7 figure Attraction Agent
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7 figure Attraction Agent
Massive Changes to Real Estate Legislation across Australia! | Jared Zak
00:00 – How to legally hide the sale price (and why would you want to)
09:54 – Can you show a property without a contract?
12:49 – Massive changes to contracts in QLD starting 1 Aug 2025. This is the biggest change in QLD in the last decade.
17:30 – Stamp Duty reform in VIC
22:41 – NSW will be banning no-fault terminations of residential leases as of 2025
Key takeaways:
- There’s always been a way to conceal the identities of the buyer and sell and that's through companies and trusts. “What I've worked out - at least with the New South Wales Land Registry - is how to conceal the price." - Jared Zak
- New regulations in Queensland will impose significant liability on whoever drafts property contracts. This means buyers will potentially be able to rescind right up until settlement.
- Victoria's new stamp duty concession is not just for first-time homebuyers, it's for everyone, including investors regardless of sale price.
- From 2025, the New South Wales Government will ban no-fault termination of residential leases. This is in line with other states' trends, putting more pressure on landlords.
Jared Zak is the Principal Solicitor & Founder of Dott & Crossitt. He has around 20 years of experience in law and finance. Connect with Jared Zak
Good to see you all that are coming in. The gentleman on my right, jared Zak, who is probably in Australia doing more conveyancing than any other conveyancing or legal firm, and we obviously in real estate have a lot to do with the law and there are always changes being had and there's no better person than having Jared join us today. Jared, how are you going?
Jared Zak:Very good, mr Panos, good to see you.
Tom Panos:Good to see you, too.
Tom Panos:Good to see you too, and I'm pretty excited because I normally spend my time telling real estate agents how to make more money.
Tom Panos:You spend your time making sure real estate agents stay out of jail, so together they both serve an important piece for those in the real estate industry.
Tom Panos:However, today I know that because we're going on social media, I know that, jared, that a lot of the people that do watch this as well are consumers that are interested in real estate. So, yeah, tell me very, very briefly, just give people a brief introduction of who you are, what you do, just for 30 seconds. Then I want to move straight into this hot tip that you've got, this hot tip that you've got, which is how you can actually be confidential in your names of the buyer, name of the seller and the price that a property gets sold for, because a lot of people do want to keep it confidential and there's a view out there that you can't, that it's going to go on to the records that lands titles, and anyone that's using RP data or price finder or prop track or any of those can easily get it. So, before we answer that, jared, where's your firm and what areas are you operating?
Jared Zak:That's hot off the press too, Tom. This is an exclusive to your guys, so look forward to that. No, so, Jared Zach, I'm a solicitor and founder of Dot and Cross it conveyances plus solicitors. We're Australia-wide. We're one of the largest conveyancing companies, as you kindly referred to. Yeah, that's pretty much it. So I've been on your shows before, which I really appreciate it. But yeah, no, I've got just to sort of jump straight to that topic, because I'm a little bit excited about it, but it's not tested just yet.
Tom Panos:I want to give people the background, and that is that what Jared is about to release to us. Is that how you can actually hide who bought, who sold, how much?
Jared Zak:No, no, no, no, no. There's two prongs to it. What I think I've worked out and it's at least with the New South Wales Land Registry is how to conceal the price. There has always been a way to conceal sort of the identities who are buying and selling, and that's through companies and trusts. There's nothing new there. If you want to buy through a company you know, with different shareholders and a trust, you can normally sort of obstruct most people's view as to who's buying it. Sometimes, as I might get to later, the more you try and hide things, the more journalists and busybodies delve deeper. That that's a different point. But I've always been asked by so many people and you must have been asked it before when you've been agent or what you've seen after an auction. You you must have seen buyers or sellers race straight up to the auctioneer's table and say can we keep the price private? You've had that before haven't you.
Tom Panos:Yeah, that happens regularly.
Jared Zak:We get it a lot and I was thinking about it before this call. A lot of it is just people trying to be private and just trying to be discreet, but some of it is actually strategic. Someone told me the other day I had a guy who bought something at auction and he was absolutely adamant that he wanted to keep the price confidential and I sort of quizzed him. I said look, why does it matter? It all comes out in the wash. At the end it's going to be published at the land registry At least. I thought that at that time We'll come back to that. But he actually had a really good point. He said well, no, I'm also going to be selling my property. Right to purchase this property. I don't want buyers out there. I kind of see where you're coming from.
