How Do I Make an Offer on a Property Under Private Treaty in Australia?
How making an offer under private treaty works in Australia: the steps, common conditions, cooling-off periods by state and what to check first.
How Do I Make an Offer on a Property Under Private Treaty in Australia?
How do you make an offer on a property under private treaty?
Under private treaty, you make an offer directly to the seller — usually through the selling agent — rather than bidding against other buyers at auction. There’s no single national process, because the buying process differs by state, but the common path looks like this: you view the property, tell the agent your offer (verbally or in writing), the agent takes it to the seller, and the two sides negotiate on price and conditions until an offer is accepted or the seller moves on. Once terms are agreed, the details go into a contract of sale for both parties to sign.
That’s the shape of it everywhere in Australia. The details that actually decide what happens next — whether you get a cooling-off period, what conditions are standard, and what paperwork the seller must hand over first — vary by state and territory, and some of those specifics aren’t yet confirmed against a primary source (flagged below rather than guessed).
What “private treaty” means
Private treaty is a method of sale where a property is listed at an asking price (sometimes shown as a range) and sold through direct negotiation between buyer and seller, rather than through public auction bidding. It’s the most common way homes change hands in Australia. The key practical difference from auction is that a private treaty sale can usually carry conditions — such as finance approval — and, in some states, a cooling-off period after signing; an auction sale generally can’t.
What happens when you submit an offer?
Most agents will take a verbal offer over the phone or in person and pass it to the seller straight away. Some agents ask for offers in writing — on a standard “offer to purchase” form, by email, or as a letter — particularly once negotiations get serious, though there’s no single rule that applies everywhere. Expect a back-and-forth: the seller might counter with a different price, and you can accept, counter again, or walk away at any point before a contract is signed.
Nothing is legally binding until contracts are exchanged. A verbal “yes” from an agent, or even a signed offer form, is not the same as an enforceable contract of sale — that only exists once both parties have signed the actual contract and it has been formally exchanged.
Common conditions attached to an offer
Buyers commonly ask for their offer to be conditional on one or more of the following:
- Subject to finance — the purchase depends on your home loan being formally approved. A pre-approval doesn’t guarantee that approval will follow: does home loan pre-approval guarantee the bank will lend? covers why the two are different.
- Subject to a building and pest inspection — the purchase depends on the property passing an inspection you commission. No government source publishes a typical cost for this, so the honest answer is to get quotes rather than budget to a figure.
- Subject to the sale of your existing property — less commonly accepted by sellers, since it adds uncertainty on their side.
None of these conditions is compulsory, and a seller doesn’t have to accept an offer that includes them — a “cleaner” unconditional offer can be more attractive to a seller even at a slightly lower price. Which conditions matter for your situation is something a buyer’s agent, mortgage broker or conveyancer can help you weigh; this article can only set out that the trade-off exists.
The deposit and the cooling-off period
Once an offer is accepted, the buyer typically pays a deposit at exchange of contracts, held in trust until settlement. A 10% deposit is the figure usually quoted, but as at July 2026 it’s market convention rather than something set by law — Consumer Affairs Victoria states plainly that “there are no laws about the amount of deposit but it is usually 10 per cent of the purchase price,” and the NSW Government’s guidance frames it the same way. Because the figure is set by the contract rather than legislation, it can be negotiated between the parties; see our guide to how much deposit you need for a first home in Australia for the deposit paths that are verified.
Cooling-off periods — a set number of days after signing during which a buyer can withdraw, sometimes for a penalty — exist for private treaty purchases in some states and not others, and where they exist the length and the exceptions differ. The figures below are as at July 2026 and apply to standard residential private treaty purchases; auction purchases are treated differently in every state that has a cooling-off period at all.
| State/territory | Cooling-off period | Key exception |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | 5 business days from exchange | None at auction; waivable (s66W) |
| VIC | 3 clear business days from signing | None within 3 days of auction |
| QLD | 5 business days from signed contract | None at auction; waivable |
| SA | 2 clear business days from contract | None at auction; vendor keeps up to $100 |
| WA | No statutory cooling-off period | Only if negotiated into the contract |
| TAS | No statutory cooling-off period | Optional clause only, if negotiated |
| ACT | 5 working days from contract | None at auction; waivable; 0.25% forfeiture |
| NT | 4 business days from contract | None at auction; no forfeiture |
A few nuances sit beneath that table. NSW also gives 10 business days on an off-the-plan purchase, rather than the standard 5. Victoria’s cooling-off carries a withdrawal cost if you use it — the greater of $100 or 0.2% of the price. Queensland’s penalty for withdrawing is capped at 0.25% of the purchase price.
