn.
The same page says new underquoting laws are expected towards the end of 2026. If you sell in both states, set your website up so that price text and documents come from the CRM per listing, rather than being hard-coded into the template. Then a rule change means a settings change, not a rebuild. We cover what the coming NSW rules mean for listing pages in NSW's price in every ad rule, and the South Australian one-figure or 10% range rule in our South Australia price advertising checklist. Queensland goes the other way for auctions: no price guide at all, which we cover in Queensland auction listings with no price guide. Western Australia has no price statement form, and we cover its client authority and misleading conduct rules in WA real estate price advertising for agency websites.
Website checklist for Victorian agencies
- Property Price Statement link on the first screen of every listing page, immediately next to the price, on phone and desktop
- No "from", "offers over" or "+" added by the template; ranges no wider than 10%
- Listing feed and page cache refresh fast enough for reserve updates within 1 business day
- A stable web address per statement, so QR codes on boards and print keep working
- Sold listings keep the updated statement with the sold price for at least 18 months
- A per-listing switch to hide the sold price when an exemption applies
- Off-market sales handled the same way for the sold price
- Appraisal page promises an evidence-based estimate, not a top price
- Appraisal form tested this week, with a named person and a reply time
Need a second pair of eyes?
If you are not sure whether your website template handles the new rules, we can go through a few of your live listing pages with you. See how we work with agencies on our page for real estate agencies, or book a free 15-minute call.
Selling or letting in England as well? Our checklist of what a UK estate agent website must show covers fees, redress and material information.