Jared Zak:It was actually that buyer that made me do a little bit more research into the topic. So generally speaking. So my advice up until a couple of weeks ago always would have been you can slow down the dissemination of the sale price and purchase price. You can tell the agents not to put it through their CRMs, through agent box and the other CRMs, so it floats through to the internet before settlement. But, come what may, at settlement your conveyance or your solicitor is going to have to register the transfer document and another document called an electronic notice of sale and on that particular document you have to put the purchase price and sale price and when it's at the land titles registry anyone can subpoena or request or purchase the electronic notice of sale and see the purchase price and sell price.
Jared Zak:That's what I used to always tell people and I looked into a little bit further and the information that I've got um for at least for the new south wales land registry, but I feel like there's probably going to be an equivalent answer at the other land registries is that you can actually write on the electronic notice of sale. This is the conveyancer and solicitor's job. So agents out there, you need to tell your conveyancer or solicitor to do this. In the document where it says price right, rather than putting the price, you can actually put down the words see contract for sale. The land registry will accept it as a valid document and they will not require the contract for sale to be uploaded as a public instrument. The contract for sale is not public information. The electronic notice of sale is. So there you go. That is the way you get away, apparently is.
Tom Panos:So there you go that is the way you get away apparently. So, Jared, what you're saying to me is that then, when one does a search, it will say refer to contract of sale, the contract of sale actually is something that's going to be easy to find, isn't it Correct, correct?
Jared Zak:So, look, I'm a reasonably experienced conveyancer and solicitor. I've been around for I think this is my close to 20th year. That was the first I'd heard of that, and I got that from a really old bloke at the land registry after making a whole lot of inquiries. So there's a freebie for you guys.
Tom Panos:There are various reasons why people would not want it to be disclosed.
Jared Zak:Yeah, I mean, I always thought it was people just being a little bit overly private, a little bit precious. But then, as I said to you, that example of that buyer who did not want people to know that because he's going to be a vendor, he did not want people to know oh, he's already committed to a price at this level and then start to factor it into negotiations. I'll tell you one thing, tom, I won't reveal his name, but I know a buyer's agent operating in Sydney and he targets exclusively. He goes to look target vendors who he knows through public information available has actually bought and committed to a property. It's a brilliant strategy. I won't reveal his name, but he's out there, he's got a little niche there and he will just basically say I think I've got an opportunity here to get this for lower than market because I know through information that I've gone and researched that he's actually committed to a sale at this price. So he's going to be upset with me now when he watches this.
Tom Panos:Well, listen. So, team, let's just go with that very quickly. If you don't want price to appear, you want to keep it confidential. You instruct the solicitor to put down no price and they'll know where they've got to do that and to put down as per contract, and then it permanently will not be up there on the records.
Jared Zak:That's right, that's exactly right. Now just be very, very careful. What we're dealing with here is what happens at the land registry. Your agents out there need to be very careful what they put into their CRMs. I can't comment on that, but I have had many, many experiences with my agent friends where we have all sat around a table with buyer and seller and said, yep, we're going to suppress the purchase price and the sale price, and they've all intended to do that. But going home on the Saturday afternoon when they've typed the information into I don't know what it is agent box, whatever they do, when they've pressed submit, thinking that's all kept internally, it's gone into the Ethernet and next minute it's on REA or it's on sort of CoreLogic and that kind of thing. So you've got to be very, very careful, you guys, what you're putting into your systems and where that data goes.
Tom Panos:Okay Now, jared, I want to move on to another topic that keeps coming up and I need to get your view on it, and that is will real estate agents find it like? Getting listings is pretty much their operating philosophy, day in, day out, saturday, even a Saturday, they're at open for inspections. They're still looking for potential sellers at the open, and one of the techniques or tactics, if you like, they will use is calling people that they know have got some form of interest in potentially selling. Know have got some form of interest in potentially selling and they try and fast track them onto the market by saying, hey, I've got this buyer that I'd like to bring through, and that sometimes starts a process, but other times it's really just a specific situation. They actually do have a buyer that is interested in a property and they're matching this property. They're thinking to their head.
