An off-market property is one that is for sale but never publicly advertised. The selling agent rings a short list of buyers instead of paying for a portal campaign. Nobody officially counts these sales. The figure you will see most often, about one in five Australian sales, comes from an off-market listing platform's own research, and some marketing pushes it higher.
The best price data we have points the opposite way to the sales pitch. PropTrack analysed 2022 sales and found houses sold off-market went for 4.3% less, on average, than comparable houses listed on realestate.com.au. That sounds like a buyer's discount. It is really a seller's warning, it carries heavy caveats, and it tells you nothing about the house you are being offered. Below: how buyers actually find these homes, and how to avoid paying a premium for the privilege.
What off-market and pre-market actually mean
The terms get used loosely, and the difference matters when you negotiate.
- Off-market (or silent) sale: the vendor has ruled out public advertising entirely. The agent shows the home to buyers on their database, by private appointment.
- Pre-market: the agent shows the home to selected buyers for a short period before a public campaign. If nobody bites at the vendor's number, it goes onto the portals.
- Often called off-market, but not: a home advertised only on a smaller portal, an expired listing, or a developer's remaining stock.
Be wary of pre-market. You are often the price test, and whatever you offer becomes evidence the agent uses to set the vendor's expectations for the public campaign.
Why vendors sell quietly
Privacy. Deceased estates, separations, high-profile owners and landlords who do not want twelve open homes disrupting a tenant all have reasons to avoid a public campaign.
Testing the price. A vendor with an ambitious number can try it on the agent's database first. If someone pays it, they skip the campaign. If not, they have lost nothing.
Avoiding cost and the stale-listing stigma. Vendors usually pay for advertising themselves, and a listing that sits on a portal for two months becomes visibly stale. Selling quietly avoids both.
The agent's interest. A quick private sale is a quick commission with no campaign to run, so the agent's advice and the vendor's best price are not always the same thing.
Is off-market property cheaper? What the data says
The most detailed Australian study is PropTrack's Off-Market Sales Performance report, published in 2023 and covering 2022 sales. It used a hedonic regression, a model that compares prices after adjusting for each home's observable features. Its findings for houses sold off-market, compared with those listed on realestate.com.au:
| Region | Houses sold off-market, price difference |
|---|---|
| National average | 4.3% lower |
| Sydney | 4.3% lower (more than $60,000 on average) |
| Regional NSW | 10.3% lower |
| Melbourne | 2.6% lower (close to $30,000) |
| Regional Victoria | 6.3% lower |
| Brisbane | 3.6% lower |
| Regional Queensland | 4.2% lower |
| Perth | 4.9% lower |
| Regional WA | 5.8% lower |
Units sold off-market went for 1.2% less nationally and 2.8% less in Sydney. Two earlier PropTrack analyses, published in 2021 and 2022, found average gaps of 2.6% and 3.8%. The direction has been consistent.
Now the caveats, because they are large.
- The source has an interest. PropTrack is owned by REA Group, which runs realestate.com.au. A finding that vendors should advertise online favours its owner. That does not make it wrong, only interested.
- "Off-market" is defined broadly. The study counts every sale it could not match to a realestate.com.au listing, including homes advertised only on other portals and listings whose addresses failed to match.
- Some value drivers are invisible. The report notes that features such as the quality of finishes were not controlled for. If off-market homes are more often tired, tenanted or sold in a hurry, part of the gap is the property, not the method.
Agents argue the other side: many off-market vendors demand a premium for skipping the campaign, especially at the top end. No published dataset proves that either. The honest answer is that sellers who skip public advertising appear to accept less on average, but an average describes vendors, not your property. You only capture a discount if you price the home yourself and refuse to pay more than the evidence supports.
