Victoria’s Property Price Statement (PPS): What Changes From 1 October 2026

Quick answer: From 1 October 2026, Victoria replaces the Statement of Information (SOI) with a Property Price Statement (PPS) for residential sales advertising. For auctions and fixed-date sales on and from 16 October 2026, agents must publish the seller’s reserve price at least 7 days beforehand, show richer comparable-property detail on the PPS, update the sold price within 7 days of an unconditional sale, and keep that PPS publicly available for at least 18 months. Until the start date, current rules still apply.

This article is for principals, ops managers, and website partners at Victorian agencies — especially Melbourne and regional offices running WordPress listing sites. It is educational, not legal advice. Confirm the latest template and obligations with Consumer Affairs Victoria and your compliance adviser. Prefer a printable ops checklist with a WordPress solution? See our Property Price Statement Victoria checklist for agents.

Why this matters more than another “policy update”

Most agency teams already feel busy enough: CRM updates, portal copy, open-for-inspections, and vendor phone calls that never quite end. Pricing disclosure used to sit in a familiar SOI habit. The PPS is not a rename-and-move-on exercise.

Victoria’s reforms are designed to improve price transparency and reduce underquoting risk. That means clearer documents, stricter timing around auctions and fixed-date sales, and a public trail that does not quietly disappear after settlement. If your office still treats pricing paperwork as a last-minute PDF dropped at the bottom of a listing, October 2026 will feel sudden.

The good news: if you treat PPS as an operational workflow — not a one-off PDF — you can rehearse it before enforcement, not during it. Offices on WordPress can also trial a WordPress Property Price Statement plugin early, so the process is muscle memory by October 2026.

What is a Property Price Statement (PPS)?

A Property Price Statement is Victoria’s updated public pricing document for residential property sales. It replaces the older Statement of Information.

In plain language, buyers should be able to find structured price information that is easy to spot online — not hidden in the fine print. Consumer Affairs Victoria has said the PPS must include:

• Key features of the property being sold
• Key features of each comparable property (not just an address and a sold price)

CAV has also indicated it will publish an official PPS template before the new laws start. Until that template is live, treat industry summaries as directional and watch for the official form.

Key dates Victorian agencies should diary

According to Consumer Affairs Victoria’s published summary of the changes:

• 1 October 2026 — most of the new pricing and underquoting changes start.
• Auctions and fixed-date sales on and from 16 October 2026 — the new reserve-publication and PPS content rules apply to those campaigns. Example from CAV: if an auction is on 16 October 2026, the reserve would need to have been disclosed by 9 October 2026.
• Sold-price update + 18-month hosting — for sales that become unconditional on or after 1 October 2026 (even if the contract was signed earlier), agents must update the PPS with the sold price within 7 days and keep it publicly available for at least 18 months (unless an approved exemption applies).
• Later reforms (still worth knowing, but separate from day-one PPS prep): earlier section 32 availability from 1 June 2027; deposit/commission process changes from 1 July 2027; sold-price reporting to the Director of CAV from 1 December 2027.

Until the start date, current SOI-era rules continue. That does not mean you should wait until September 2026 to invent a process.

What the new rules actually require (the operational version)

1. Publish the seller’s reserve — at least 7 days out

For auctions and fixed-date sales under the new timing, agents must publish the seller’s reserve price at least seven days before the event. CAV’s summary is blunt on format: a single dollar amount, without words or symbols such as “from”, “over”, “+”, or “starting at”.

Advertising and marketing materials — including the PPS — must be updated to reflect that reserve. If the reserve has not been published seven days before, the auction or fixed-date sale cannot go ahead, and penalties apply.

What to keep in mind in the office:

• Get the reserve in writing from the vendor early enough that seven clear days are realistic.
• Build a checklist that covers portal ads, your agency website, social creatives, and the PPS itself — one missed channel still creates risk.
• Do not treat “we’ll update it tomorrow” as a strategy when the clock is already inside seven days.
• Consider auction and reserve deadline alerts on your agency site so the seven-day clock is not stuck in someone’s inbox.

2. Richer comparable information on the PPS

The PPS is meant to show key features of the subject property and of each comparable. Industry and regulator messaging around underquoting already pushes agents toward careful comparable selection (location, standard, condition, recency). Under the new framework, “three vague solds in the suburb” without meaningful features will age poorly.

CAV has also noted that if three comparable properties cannot be identified, agents who can identify one or two must use those one or two — rather than inventing a third.

Practical tip: capture floor area (m²), land size, beds/baths, car spaces, and building type in systems your team already uses, so the PPS is assembly, not archaeology.

3. Prominence online — not a footer afterthought

CAV states the PPS must be displayed prominently in online advertising — not right at the bottom of the listing. Print and physical materials are expected to point buyers to the online PPS (for example via URL or QR code in industry summaries of the reforms).

If your WordPress listing template buries compliance docs under three “read more” toggles, fix the template before you fix the PDF.

4. Sold price within 7 days — then stay public for 18 months

After an unconditional sale, agents must update the PPS with the sold price within seven days, and keep the PPS publicly available for at least 18 months, unless an exemption has been granted (CAV notes exemptions may relate to personal or family violence circumstances and require approved application).

This is where spreadsheet memory fails. Someone has to own the URL, the update, and the fact that “we redesigned the website” is not a reason to delete mandated public records early. An 18-month PPS hosting lock on your WordPress domain is one way to stop accidental take-downs during redesigns.