Tom Panos:I valued 12 Smith Street 12 months ago. They weren't ready to sell. I'm going to give them a ring. I reckon this buyer I've got will probably buy it. I reckon they'll buy it. Can they show the property without a contract?
Jared Zak:It depends what state and territory you're talking about, but I suspect you're talking about New South Wales. So New South Wales yeah, that's the hardest regulations, as your agents would know. Out there you cannot market a property for sale and we'll query what market means in New South Wales without having a contract available. So it's a bit of a grey area as to whether you're actually bringing some into a property off the cuff you've just met them at another open home whether that will constitute marketing.
Jared Zak:I have a lot of my very reputable, very conservative agent friends who take the view that no, that's not marketing, but the same token. They are very literally on the way to the house. They're on the phone to me or to some other conveyance. You're out there who's super quick and getting contracts together, and they're saying look, I'm showing someone. I need to have a contract in my inbox. If not monday morning, I want to even want it this afternoon if I can. So you know you want to stay out of trouble with the department of fair trading. Um, they want a bit of a rampage now at the moment, um, as I hear.
Jared Zak:So yeah, strictly speaking, you're probably okay to show someone the house once. If it goes much further than that, you're going to be in trouble. That's New South Wales, queensland and Victoria. There's no real big deal with doing that. Just query your own exposure as an agent doing that without an agency agreement in place. I've seen many people who have actually done that in Victoria, queensland and New South Wales. They thought they were doing the right thing. They've shown someone a property, hasn't ended up signing an agency agreement. Two months later they see it sold under a private sale with that person they introduced and they've got no real entitlement because they hadn't actually bothered to get an agency agreement in place.
Tom Panos:Okay, jared, there's been some changes all over Australia. I'm hearing changes, I'm hearing reforms. I'm getting social media posts that pop up. Queensland laws are changing. Yeah, I sort of get the gist of it. I didn't even realise real estate agents really do some of the conveyancing or the contract preparation at the moment. Is that right in Queensland?
Jared Zak:Oh, absolutely 95% of contracts drafted in Queensland will be done internally by an agent's contracts department, at least up until now. Now there's going to be a pretty major change to legislation which you allude to. Actually, the legislation has been out for a while now a couple of years but what hasn't happened was a start date. The start date for these new regs which impose new requirements for contracts has been announced. It is 1 August 2025. Now, so from 1st of August 2025 in Queensland, those incy-wincy contracts in Queensland which are drafted by agents I only say that relative to New South Wales, where there's these massive, complex things those incy-wincy contracts are now going to be a lot bigger. There's going to be a lot of mandatory disclosure, very, very similar to the New South Wales regime. You need title searches, you need plan documents, you need pull certificates, you need a whole lot of stuff there that needs to go into these contracts.
Jared Zak:The cost alone I'm talking about the actual cost, not the labour cost the cost to purchase these certificates are going to be at least $200 to $300 per contract. You contrast that with the cost now, which is probably close to zero, apart from the REQI sort of standard copyrighted contract. So you've got that cost. But here's the really scary thing for your agents out there and I'd love to, if anyone's online and you want to comment or shoot through, I'd love to hear your feedback because I really want to hear from Queensland agents.
Jared Zak:Here's the scary thing Apart from the cost the actual cost, the labour cost there's going to be significant liability that whoever's drafting the contract is going to incur because, just like New South Wales, if you miss off one of these mandatory disclosure documents out of your Queensland contracts, the buyer can pull out of the contract. And it's actually worse than New South Wales because the New South Wales agents online will tell you that a buyer has a right of rescission for 14 days if a pool certificate's missing or a sewer diagram's missing. In Queensland, the right of rescission, as I read the regulations, is right up until settlement. So you can get a buyer who gets cold feet right day before settlement and he could go through the contract and go oh look, you're missing a title search or you're missing a set of bylaws or something like that. You can pull out no questions asked, no deposit forfeited, and if the vendor's committed to other purchases down the line, guess what? Someone's getting sued and it's going to probably be the agent if the agent's drafting the contract.
Tom Panos:What are the ramifications of this for the Queensland agents?
