Victoria’s new auction disclosure rules, which started on Thursday following a two-week grace period from October 1, had their first weekend run on Saturday and Sunday.
The Victorian government’s new auction laws have been panned as confusing and causing less transparency for buyers, in their first test run this weekend.
The criticism comes as the state recorded a preliminary 55.5 per cent clearance rate from 371 early results, according to realestate.com.au.
In total, 206 homes sold but 63 were withdrawn from auction this week, while 102 passed in.
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Although some real estate experts said the legislation requiring homeowners to advertise their reserve price seven days before an auction, which kicked in on Thursday following a two-week grace period from October 1, seemed to run smoothly, others were less than impressed.
Multi-award winning Melbourne-based auctioneer Andy Reid described the laws as “either an impressive level of incompetence or a blatant vote grab, because of the sheer amount of chaos it’s going to create”.
He pointed out that although the rules had been changed for agents, auctioneers were still technically operating under legislation which hadn’t been updated since 2024.
And Mr Reid said there was nothing stopping homeowners from changing their reserve once an auction began.
Noel Jones director Daniel D’Assisi said the “ridiculous” laws meant many buyers did not realise vendors could still sell for a sum lower than the reserve.
He said it was likely Melbourne auction volumes would remain low as private sales increased in the future.
“There will be many more closed door negotiations, so less transparency,” he added.
![Apollo Auctions Victoria director and auctioneer Andy Reid - for herald sun real estate](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1280 720"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Auctioneer Andy Reid says the new auction laws are set to cause chaos.
Sixty-four homes in Victoria sold prior to auction this week, while 134 sold under the hammer and eight post-auction, realestate.com.au figures show. Picture: Sarah Matray.
Morrell and Koren buyer’s advocate to the city’s top end, Matthew Cleverdon, noted the laws would impact the homeowners’ confidence in auctions.
“The rules got rushed through and there’s still a few questions to be answered from both buyers and sellers,” Mr Cleverdon said.
“Less confidence equals less auctions, which equals more private sales,”
There’s almost 900 auctions scheduled across Melbourne next week, down 53 per cent compared to 12 months ago.
Ray White Victoria chief auctioneer Luke Banitsiotis says he expects the market to stabilise as buyers learn the new rules.
Melbourne’s median home price, covering houses, units and apartments, hit $819,000 in September, a 5.2 per cent fall 12 months earlier.
Ray White Victoria chief auctioneer Luke Banitsiotis said the first week of declared reserves had created some unpredictability as vendors, buyers and agents all learned to operate under the new conditions
“Once all parties adjust and finetune their processes, we expect the market to stabilise and continue on a similar path to before October,” he said.
Barry Plant’s chief auctioneer James Hatzimoisis said that in some areas of Melbourne, buyers were “absolutely fine” with the new reserve rules.
“In others, there were reports of buyers saying they wouldn’t bid because they felt the advertised reserve was too high for them – it will be interesting to see how many of the ones that sold, were under the disclosed reserves” he said.
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Morrell and Koren buyer’s advocate Matthew Cleverdon says the new laws will likely lead to less transparency, although agents with great sales craft “will win out”.
Some agents say they are facing a lack of stock despite there still being plenty of buyers out there.
Real Estate Institute of Victoria’s chief executive Toby Balazs said that from the week’s early results, the clearance rate looked to be reasonable.
“We know that volumes have been down this week versus last week, so probably not a true test across larger volume auctions,” Mr Balazs added.
“But we know the industry’s done a lot of work to get prepared for these changes, and I’m sure that the agents have been advising their vendors and buyers as best they can, and we’ll see how things continue to play out over the course of the next few weeks and into November.”
Minister for Consumer Affairs Tim Richardson with Victorian Premier Ben Carroll and Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams. Picture: NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw.
In Melbourne’s north east, a house at 114 Rosanna Rd, Heidelberg, sold for $1.01m, slightly below the advertised $1.1m reserve.
Ray White South Morang’x Nick Petrovski said two bidders contested the auction, with the house passing in before selling to first-home buyers following negotiations.
“It was a bit slow to start, but auctions work – it’s a good result considering the home is on a busy main road, and the sellers are happy,” he added.
The Minister for Consumer Affairs Tim Richardson said the new auction guidelines would help stamp out underquoting.
“This is a significant, nation-leading reform – from today, dodgy real estate agents who deceive buyers to boost their profits have nowhere to hide,” Mr Richardson said.
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