How to find off-market properties: the channels compared
| Channel | Effort for you | Hit rate | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selling agents' buyer databases | Medium, ongoing | Moderate in suburbs you work hard | You are one of many, and may be the price test |
| Buyer's agent networks | Low, but you pay a fee | Varies widely by agent | Claims you cannot test, conflicts of interest |
| Off-market listing platforms | Low | Low to moderate | Mostly pre-market stock, shared widely |
| Letters and direct approaches | High | Low per letter, occasionally excellent | Emotional pricing, no agent to broker the deal |
| Expired and withdrawn listings | Medium | Moderate, higher in soft markets | Finding out why it did not sell |
| Developers' remaining stock | Low | Moderate for new apartments | Incentives baked into the price, valuation risk |
| Deceased estates | Medium | Low | Executors must achieve market value |
Selling agents' databases: how to get to the top of the list
Agents ring the buyers most likely to transact cleanly at a sensible price, so become that buyer.
- Get finance pre-approved and say the number out loud. A mortgage broker can have a fully assessed pre-approval ready so you can act within days.
- Give each agent a one-page brief: suburbs, streets you love and hate, land size, bedrooms, your ceiling and your deal breakers.
- Turn up to open homes in your target suburbs and talk to the agents who sell there most. Follow up every two or three weeks.
- Reply within hours, and give a reason when you say no. "Too close to the main road" is useful. Silence gets you dropped.
- Line up a conveyancer and a building inspector before you need them.
- Do not lowball everything. A buyer who insults every vendor stops getting calls.
Buyer's agents: test the off-market claim
Many buyer's agents sell off-market access as their main advantage. Some genuinely have it, because selling agents call them first when a vendor wants a quiet, certain sale. Others forward the same pre-market email every buyer's agent in town received.
Ask three things. What share of their purchases in the past year were genuinely off-market rather than pre-market? Can they give you recent addresses to check against sale records and portal history? And do they receive any payment from selling agents or developers? Our guide to what a buyer's agent does covers the rest of the role. If you want to put those questions to several agents at once, GoMatch matches your brief with buyer's agents who cover your area.
Letters and direct approaches
A short, polite letter to owners in your target street, saying you are pre-approved and would like to talk if they ever consider selling, costs little and occasionally works. Most go unanswered. Owners who reply often price on emotion, and with no agent in the middle both sides need a conveyancer to handle the contract and the disclosure documents your state requires.
Expired, withdrawn and passed-in listings
Homes that failed to sell publicly often end up sold quietly to a buyer the agent already knows. Track listings that vanish from the portals without a sale result, and ask the agent what happened. We cover the negotiation in buying withdrawn, passed-in and stale listings.
Developers and deceased estates
Developers with a few unsold apartments will often deal directly. Ask for resale evidence from the same building, because a price propped up by incentives can value badly at the bank.
Deceased estates are rarely bargains. Executors have a duty not to sell estate property below market value and can be held personally accountable if they do, which is why many choose the transparency of auction. Expect a valuation behind any private deal.
The risks nobody mentions in the off-market pitch
No competing bids to benchmark against
At an auction or in a public campaign, other buyers tell you what the property is worth. Off-market, you are the whole market. Pull at least three recent sales of similar homes nearby before you discuss price, and treat the agent's number as an opening position.
Less time for due diligence
"The vendor wants it done this week" is the standard line in a quiet sale. Most off-market deals are private treaty sales, so you can ask for the contract to be subject to finance and a building and pest inspection. Use the property buying checklist so nothing gets skipped under pressure.
Cooling-off rights apply to private sales in some states. In NSW you get 5 business days after exchange, and withdrawing costs 0.25% of the price. In Victoria you get three clear business days, and the vendor keeps $100 or 0.2% of the price, whichever is greater. A NSW agent in a hurry may ask you to waive cooling-off with a section 66W certificate. Do not sign one until your checks are done.
Price rules still apply when nothing is advertised
Underquoting rules are not only about advertisements.
- NSW: underquoting covers any statement about price below the agent's reasonable estimate, and agents must keep records of the price statements they make during marketing. A phone call about a quiet listing counts. Tougher rules are expected towards the end of 2026; our underquoting explainer has the detail.
- Victoria: from 1 October 2026, agents selling off-market must still prepare a Property Price Statement and give it out at inspections or on request. They must also add the sale price within 7 days of the sale going unconditional, even if the home was never advertised.
- Queensland: an offers-over price must be the minimum the vendor will accept, and a misleading price representation is an offence under the Australian Consumer Law.