Jared Zak:I'd love to know. I mean, I've spoken to a few agents. Some agents have said and very respectable agents and very, very proficient agents have said look, we have been drafting contracts for years and years. We have got very, very good people in our contracts department. They're essentially would hold down a job as a paralegal in any law firm and we've got absolute confidence they'll take on this new challenge. That's been the attitude of some agents. Other agents have said yeah, we don't want to take that on. That's a lot. We're struggling to pay whatever it is the 80 grand a year for our contracts sort head of contracts already. This is now. We're going to probably have to add two more people into that department and take on the liability. We don't know what to do. We think we'll probably outsource it to a conveyance or a solicitor and I certainly have my hand up for that. And the third category of person has said jared, it's november 2024, we're just trying to get through the end of the year. We'll think about it in January.
Tom Panos:It's actually most people are saying that, jared, I'll bring up your details, those of you that are in Queensland and want to discuss that further.
Jared Zak:Yeah, I'd love to have a chat with you. Business aside, I want to know what you guys are thinking, how you think you're going to solve it, Because I just fear, because we're all so busy, I just fear we're going to get to sort of May, June next year and people are going to go. Yeah, we haven't realised what a big task this is. It is a massive change in legislation, huge, the biggest in Queensland, I think, for the last decade at least. So that's very interesting. But yeah, that's the big change in Queensland.
Tom Panos:Okay, and there've been changes in Victoria.
Jared Zak:Yeah, there have been really big changes. So it looks like Victoria has been pretty progressive on the stamp duty front. Obviously, that market, you know, potentially in a bit of the doldrums, as far as I'm reading, at least relative to the other states, they made some pretty big changes to stamp duty in June or July this year in the commercial space, very, very similar to what the Dominic Perrottet government did, where they said, basically we won't charge you up front, we can sort of have it almost as a loan over the time you buy the commercial property. I actually thought that was a really, really good thing that Perrottet did, but obviously it got thrown out with the bathwater with the new government. So Victoria took that idea similarly and added it to commercial property. They've done something very, very well. They've done something different but also quite innovative in the residential off the plan market. So that market is struggling, as you know, in Victoria there's a lot of apartments out there. There's probably not too many builders or developers keen to get into that space and keep building, just given the prices we've got at the moment.
Jared Zak:So what they've said is there is a new stamp duty concession. Firstly, it's available for everyone, not just first-time home buyers, not just owner occupiers. It's for everyone, including investors. In fact it's actually really, if you look at, it's really actually favored at investors. So everyone can get this, no matter who you are and no matter what the sale price is. So normally they cap them. I think it's in new south wales is about a million.
Jared Zak:I don't know when's that start. When's that start? It's interesting, it start. It started. It started last week, it started last week but there's no legislation out yet. So you speak to the SRO in Victoria. You absolutely have a stamp duty concession for a new off the plan property that you have bought this week and onwards.
Jared Zak:I had a few questions for them and they sort of said some sort of technical questions. They sort of said, yeah, we can't give you the answers to that because the legislation hasn't actually been passed. Now that sounds ridiculous, but it's not unusual. That is sort of how the governments operate. They'll announce these big policies which you probably have to take them on their word that it is going to come out, and the legislation follows a few weeks, sometimes a couple of months, after the announcement. So it seems reasonably clear. You know, I had a bit of a question. So just to be clear what the concession is. It's not stamp duty exemption. What they'll do is they will charge your stamp duty when you buy an off-the-plan apartment. They will charge it on the value of the land. What? Not the value of the improved land with apartment on it. So if you think about what an apartment is, it really is, the land size is de minimis. Really it's probably one-tenth just back of the envelope of the actual value of the property. The rest is the actual apartment structure.
Tom Panos:So you would pay. That's significant saving.
Jared Zak:Massive, massive. There was some stats I was reading online. You know, for an average sort of, I think it was a million dollar apartment for anyone. Again, don't remember, don't forget $28,000 was the back of the envelope sort of saving that people would have. I think it was a $55 million overall investment that the Victoria government has sort of costed it as. So it's a significant thing.
