How to Hide the Sold Price of a House in Australia

Table of Content 

• Why would someone want to keep their property sale price a secret?
• Can you really keep your property sale price confidential? 
• Hide property price in New South Wales
• Hide property price in Queensland
• Obtaining Information for a Fee
• Who Can Access the Price of Your Home?
• How to Conceal the Sold Price of a House?
• Can You Remove the Sold Price from realestate.com?

We all have a natural curiosity about the value of local houses, as we often want to make comparisons with our own properties. However, it’s entirely reasonable to desire confidentiality when it comes to the final sale price of your own property. 

Why would someone want to keep their property sale price a secret? 

For many, having the sale price of their property widely known can be unsettling, especially if they are public figures, have a strong professional reputation, or run a sizable business. It’s completely understandable that they wouldn’t want strangers or acquaintances delving into this personal aspect of their lives. 

In some cases, off-market transactions are conducted with the condition of an undisclosed sale price, primarily because the seller wishes to avoid drawing attention to the fact that they’ve sold their home. 

Interestingly, it’s not always the seller who seeks confidentiality; buyers, too, may prefer to keep the final price hidden from public scrutiny. They don’t want the amount they paid to be easily accessible to everyone. 

Can you really keep your property sale price confidential? 

No, but you can complicate access to it. 

Many real estate agents typically issue press releases or post on social media about their latest property sales to attract potential sellers. However, if you’d rather avoid having the price of your sale publicized in this manner, you can certainly request discretion from your agent. They can respect your wishes by refraining from sending updates to their database or by mentioning the sale while stating that the property went for “an undisclosed sum.” 

Nevertheless, it’s important to note that there are limitations to how much your agent can do to maintain the confidentiality of your property’s sale price. 

In one of our previous articles, we provided instructions on how to find the prices of real estate in various states of Australia. It’s evident that completely concealing the price is impossible; rather, access to it can be made more challenging. 

Below, we’ll delve further into how this process works in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). 

Hide property price in New South Wales: 

In New South Wales (NSW), when a property is sold, your agent is obligated to share the sale price with the NSW Land Registry Service. This service does not consider the sale price to be personal information. 

The NSW Land Registry Service (LRS) specifies that websites displaying property sales prices while omitting the names of property owners, do not violate any privacy legislation. While you can contact these websites directly to request the non-disclosure of your property’s sale price, it remains at their discretion whether they choose to comply. 

Hide property price in Queensland: 

In Queensland, it’s generally not feasible to keep the purchaser’s name in a real estate property transaction confidential. This state (as in other states) is using the Torrens Title system of land registration, which is a system of public records and serves as a guarantee of ownership. Government agencies manage the transfer of title and any encumbrances linked to it, holding the Land Deeds and other related title data. Additionally, there are private agencies authorized by the government to assist the public with title information. Registration of ‘Old Titles’ predating the adoption of the Torrens system may require more extensive searching, but the information will ultimately become available. 

If both parties involved in a Contract for Sale of Land agree not to disclose the purchase price, a confidentiality agreement exists between them. Real estate agents often prefer sale prices to be publicly available for commercial marketing reasons. Auction sales, unless conducted through ‘closed bid’, typically make the selling price accessible to the public. 

Obtaining Information for a Fee 

There are online databases that offer the option to pay a one-time fee in order to access data about a specific property. However, it’s worth noting that some selling agents may still choose not to disclose sale prices to these databases. Nevertheless, for professionals who require price information, such as real estate agents, paid listings are an essential tool for market analysis in a particular suburb. 

PrintForce also provides a similar type of service. If you wish to gather information on property, you can explore our service here. 

Who can access the price of your home?  

Information regarding the value of your property is collected on behalf of Valuation Services. This data is made available and shared by various Australian companies, including RP Data, On the House, and Propertydata.com.au.  

Many of these websites offer free access to basic property information. Real estate agents, on the other hand, pay for access to the most detailed and up-to-date data, which they use to provide well-informed property value estimates.  

While your agent can respect your wishes by not publicizing the sale price in the media or through their own communications, legal requirements compel lawyers to disclose certain figures related to your sale.   

How to conceal the sold price of a house? 

In some cases, though, you may need to remove prices from the public record. Here are a few reasons why: 

• Personal privacy: A buyer may, for various reasons, not want how much they paid for a place as a matter of public record. 
• The buyer may want to purchase the property to sell it/ “flip it” on their own. 

• The buyer may not want to be contacted by other buyer’s agents who use these resources for lead generation. 

If you decide you do want to hide any recently sold house prices, here are some of the things you can do: 

• Buy the property as an LLC/other legal entity rather than under your own name. 
• Explicitly ask the agent you work with not to provide this info to databases. 

This can be difficult, so you really want an agent you can trust to handle the job. Real estate data is king to help you find both the history and value of houses in Australia. Getting access to historical house prices is a good start, but there are other data resources that you’ll need to be successful as a buyer’s agent. A telemarketing database is a key starting point to make sure you’re always finding the leads to connect to different properties you are scouting. 

Can you remove the sold price from realestate.com?  

While this site does not have a mechanism for removing sold prices, they can make updates if inaccuracies are identified. If you are the real estate agent responsible for listing the property, you have the option to contact Customer Support to rectify the sold price. They may request the contract confirm the correct price. On the other hand, if you are the previous or current owner of the property, it is advisable to directly get in touch with the real estate agency to address any concerns related to the sale price. 

Additionally, even if an agent chooses to conceal the sold price, it may still become visible if the sold price is obtained from a third-party supplier, either prior to or following the property’s settlement.