📉 More bidders turned up. The opening offers went down

GOOD MORNING FROM ELITE AGENT 👋

TODAY'S FEATURE

Why more bidders can mean lower opening offers

Price a home below its estimated market value and you'll likely draw more bidders – but a study found those extra bidders also opened lower. It's one of four research pieces published in 2026 that test the thinking behind your next pricing conversation with a vendor. Experience doesn't protect professionals either: anchoring bias showed up across every group of property professionals surveyed. And 427,447 Australian sales add a local angle on the gap between advertised and final prices.

What you'll learn in the full article:

• The markdown trade-off: Pricing under the estimate pulled more bidders – and they opened lower. Here's what that did to the final number.
• The 46 per cent anchor: Valuers, brokers and academics all leaned on the first number they saw, and years in the job didn't help. Worth knowing before your vendor names their price.
• The 427,000-sale reality check: Auctions sold 8.4 per cent over guide at the median, against 2 per cent for listed prices. Sydney's Inner West ran a 7.9 per cent gap.

Read the full article →

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DEPT OF TAX

Property Council's tax relief plan for Victorian buyers

Four in five Victorians polled blame the state's new and increased property taxes for pushing up the cost of a home. Now the Property Council wants stamp duty scrapped on new builds, plus a $25,000 downsizer bonus. The council's Matthew Kandelaars says without buyers, pre-sales dry up and projects stall.

DEPT OF LEGISLATION

Swinburne study says sharehouse rules need rethinking

When one housemate stops paying rent, the rest either cover it or the whole household risks eviction. Swinburne's Zoë Goodall says that current rules don't fit shared living, so risk gets tossed between housemates like a hot potato, in her words. Goodall points to the ACT's reforms as a possible model.

DEPT OF COMPLIANCE

NSW Fair Trading reveals its 2026–27 watch list

Since 29 June, NSW Fair Trading can require an agent's estimated selling price to be checked by a licensee in charge or an independent valuer. Underquoting is also a priority for 2026–27, along with rental reform compliance and strata governance. More underquoting rules are still to come, so it helps to know which ones already apply.

HOW IT SOLD

The niche database behind a $6.5m chicken farm

After two years waiting on another agent, the Balnarring vendors had a full-price unconditional offer within 24 hours of Natalie Robinson taking two buyers through. Selling off-market meant no public inspections of the 30-acre farm's poultry sheds, and the buyer had missed out on another chicken farm she'd recently sold in the area.

Find out the story behind how it sold →

AI cannot cite content that was never written. getailsa.com →

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Dave McMahon joins BresicWhitney as head of sales and auctions

Thousands of auctions in (by the group's count), Dave McMahon joins BresicWhitney as head of sales and auctions in November, bringing over a decade of real estate leadership and auctioneering. He'll coach the group's more than 80 Sydney agents on campaigns, performance, and auctioneering alongside Bianca Todarello, who moves into the newly created head of people and performance – sales role.

Rod McDougall launches Ray White office in Swan Valley With more than 23 years in the local market, Rod McDougall (billed as the region's longest-serving local area specialist) has opened Ray White McDougall & Street alongside third-generation agent Demi Street, who lives and sells locally. The pair will handle both sales and property management, promising relationship-focused service with a national network behind their Swan Valley clients.

Tracey Fellows to leave REA Group board after 12 years After 12 years with REA Group, first as CEO from 2014 and then as a non-executive director, Tracey Fellows will step down from its board on 13 November. She led realestate.com.au's growth and helped drive the group's expansion into India and North America. Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales takes the seat the following day, bringing what chairman Hamish McLennan calls an extra North American dimension to the board.

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AGENTS ON SOCIAL

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TRUE OR FALSE:

Kings Cross is named after an intersection at the top of William Street – and for its first eight years, it was called Queens Cross.

And the answer is …

It's true! In the 1830s, Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay didn't want the new William Street running near his house, so he had it pushed straight up the steepest route to the top of the ridge. Up there it met three other roads, and the four of them made a cross. (It was also one of Sydney's worst traffic jams for the next 140 years.) In 1897 the crossing was named Queens Cross, for Queen Victoria's jubilee. Trouble was, Sydney already had a Queens Place near Hyde Park, and by 1905 there was a new king. So the council renamed it Kings Cross. Not everyone got the memo. A local funeral director was still advertising at "Queens Cross" in November 1906. via Dictionary of Sydney.