Line items
The kinds of fee the states describe
No state page covered here gives a typical amount, and neither does this guide. What they do describe is the shape a fee can take. Read across the four states, a buyer’s agent’s bill can be built from these parts.
| Part of the fee | What the state page says | Which state |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed fee | Buyer’s agents may charge a fixed fee or a percentage of the purchase price. Victoria suggests asking which of the two you will be charged. | NSW, VIC |
| Percentage of the purchase price | The other form named in NSW and Victoria. WA calls it a variable fee, “such as a percentage of the purchase price”. | NSW, VIC, WA |
| Engagement or activation fee | A fee to start the engagement, listed by WA as one part a fee structure may include. | WA |
| Success fee | A fee “such as a fixed fee or percentage of the purchase price”, in WA’s fact sheet. | WA |
| Fees for particular services | Additional or standard fees for particular services, such as bidding at auction. | WA |
| Expenses | Queensland’s appointment form has a separate part where the client authorises the agent to incur expenses, with an authorised amount for advertising and marketing and a description, amount and payment date for other fees and charges. | QLD |
A single agreement can combine several of these. WA Consumer Protection’s advice is to be specific about the tasks you want done, to ask whether there are any additional fees or charges, and to say clearly that you want to pre-approve any extra costs, such as copies of documents from the local council, Landgate or a strata company.
Terms of payment
When the money falls due
The amount is half of the question. The other half is the moment you owe it, and the states point at it from different directions.
- Queensland makes it part of the paperwork: the appointment form sets out all commissions, fees and expenses, and the due date for paying them.
- WA asks you to check when the fees fall due, and warns that some can still be owed after you end the agreement, or if you find and buy a property on your own.
- NSW and Victoria both suggest asking what you will be charged if the agent does not find a property you like.
Those three ideas together give the timeline to look for in any agreement: what is payable on signing, what is payable only if you buy, and what is payable if the search ends without a purchase. How the agreement itself can end is on ending an agreement, rebates have their own page at rebates and commissions, and what the written agreement must carry is on the agency agreement.
Tax
GST and the single price
WA Consumer Protection says that under the Australian Consumer Law the agent must give you a single price fee which includes GST, and that if GST is shown separately, a total including GST must also be provided. Queensland’s form asks for the commission “including GST”.
Arithmetic
A percentage, turned into dollars
A percentage fee is only known for certain once the price is. Victoria deals with this in the agreement itself: an agency authority must state the agreed commission and expenses as a dollar amount or a percentage, and if it is a percentage, it must also give an example of the dollar amount it represents. Queensland’s form says the commission must be written as a percentage or a dollar amount.
Illustration only: the blanks are filled from your own papers
- Purchase price
- from your contract of sale
- Percentage agreed
- from your agency agreement
- Fixed fees and expenses
- from your agency agreement
- What you pay
- your agreement says
This guide never fills those lines in. A typical figure printed here would be a guess about someone else’s agreement, and in NSW, Victoria and WA the number is left to you and the agent, while Queensland’s form says the commission is negotiable.
One rule above the rest
Understand it before you sign it
NSW Fair Trading advises against signing until you understand what the agreement will cost you and what the agent is committing to do, and suggests asking NSW Fair Trading or your solicitor about anything unclear. Queensland’s form says the same thing more bluntly: if you are unclear about any aspect of it, or the fees you will be charged, do not sign it, and seek legal advice.