Buying
Buying a house without a real estate agent in Australia
Every page that ranks for this answers a seller's question, and "private sale" here usually means not at auction rather than no agent at all.
Where private sellers actually list in Australia
Each of these is a separate pool. A saved search on one tells you nothing about the others, so set up alerts on every one you intend to use.
- Anyone.com Listed by the owner
Homes listed by the owners themselves, with no agent running the price and no auction campaign to sit through. You talk to the owner and put your offer to them directly, and your conveyancer handles the contract the same way regardless.
More than 31 million active listings across 31 markets, agent-represented and owner-listed together. realestate.com.au carries only listings from licensed agents.
Search owner-listed homes ↗ - realestate.com.au and Domain Owners can list, for a fee
Buyer filter None. Nothing distinguishes an owner-run sale from an agency one
Both take listings only from licensed agents, but this is not the wall it looks like. buyMyplace, PropertyNow and Sale By Home Owner are licensed agencies whose whole business is placing owner-run listings on these two portals. So Australian owner-sold homes are on the portal, sitting under an agency name that belongs to a listing service rather than to anyone doing the selling.
- For Sale By Owner and Sale By Home Owner Owners can list
Buyer filter Owner-run listings only
The listing services themselves also run their own search. Useful because it shows you which listings on the big portals are actually owner-run, which the portals will not tell you.
- Gumtree Owners can list
Buyer filter Property for sale, by region
Free and genuinely used, with several hundred property listings live in a city like Melbourne at any time. Quality varies enormously and nothing is verified.
- Facebook buy and sell groups Owners can list
Buyer filter Search the suburb name with for sale by owner
Owner-listing groups run to tens of thousands of members nationally. This is where a seller tests the water before paying for a portal listing, so it is often the earliest look you will get.
How many homes this really covers
Owner-sold homes are a small share of the Australian market, and because the listing services put them on realestate.com.au under an agency name, there is no clean way to count them. Treat this as a way of recognising owner-run listings within the ordinary portal search rather than as a separate market you can browse.
Sale of Land Act 1962 (Victoria), section 32
A Victorian vendor has to give you a statement before you sign, covering title, mortgages, easements, planning and outgoings, and that duty sits with the seller whether or not an agent is involved. Every state has its own version, so check the local one. The rule that matters most to a buyer is about cooling off: buy by private treaty and you get a short cooling-off period, three business days in Victoria and five in New South Wales and Queensland. Buy at auction and you get none at all. That difference alone is a reason to look harder at homes being sold without an auction campaign.
In force since 1962, with the vendor statement in its current form. Read the legislation
Buying one, step by step
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Be clear what you are searching for
In Australia a private sale means sold by negotiation instead of at auction, and Consumer Affairs Victoria defines it exactly that way. Most homes described as private sales have an agent. If you want owner-run listings, search for that phrase instead.
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Cross-check the portals against the listing services
Run your usual realestate.com.au search, then check For Sale By Owner and Sale By Home Owner for the same suburbs. Anything appearing on both is an owner-run sale, which tells you who you will actually be negotiating with.
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Establish value before you talk price
Pull recent comparable sales for the street and the suburb. Owner-run listings have no agent price guide, which cuts both ways: nobody is underquoting you, and nobody has told the seller their expectations are unrealistic.
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Get the contract and vendor statement reviewed
Send both to your conveyancer before you sign anything. On a private sale there is no agent who has already been through the section 32 with the seller, so errors and gaps are more likely.
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Use the cooling-off period
It applies on a private treaty purchase and not at auction. Three business days in Victoria, five in New South Wales and Queensland, with a small penalty for withdrawing. That is your window for the building and pest inspection to come back.
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Pay the deposit into a trust account
With no agency involved there is no agent trust account, so it goes to the vendor's solicitor or conveyancer in trust. Never directly to the seller.
Check before any money moves
- The vendor statement for the state you are buying in, and that the title, easements and outgoings on it match what you were told
- A building and pest inspection, arranged in your cooling-off window rather than after it
- Stamp duty for your state and whether you qualify for a first home buyer concession or exemption
- For a strata or body corporate property, the certificate, the sinking fund balance and any special levy already struck
- Zoning and any planning overlay, including bushfire and flood, which vary street by street
- Whether the property is on the state's register of combustible cladding, where one applies
Selling one instead? See where to list a home yourself in Australia , or the full guide to selling without an agent in Australia .
Common questions
Does private sale mean there is no agent?
Usually not. In Australia it means the home is being sold by negotiation rather than at auction, and Consumer Affairs Victoria defines it that way. Most private sales still have an agent. Owner-run sales are a separate and much smaller thing.
Are owner-sold homes on realestate.com.au?
Yes. The portals take listings only from licensed agents, but buyMyplace, PropertyNow and Sale By Home Owner are licensed agencies that exist to place owner-run listings there. So the home is on the portal even though nobody is acting for the seller.
Do I get a cooling-off period?
On a private treaty purchase, yes, and it is short: three business days in Victoria, five in New South Wales and Queensland, with a small penalty if you use it. At auction you get none, which is why the inspection has to be done beforehand.
Do I need a buyer's agent?
No. A conveyancer or solicitor is what the transaction requires. A buyer's agent is a service you buy for yourself, and it is worth being clear that most of what they offer on off-market stock is access to agent networks, which is a different thing from owner-sold homes.
How do I know what it is worth with no price guide?
Comparable sales for the same street and suburb over the last few months, which are public. This is the part an agent's guide was doing for you, and given how much underquoting has been in the news, doing it yourself is not obviously worse.
Sources
Every legal, tax, and process claim on this page traces to one of these. We re-check them on a schedule and date the page when anything changes.
- Sale of Land Act 1962Victorian Legislation · legislation.vic.gov.au
- Buying property by private saleConsumer Affairs Victoria · consumer.vic.gov.au
- How to advertise on realestate.com.au privatelyFor Sale By Owner · forsalebyowner.com.au
- Cooling-off periods when buying propertyNSW Fair Trading · nsw.gov.au