In other states, misleading price claims fall under each state's agent laws and the Australian Consumer Law.
A worked example (hypothetical)
Say a selling agent rings you about a three-bedroom house in a suburb you have been watching. It is "off-market at $1,150,000, and the vendor wants it wrapped up this week."
You pull three recent sales of similar houses within a few streets: $1,080,000, $1,105,000 and $1,120,000. After adjusting for the slightly larger block, you put it at about $1,100,000. The asking price sits $50,000, or roughly 4.5%, above your evidence. That is about the size of PropTrack's average off-market gap, running the other way, which is a neat reminder that an average does not price a house.
You offer $1,085,000, subject to finance and a building and pest inspection within five business days, with a settlement date that suits the vendor. You agree at $1,110,000. Had the agent pushed you to exchange unconditionally in NSW instead, keeping cooling-off would still have let you walk away for 0.25% of the price, or $2,775, if the inspection found a problem. Waive it, and that exit is gone.
How to buy off-market, step by step
- Get pre-approval and set a firm ceiling.
- Send a one-page brief to the agents who sell most in your target suburbs.
- Attend their open homes and follow up every few weeks.
- Track listings that vanish without a sale result.
- Decide whether a buyer's agent or a letter campaign suits your budget and time.
- When a property lands, price it from comparable sales before talking numbers.
- Ask for finance and inspection conditions, and keep your cooling-off until checks are done.
- Negotiate terms as well as price, then move fast or say no fast.
Frequently asked questions
Are off-market properties cheaper?
Not reliably. PropTrack found houses sold off-market in 2022 went for 4.3% less on average than those listed on realestate.com.au, but the study comes from a company owned by the portal's operator and counts some advertised homes as off-market. Individual vendors often want a premium for skipping the campaign, so price each property from comparable sales.
How do I find off-market properties near me?
Give a clear brief to the agents who sell most in your target suburbs, attend their open homes and follow up regularly. Agents call the buyers who are pre-approved, responsive and realistic. Add listing platforms, a buyer's agent, letters to owners or withdrawn listings as your time and budget allow.
Why would someone sell their house off-market?
Usually for privacy, to test an ambitious price without a public campaign, or to avoid advertising costs and a stale listing. Deceased estates, separations, tenanted investments and high-profile owners are common examples.
Do buyer's agents really get access to off-market properties?
Some do, because selling agents ring them first when a vendor wants a quiet, certain sale. But the claim is easy to make and hard to verify. Ask for recent addresses you can check against sale records, and whether they receive any payment from selling agents or developers.
Can you negotiate on an off-market property?
Yes. Price, settlement timing and conditions such as finance and building and pest are all on the table. The vendor chose a quiet sale for a reason, often speed or certainty, and offering exactly that is your leverage.
Where to start this week
Get your pre-approval sorted, write your brief, and send it to three or four agents who sell in your target suburbs. That alone puts you ahead of buyers who only scroll the portals. If you are also bidding publicly, the auction playbook covers the other half of the market.
A quiet sale removes the other bidders, not the need to price the home yourself. This is general information, not financial or legal advice, so have your conveyancer review any contract before you sign.
Sources
- PropTrack (Paul Ryan), "Off-Market Sales Performance Report 2023". 2023, analysing 2022 sales.
- Real Estate Business, "Do buyers come out better or worse in off-market sales?". 30 November 2021.
- Elite Agent, "Does selling off-market come at a cost?". 24 November 2022.
- Listing Loop, "How many properties are sold off-market in Australia every year?". 2 December 2024.
- Consumer Affairs Victoria, "Industry Q&As: New changes to property sales and underquoting laws". Updated 4 October 2026.
- Consumer Affairs Victoria, "New changes to property sales and underquoting laws". Updated 1 October 2026, and "Buying property by private sale". Accessed 6 October 2026.
- NSW Government, "Underquoting guidance for property professionals". Updated 8 July 2026.
- NSW Government, "Contracts and deposits". Accessed 6 October 2026.
- Queensland Government, "Property advertising". Updated 1 July 2026.
- Armstrong Legal, "Executor Sold Property Undervalue". Accessed 6 October 2026.
