Selling property in Queensland: costs and the Form 2 disclosure you must give

Selling in Queensland puts a legal obligation on you before the property is even advertised. Since 1 August 2025, the seller must prepare a signed Seller disclosure statement (Form 2) and give it to the buyer before they sign the contract. That single duty is new, and it now shapes a seller's costs, timing and risk more than anything else. This guide covers what you must disclose, who does the work, what selling actually costs, how a mortgage is discharged, and what happens on settlement day from the vendor's side.

This guide provides general information only. It is not legal advice. For advice specific to your sale, engage a licensed Queensland solicitor.

The seller's side of a Queensland sale

A Queensland sale front-loads the seller's work more than it used to. Since 1 August 2025, under the Property Law Act 2023 (Qld), you must have a completed and signed Form 2 disclosure statement ready to give any prospective buyer before they sign the contract of sale. Everything else, from agreeing a price to settling, follows from having that statement right.

In broad order, selling in Queensland runs: appoint an estate agent and a solicitor; have your solicitor prepare the Form 2 statement and the contract; market the property; accept an offer (private treaty) or sell under the hammer (auction); pass through the buyer's cooling-off period on a private treaty sale; and complete settlement, usually electronically, when the price is paid and title transfers out of your name.

Your Form 2 duty and what it must disclose

The Form 2 disclosure statement is the document at the centre of a Queensland sale since 1 August 2025. Across the categories of information required by the Property Law Act 2023 and its regulation, and confirmed against the Queensland Government's own overview and professional law-firm explainers of the scheme, it covers:

• Seller and property details: basic identification of the seller and the land being sold.
• Title and encumbrances: a title search, and registered and unregistered encumbrances, mortgages, easements and tenancy agreements affecting the land.
• Land use and planning: the property's zoning, transport infrastructure proposals, resumption notices, contaminated land or environmental management register listings, tree applications or orders, and heritage listings.
• Notices and compliance: unsatisfied show cause or enforcement notices under planning and building legislation.
• Buildings and structures: whether the property has a pool and its safety certificate status, and community titles scheme membership and management statement details for a unit or townhouse.
• Rates and water: current rates and water assessment information.
• Owner-builder work: particulars of owner-builder work carried out in the six years before the sale, where relevant.

Notably, and unlike some buyer assumptions, the Form 2 does not require the seller to disclose the structural soundness of the building, its flooding history, or the detail of past development approvals beyond what is listed above. Gathering everything it does require is the bulk of the seller's conveyancing job, because most of the content comes from ordering searches and certificates: a title search, council rates and zoning certificates, environmental register searches, and a pool safety certificate where relevant. The deeper, buyer-facing walkthrough is in the Form 2 seller disclosure statement guide.

What a missing or defective Form 2 costs you

The reason accuracy matters so much is the buyer's remedy, and Queensland's scheme draws a real distinction between two failures:

• You do not give the Form 2 at all: the buyer gets a right to terminate the contract at any time up until settlement, without needing to prove the missing information would have changed their decision.
• You give it, but it is inaccurate or has omissions: the buyer's termination right is narrower here. They must show the inaccuracy or omission concerns a material matter, that they were unaware of the correct position, and that they would not have entered the contract had they known the truth.

So a trivial or immaterial error in an otherwise-complete statement does not automatically hand the buyer a way out, but failing to provide the statement at all is a much bigger risk, with no materiality test to satisfy first. This is exactly why sellers engage a solicitor to prepare the statement rather than attempting it themselves. (This guide describes the statutory position; it does not summarise case law, and your own solicitor will advise on your specific statement.)

Estate agent versus solicitor: who does what

Two professionals are usually involved on the seller's side, and they do different jobs:

• The estate agent markets the property, conducts inspections and the auction or private-treaty negotiation, and holds the deposit in trust. An agent is licensed under Queensland's property occupations legislation and paid a commission. An agent does not prepare the Form 2 statement or the contract, and cannot give you legal advice.
• Your solicitor prepares the Form 2 disclosure statement and the contract of sale, orders the searches and certificates that go into the statement, advises on any disclosure issue those searches reveal, liaises with your lender to discharge a mortgage, and completes settlement. Because Queensland has no independently licensed conveyancer, this must be a solicitor, or a conveyancing team working under a solicitor's practising certificate; there is no cheaper independent-conveyancer alternative to shop for.

You can engage your solicitor before you appoint an agent, and there is an argument for doing so: the Form 2 can take time to assemble, and having it ready lets the campaign start without delay.

Seller conveyancing costs in Queensland

A seller's costs can look different from a buyer's, because your solicitor's core task is preparing the Form 2 statement and the contract rather than reviewing them. The main items are:

The professional-fee range is a market estimate for a standard residential matter (Empire Legal, 2026), not an official schedule, and is GST inclusive. The $750/$1,200 comparison is one Queensland firm's own published fixed fees (conveyancingservicesqld.com.au, 2026), shown as a real illustration of the disclosure workload showing up in price, not a market average. Disbursement amounts vary by council and property. Agent commission is set by your agency agreement, not by law. Any capital gains tax is a separate federal matter for your accountant, not a conveyancing cost. The full buyer-and-seller cost picture, with duty and registry figures computed from official rates, is in the conveyancing cost Queensland guide.

Do sellers pay transfer duty in Queensland? No

Transfer duty (Queensland's name for stamp duty) is paid by the buyer, not the seller, on a standard residential sale. It is assessed by the Queensland Revenue Office on the buyer's purchase and is often their single largest cost, but it is not a seller expense. If you are curious how much your buyer will pay, or you are selling one home to buy another, the transfer duty Queensland guide sets out the rates and a calculator.

Discharging your mortgage

If a loan is registered against the property, it must be discharged at settlement so the buyer takes clear title. Once you have a signed contract, tell your lender you are selling and request a discharge of mortgage; lenders typically ask for several weeks' notice and charge a discharge or administration fee. Your solicitor coordinates the timing so the lender is ready to release its security in the electronic settlement workspace at the same moment the buyer's funds arrive. The loan balance is paid out of the sale proceeds before the remaining funds reach you.

Settlement day for the seller

Most Queensland settlements now complete electronically through the PEXA platform, so there is no in-person meeting. On the day, both solicitors are in the settlement workspace with the agreed figures. At the settlement time, the buyer's funds are transferred, your mortgage (if any) is discharged from those funds, agent commission and your conveyancing costs are accounted for, and the net proceeds are paid to you. The transfer is lodged with Titles Queensland, moving ownership to the buyer. Once settlement confirms, your agent releases the keys. You should have vacated and removed your belongings by the settlement time set in the contract, because the buyer is entitled to possession as soon as settlement completes.

After settlement, Titles Queensland registers the transfer, the title updates to show the new owner, and your solicitor provides a settlement statement showing how the proceeds were applied.

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Conveyancing Explained provides general information about property transactions in Australia. It is not legal advice and does not create a client relationship. For advice on your situation, engage a licensed conveyancer, settlement agent, or property solicitor in your state or territory.