Tom Panos:So I can see, Jared, it sounds like they're doing a little bit of a hey. We may have gone too hard with our taxes and we may have gone a little bit too hard in the way that we've treated investors. We've got a rental crisis here. We need investment property. We will give you the benefits that we sometimes give to other people that are buying property with the view that you'll come back, and I think that also means that that might encourage developers to actually stop sitting on the sidelines and start building, and I think that maybe the agenda is let's push this thing along here. We've probably gone too far with the Daniel Andrews approach.
Jared Zak:Spot on. That's exactly what it is. Yeah, it's a welcome back to investors.
Tom Panos:Okay, and that is available now it is available now, yep, and I think if you are a potential vendor in Victoria, that is good news for you because you'll get you know that flows onto the seller right.
Jared Zak:Yeah, don't forget. Only off the plan, though. So for now it's off the plan, off the plan.
Tom Panos:But that's music to the developers because off the plan properties are all done by developers and that is available right now and I can say to you that I already have clients in Melbourne who are telling me that they've been able to bring this in the conversation and buyers are aware of it and buyers are happy and I think that you will see a benefit will flow into the real estate market there.
Jared Zak:I think generally I think investors will come back in. Generally prices will be a bit more supported in apartments. Generally I think it's a good thing. My big question is, who's going to copy them? So the state governments? They normally look over the fence and see what the other guys are doing. Is that good policy and whatnot? I think this is a good one. I'm just curious to see whether New South Wales because the investors are getting it beating up in New South Wales as well, one topic we hadn't sort of spoken about before Tom. But Wales as well, one topic we hadn't sort of spoken about before Tom, but we can talk about it now quickly. I mean, you're aware that New South Wales from next year will be bringing in, will be banning no-fault terminations of residential leases. So essentially you have to have what's these comments?
Tom Panos:coming through there. I'm just looking at some of these comments coming through, Maybe, so what I'll do is you've started. I'd love you to finish off about what you're talking about. Then I'm going to bring up these questions that have come up. Just continue on what you were saying.
Jared Zak:It's just a quick one. So New South Wales government again. Now they are on the anti-investor sort of warpath, or anti-landlord at least. So they will be banning no-fault termination of residential leases from next year. So what that effectively means if you're on an expired lease in New South Wales as a tenant or as a landlord, the landlord cannot just say to you your lease is expired, I'm not going to renew it. Basically you're out. You have to have a reason to do it.
Jared Zak:Now I guess the good news for your agents is that selling your property is a legitimate reason. But here's the thing you have to actually sell it. If you kick your tenant out and say I'm going to sell my property and you kick them out, you put it on the market for a little bit and it doesn't sell. You cannot actually put a new tenant in there on a higher price in, say say, two months, three months time. You've got to wait out the full six months. So you get frozen out.
Jared Zak:And it's the same thing, I think, with major renovations and that kind of thing. So effectively it's just dealing with tenants on expired leases with a lot more care. Just because their lease is expired no longer means you can say you know, see you later, goodbye no longer means you can say, you know, see you later, goodbye. But the interesting thing, tom, and as your sort of interstate or as your other Australian agents will say that are on here, that's actually not new stuff in other states and territories. So there are no-fault terminations, there are bans against no-fault terminations in Victoria. I think there may even be in Queensland as well. Someone else may be able to tell me. So New South Wales is just coming back into line with other states and territories. But again, it's one more thing that's going to put more pressure on landlords and investors in New South Wales, alongside the, you know, the ever-ratcheting up land tax regime.
Tom Panos:Okay, by the way, I'm going to go through some of these questions. Be right, wouldn't be surprised to see if the laws in Queensland change quite substantially over the next four years. What do you think Jarrod Could be?
Jared Zak:Well, they're going to change substantially in the 1st of August, whether there's new laws or regulations to sort of clarify some of these things. I mean the rescission right that buyers are going to get right up until settlement. To me that sounds pretty harsh. I mean, I'm not sure how you're going to coordinate linked settlements with that kind of rule in place, but sure it may take a while for things to settle down for sure.
Tom Panos:Yeah well, jarrod, if that's the case, it means that it's not unconditional until it settles 100%, 100%.
Jared Zak:And yeah, it's very hard to sort of structure deals when that's the case.