The remaining five jurisdictions work differently again. Western Australia and Tasmania have no statutory cooling-off period at all — any right to change your mind exists only if the buyer and seller write one into the contract themselves. South Australia’s statutory cooling-off runs for 2 clear business days, and instead of a percentage penalty, the vendor can keep at most $100 of any money already paid if the buyer rescinds. The ACT gives 5 working days, with a 0.25% forfeiture of the purchase price if the buyer rescinds, while the Northern Territory’s 4 business day period carries no forfeiture or penalty at all.
Check the current position for your state before relying on any of this: where a statutory cooling-off period exists it’s set by state or territory legislation and can change, and where none exists (WA, TAS) any right you have is only what’s negotiated into the contract.
What should you weigh before making an offer?
How much to offer isn’t something this article can answer for you — it depends on factors specific to the property and your own circumstances, not a formula. Buyers commonly weigh: recent comparable sales in the area, how long the property has been on the market, the agent’s guide price versus what similar homes have actually sold for, how many other buyers appear interested, and your own budget and finance position. A buyer’s agent or a licensed conveyancer can help you read those signals for a specific property; this article sets out that they exist rather than telling you what any of them should add up to.
Whether to attach conditions is a similar trade-off rather than a right answer. An unconditional offer can be more appealing to a seller and may help in a competitive situation, but it also removes protections like finance and inspection conditions that exist to protect you if something goes wrong before settlement. Which side of that trade-off suits you depends on how confident you are in your finance, the property’s condition, and how much competition you’re facing — again, a conveyancer or mortgage broker is the right person to talk it through with before you sign anything.
Getting the contract right before you sign
Before you commit to an offer, it’s worth having a conveyancer or solicitor review the contract of sale — ideally before you sign, not after. What does a conveyancer do? sets out what that review typically covers, including title searches and checking the contract terms match what you agreed with the seller. Sellers are generally required to provide certain documents before a buyer signs, but exactly what’s required — and when — differs by state, as at July 2026:
| State/territory | What the seller must disclose |
|---|---|
| NSW | A title (property) certificate, drainage diagram, council planning certificate and certain easement or covenant details, plus a notice on smoke alarms and loose-fill asbestos insulation — attached to the contract under s52A of the Conveyancing Act 1919. Miss a required document and the buyer can rescind within 14 days of exchange. |
| VIC | A signed “Section 32 statement” (Sale of Land Act 1962) covering mortgages, covenants, easements, zoning, outgoings and any bushfire-prone declaration — given to the buyer before they sign. |
| QLD | A seller disclosure statement (Form 2) plus prescribed certificates covering title, encumbrances, zoning and pool/building/planning notices, given before the buyer signs — under the seller disclosure scheme that started 1 August 2025. |
| SA | A Form 1 vendor’s statement covering title, mortgages, easements, zoning and outgoings. For a private treaty sale it must reach the buyer at least 10 clear days before settlement, and can be served before or after the contract is signed — serve it afterwards and the cooling-off period simply runs later. |
| WA | No general statutory disclosure statement for an ordinary house sale — the starting position is buyer-beware, though agents must still pass on known material facts. Strata-titled properties are the exception: Forms 28 and 29, the strata plan and the by-laws must be given before the sale. |
| TAS | No statutory disclosure requirement — the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 doesn’t require a seller to disclose property defects; vendor disclosure exists only as an optional clause in the standard contract, if both parties choose to use it. |
| ACT | An extensive “required documents” list under the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 — including a title extract, the Crown lease, encumbrances, a building and pest inspection report, an energy efficiency rating statement and asbestos documents — which must be available for inspection before an offer can be made on the property. |
| NT | No separate statutory disclosure statement — the approved contract of sale itself records the property’s particulars, price and deposit, rather than a standalone vendor-statement document. |
Treat this as a starting point rather than a substitute for advice — a solicitor or conveyancer confirms exactly what applies to a specific property, and these regimes do change (Queensland’s scheme itself only started in August 2025).
Conveyancing is one of the costs that sits alongside the deposit, and — like the inspection cost above — there’s no single published fee. How much do conveyancing fees cost? explains why, and hidden costs of buying a home in Australia rounds up the other costs that turn up alongside an accepted offer, from stamp duty to loan fees.
How this fits into the wider buying process
Making an offer is one stage in a longer sequence — budgeting, pre-approval, searching, offering, exchanging contracts, and settling. The step-by-step stages of buying a house in Australia walks through where an offer sits relative to the stages either side of it, and how the order can shift depending on whether you’re buying by private treaty or at auction.
The bottom line
There’s no single “right” way to make an offer under private treaty, and this article can’t tell you what to offer or which conditions to include — those depend on the property, the seller, the state you’re buying in, and your own finance position. A conveyancer or solicitor can review the contract before you sign it, a buyer’s agent can help you assess the offer itself, and a mortgage broker can confirm where your finance stands before you make any commitment you can’t walk away from.
