Short answer: Western Australia does not have a set price range rule like South Australia's 10% limit or a form like Victoria's Property Price Statement. A WA agency website can show a price only if the seller authorised it in writing, and the price wording and the listing description must not mislead buyers. Those two rules come from the WA Code of Conduct for agents, with the Australian Consumer Law sitting behind them.
Fewer rules on paper can make agencies relax about their own site. The risk does not go away, though. It moves to things a website template controls: price wording, listings that stay live too long, and feature text copied from old listings. This post covers the rules in plain words and ends with a checklist. It is general information, not legal advice. For your own case, ask the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) or a lawyer.
Which rules apply to a WA agency website
The main source is the Real Estate and Business Agents and Sales Representatives Code of Conduct 2016, made under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978. It has been in force since 5 October 2016, and Consumer Protection WA's page on the Code (last updated April 2025) says agents must act in their clients' best interests and be honest with everyone involved in a transaction.
Four rules in the Code touch what your website shows:
- Rule 23(1): an agent must not advertise a property for sale or lease, or put up a sale notice, without the client's written consent.
- Rule 23(2): an agent must not advertise or offer a property at a price, or on any other terms, other than as the client authorised.
- Rule 11: an agent must not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct within the meaning of the Australian Consumer Law (WA).
- Rule 26: an agent who gives an opinion on a property's current market price must give it in writing, with reasons and, if available, sales of similar properties.
Rule 24 adds a duty to check material facts before a contract is signed and to tell people who seem unaware of them.
Other states go much further. South Australia's Act sets a 10% range limit and bans words like "plus", which we explain in our South Australia price advertising checklist. WA's Code has nothing like it. In 2021 The Property Tribune called WA's underquoting laws vague next to those of other states. Vague is not the same as safe, because misleading conduct is judged case by case.
Price wording: what the case law shows
The WA Code does not list banned words, so "offers over", "from" and "price guide" are not off limits by themselves. The question is whether the words and the figure give buyers a false idea of what the seller will accept.
The best-known national example is old but clear. In 2005 the ACCC reported that the Federal Court found a Melbourne agency had misled buyers with price guides of "$600,000 plus" and later "$650,000 plus" on a Caulfield property. The court found the figures did not reflect the price the sellers would accept, the price they had told the agency to sell at, or the price the agent expected, and that the agency had no reasonable grounds for them. That case was in Victoria under the Trade Practices Act, the law the Australian Consumer Law later replaced, but the reasoning is about misleading conduct in general, which also applies in WA.
For a website, the practical test is simple. Every price your site prints should match a figure the seller authorised, and the words around it should not suggest a lower price than the seller would take.
Where templates go wrong
Listing templates often add text on their own. A "price prefix" setting might print "Offers over" or "From" in front of every figure, or a "+" after it. A free-text price box lets staff type "Low 700s" or "Expressions of interest from $650k". A blank price field might fall back to a default line nobody has read in years. None of this is typed by the agent on the day, yet it is what buyers see.
Open five current listings on your own site, on a phone, and read the price line exactly as it appears. Then check each one against the authorised price in the file.
Listings that outlive the seller's consent
Rule 23(1) ties advertising to the client's written consent. Agency websites are good at adding listings and poor at removing them. A property can be withdrawn, the authority can end, or the seller can move to another agency, and the listing page stays live because nobody unpublished it or because a homepage block, landing page or email template kept its own copy.
Ask your developer three questions:
- When a listing is withdrawn or the authority ends in the CRM, how fast does the website page come down?
- Are listing pages cached, and for how long?
- Do any featured property blocks, campaign landing pages or old emails hold copies that do not update from the feed?
The same sync gap matters when the seller changes the price. If the authority now says a higher figure and your site still shows the old one, you are advertising a price the client no longer authorised.
Feature text: the WA case worth knowing
Price is not the only thing that can mislead. In August 2021 Consumer Protection WA reported that a Perth-area agency and its director were ordered to pay $7,500 in fines and costs. A realestate.com.au listing for a Jindalee home said "ducted air conditioning allows for year round temperature control" and the signboard said "ducted reverse cycle air conditioning". The home had evaporative cooling, which cannot heat. The Joondalup Magistrates Court found the statements false.
The Commissioner's message to agents was that statements about a property must be true and accurate, with full disclosure of facts that could affect a buyer's decision. Websites make this kind of mistake easy. Descriptions get copied from a similar listing, feature tick boxes carry over from a template, and "reverse cycle" ends up on a home that does not have it. A short review step before a listing goes live, where the agent confirms each feature line against the property, costs a few minutes.
Your appraisal page
Rule 26 is the one WA rule that sets a format. An agent who gives a seller an opinion of market price must put it in writing, give the reasons and, where available, include sales of similar properties. If the agent does not, they must not act for that seller.
That shapes what your "what is my home worth" page should promise. A page that says "instant online valuation, highest price guaranteed" sets up an expectation the agent cannot meet under the Code. A better page tells the homeowner what they will receive: a written price opinion with the reasons and recent comparable sales nearby, from a named agent, within a stated time. Keep the form short (name, phone, email, address, when they plan to sell) and make sure it works on a phone. If you show an automated estimate as a lead magnet, label it clearly so nobody mistakes it for the agent's written opinion.
Checklist for WA agency websites
| Check | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Authorised price | Every price on the site matches the figure the seller authorised in writing |
| Template prefixes | No "Offers over", "From" or "+" added by the theme unless the agent chose it for that listing |
| Free-text price field | Restricted to figures, or reviewed before publishing |
| Blank price fallback | A default line that does not suggest a price |
| Withdrawn listings | Removed from the site within hours of the CRM change, cache cleared |
| Copies of listings | Homepage blocks, landing pages and emails pull from the same feed |
| Price changes | New authorised price live on the site the same day |
| Feature lines | Each feature confirmed by the agent for this property, nothing carried over from another listing |
| Appraisal page | Promises a written opinion with reasons and comparable sales, names the agent, states a reply time |
| Automated estimates | Clearly labelled as automated and separate from the agent's opinion |
If your agency also lists in Victoria, the rules there are much more specific. Our guide to Victoria's Property Price Statement covers what a listing page must link to.
How we would approach it
For a Perth or regional WA agency, we would start by reading live listing pages on a phone and on a desktop, then follow a few listings from the CRM to the site to see where the template adds its own words and how long withdrawn properties stay up. Often the fix is a change to the price field, the feed sync and the publish step, not a new website. When a rebuild does make sense, our website development service and our page for real estate agencies explain how we plan it. Every project is scoped and quoted individually after a short call, based on what the agency needs.
If you would like a second opinion on your listing pages, book a free 15-minute call.