Penalties and commercial risk — without the scare tactics

Industry explainers commonly cite significant penalties for breaches — often framed around large fine exposure (figures in the tens of thousands of dollars / multi–penalty-unit territory appear in market commentary). Exact liability depends on the conduct and how the statute and regulations are applied.

Beyond fines, missed clocks create operational chaos: campaigns that cannot proceed, vendor trust damage, and commission or process disputes that consume more time than a clean workflow ever would.

Do not outsource judgment to a blog post. Use CAV materials and your compliance adviser for enforcement interpretation.

What Melbourne and Victorian agencies should keep in mind

• Portals are not your whole compliance story. realestate.com.au and Domain remain how buyers browse. Your agency site is still where many offices will host durable PPS pages, vendor-facing trust content, and the long 18-month trail.
• CRM ≠ website publishing. VaultRE, Rex, AgentBox and similar tools run the deal. They do not automatically give you a bulletproof public PPS hosting lock on your WordPress domain — that is why many offices pair the CRM with a Property Price Statement plugin for WordPress.
• GEO is local. These rules are Victorian. NSW and QLD have their own disclosure cultures. Do not copy a national “one process fits all states” binder onto a Melbourne auction campaign.
• Template timing. Watch for CAV’s official PPS template before go-live. Build process flexibility so a final form field change does not break your whole stack.
• Exemptions are exceptions. Plan for the default 18-month public path; treat exemptions as rare, approved cases — not a casual workaround.

A practical prep checklist (before the scramble)

1. Map every auction / fixed-date campaign step from appraisal → authority → advertising → reserve confirmation → PPS publish → sold update → 18-month hosting.
2. Assign owners: who requests the written reserve, who updates portals, who publishes on the agency site, who confirms the seven-day sold update.
3. Standardise property metrics (beds/baths/cars, floor area m², land size, building type) so PPS assembly is not a scavenger hunt.
4. Decide where the canonical public PPS URL lives — preferably a stable path on your agency website (or via guided PPS publishing on WordPress).
5. Rehearse one full campaign in staging or on a test listing before October 2026.
6. Brief listing staff that “from / + / offers above” language is a liability pattern, not a marketing flourish.
7. Document comparable selection rationale in case CAV asks how estimates were formed.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Leaving the PPS as a tiny link under the fold.
• Publishing a reserve with qualifier language (“from $1.2m+”).
• Updating the portal but forgetting the agency website (or the reverse).
• Treating sold-price updates as “admin will get to it next week.”
• Deleting old listing/PPS pages during a website redesign inside the 18-month window.
• Assuming the CRM alone equals public hosting compliance.

A WordPress solution for Victorian agency sites

If your office already runs listings on WordPress, the missing piece is rarely “another PDF template.” It is deadline radar, consistent PPS generation, staff alerts, and an 18-month hosting lock that survives busy weeks.

Property Compliance Guard is a WordPress plugin built for Victorian agencies preparing for Property Price Statement rules from 1 October 2026. It is designed to sit on the agency website you already have — not to replace your CRM — and helps with:

• Guided PPS builder workflows for structured property and comparable detail
• Background compliance radar and 7-day reserve / auction watchdog alerts
• Public PPS publishing with an 18-month hosting lock
• Prompts around the post-sale sold-price update window
• Clear AUD annual licensing (Boutique and Growth plans)

Important: agents still enter the verified reserve. The plugin is software tooling for process and publishing — not legal advice, and not a substitute for Consumer Affairs Victoria guidance or your compliance adviser.

Explore the product page: kashifali.online/vic-property-compliance-guard — or jump straight to pricing and plans for Victorian agencies.

FAQ: Victoria Property Price Statement

Does the PPS replace the Statement of Information?

Yes. The Property Price Statement replaces the Statement of Information under Victoria’s updated property sales and underquoting framework, with the main start date of 1 October 2026 for the new regime summarised by CAV.

When must the reserve be published?

At least seven days before the auction or fixed-date sale (for campaigns covered by the new timing). It must be a single dollar figure without “from / + / over” style qualifiers. If it is not published in time, the event cannot proceed.

How long must the PPS stay online?

At least 18 months after the relevant sale becomes unconditional, unless an approved exemption applies.

Is this only for Melbourne agencies?

It is a Victorian framework. Melbourne offices will feel it first in volume, but regional Victorian agencies advertising residential auctions and fixed-date sales need the same operational readiness.

Will posting only on a major portal be enough?

CAV requires the PPS to be prominent in online advertising and publicly available for the mandated period. Do not assume portal habit alone equals a durable 18-month hosting strategy for your office. Many agencies will want a stable URL on their own site as well — often with a Victorian agency PPS compliance tool sitting on WordPress. Confirm your publishing plan with your adviser.

Bottom line

Victoria’s Property Price Statement era is about timing, structured comparables, prominence, and long public hosting — not about redesigning your logo. Start with a written workflow, clean property data, and a website that can host PPS pages without drama. If you are on WordPress, evaluate whether Property Compliance Guard fits as the compliance guardrail beside your CRM before 1 October 2026 arrives.

Not legal advice. Always verify current requirements against Consumer Affairs Victoria and the enacted legislation before changing advertising or auction processes.