Tom Panos:G'day there, lads. My question is with the stamp duty relief in Melbourne and decreasing interest rates coming in in the near future Hope so, and I hope it's in the near future how do you see the Melbourne market reacting? I actually think I'll throw my 20 cents worth then over to you, jared. I actually think Melbourne is a great buying opportunity at the moment because, if you actually think about it, it just doesn't make sense that Brisbane and Adelaide have surpassed Melbourne's median price. I mean, melbourne has always been Sydney Melbourne a bit of a gap. The gap's now quite big. Yes, it had the COVID Dan Andrews effect.
Tom Panos:A lot of people have left Victoria, gone to Queensland. I sort of get all of that. However, in real estate, jared, the best time? Well, let me give you a metaphor. If I want to fly to go to Europe and I don't care about the weather, go to Europe and I don't care about the weather. I don't go in peak time in July because I'll be paying business class tickets at 20 grand. However, if I go in February when it's cold, I'll get cheap tickets. In real estate, you want to buy when others aren't buying and it goes counter cyclical right. Not buying when everyone wants to fly to europe because you're paying a higher price on a plane. You'll be hiring a higher price on a property. What's your view on melbourne jared?
Jared Zak:no, look, I'm just a humble conveyance. I'll let the the agents take the views there. But one thing I did see online of the day. I might misquote this, but I think that melbourne is now the second cheapest or second most affordable city to live in in australia, so including adelaide, perth, sydney. So on that metric alone you must think it's oversold right. And then you've got this, you know this initiative coming in. I think there's an opportunity. I work with a lot of really smart um buyers agents out there. Um, dash dot own home. Some of those guys, uh prov, those guys are also looking at Victoria right now as a buying opportunity.
Tom Panos:All right, we got Shane Black. Just get some cheap offshore hires to do it. For three bucks, Tom can hook you up. I think he's talking about Wigman and he's talking about offshore and remote professionals to be doing the legal work. I wouldn't advise that shame. There are certain things that I think offshore is great at and it's really cost effective, but one of them is not going to a listing presentation and one of them is probably not actually producing the. I mean, I'll be fascinated, Jared, I'll be really fascinated to see how real estate agents go about this. You know, go about this in Queensland. But I really don't think with so much at stake, you have to nail this. This is not going to be an experiment where we're going to look at getting cheap labour to do it. The consequences of doing it wrong are significant. You'd agree with that, wouldn't you?
Jared Zak:Well, you've got to think. Queensland's the exception. Right In every other state and territory the contracts are drafted by solicitors or conveyances, and Queensland has just stood out for a long time. It's just been different for some reason and I guess there has been. It's worked okay while the consequences haven't been large and while the cost of putting the contracts together and the complexity hasn't been there. But that's now going to change. So you know, I can't see agents really wanting to do this anymore.
Tom Panos:So we've got a comment from South Australia. Andy Sheff, how can you not renew the lease with the current tenants? What a joke. You can only kick them out if family is moving in and you can't sell within six months. If New South Wales does this, I'm not. Yeah, do you know anything?
Jared Zak:Look, I'm not an expert on sort of leasing laws in SA, but I do know that New South Wales for a long time has been probably the most lenient on these things. The other states, SA, Victoria it's been pretty hard for landlords the last few years, so he's probably alluding to probably even more stricter rules when it comes to sort of evicting tenants in SA.
Tom Panos:Yeah, that's what I'm referring to and then a comment from a mortgage broker saying there are clients already looking to upgrade their home I think he's referring to I don't know, maybe he's referring to what's going on in Victoria with the stamp it might be Victoria because, don't forget, it's available for anyone.
Jared Zak:It's not a first-time homebuyer thing anymore, it's for everyone. If you want a really nice penthouse apartment, you know somewhere nice in Victoria. Now might be the time.
Tom Panos:Jared absolute pleasure, and I am letting you know you can get a hold of Jared there While I'm at it. Jared, I really do want to get you in regularly as a let's call it the doctor lawyer answering various questions for the pundits and those of you. I'm letting you know Susan has officially opened up the real estate gym today. We are on a membership drive from now to Christmas for our 2025 real estate gym membership. Jared, an absolute privilege to have you on Good to see you again.
Jared Zak:Those of you that want more of Jared.
Tom Panos:This is where you find him. That's it. Call me. He's happy to be contacted on his mobile phone. He just said he wants to just send him a text. Jared Zak dot and cross it. Thank you so much.