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Analyst7 October 2026·Updated 7 October 2026·6 min read
72% of buyers skip a home with no price. About one in three local listings doesn't show one
REA Group research found 72% of buyers skip listings that don't include a price. As at 7 October 2026, 68 of 213 homes for sale in Robina, Varsity Lakes and Burleigh Waters showed no dollar figure.
Most buyers use the price to decide which homes are worth their time, and about one in three homes for sale in Robina, Varsity Lakes and Burleigh Waters doesn't show one. This article brings together REA Group's buyer research and a study of real search behaviour on a European property portal, counts the local listings with no price as at 7 October 2026, and explains why Queensland law leaves so many auction listings blank.
Research by REA Group, the owner of realestate.com.au, found that 72% of buyers
skip over property listings that don't include a price.1 It is one of several findings, from REA's own
surveys and from academic research, that point the same way: buyers use the price to decide which homes
are worth their time.
What the research shows
1
72% of buyers skip a listing with no price
REA's 2023 research, drawing on more than 6,000 realestate.com.au users, found
72% would skip over a property without a price and 83% prioritise properties that
show one.1,2 REA describes missing prices as the number one source of consumer dissatisfaction on its
platform.1
2
55% say price matters most when choosing what to view
REA's 2024 Property Seeker Survey of 13,400 Australians found 55%
rank price information as the most important thing when assessing whether to view a property. Just
over four in five said price information gave them more confidence to place a bid.3
3
Buyers search less when the price goes up
A study of Belgium's largest property portal (Joren Vandenbergh, Journal of Housing
Economics, 2024) tracked listings every day for a year. When the same home's listing price rose 1%, its
search activity fell 6.7%, and the effect was stronger when more homes were listed.4
4
54% of sellers would choose another agent
The pull runs both ways. REA also reported that 54% of sellers
would choose another agent if their agent withheld pricing.1
Why a price changes what buyers do
Searching for a home takes time, and buyers have only so much of it. A price is the quickest way to
tell whether a home is worth more of that time. Picture two listings side by side: one advertised at
$1,400,000, the other at "Contact Agent". The first can be sorted in a second: in range, worth a look,
or not. The second asks the buyer to make a call or send an enquiry just to find out whether the home
is relevant to them at all.
Studies of how buyers actually behave online point the same way. In Vandenbergh's study of the
Belgian portal, a buyer scrolling the results saw only a picture, the listing price, the town and sometimes the
size and bedroom count before deciding whether to click.4
And buyers reacted sharply to that price: the same home drew 6.7% less search activity for every 1% its price
rose, with the reaction stronger when more homes were for sale.4 An earlier North American study by Lu Han and William Strange
found the same pattern in the number of bidders a home attracts.5 A listing with no price gives
buyers nothing to measure, and in REA's surveys most say they skip it.1 Clearance rates in the nearest
capital auction market have halved
in a year.
How many local listings show no price
As at 7 October 2026, we counted every home for sale in Robina, Varsity Lakes and Burleigh Waters
and checked whether its advertised price shows a dollar figure.6
Suburb
For sale
No dollar figure
Share
Robina
111
32
29%
Varsity Lakes
48
22
46%
Burleigh Waters
54
14
26%
All three
213
68
32%
Houses and units were almost identical: 33 of 108 houses (31%) and 35 of 105 units and other
dwellings (33%). In place of a price, those listings said "Contact Agent", "Auction" or "Expressions of
Interest", or gave an offers-by date. Nationally, a March 2026 study by Microburbs of 93,510 listed
properties found 29% hid the asking price, so our three suburbs sit slightly above the
national rate.7
If REA's finding holds here, close to a third of the homes on the market in these suburbs are being
skipped by most of the buyers searching for them.
Why so many Queensland listings carry no price
In Queensland, a missing price is often not the seller's choice. Under the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), sections 214 and 216, an agent or auctioneer cannot publish any price guide for a
residential property going to auction, including the reserve. On a private treaty sale, an agent also
cannot state a price the seller has instructed them not to disclose.8
So the blank price on a Queensland auction listing is the law being followed. Elsewhere it plays out
differently. In a Melbourne example reported by realestate.com.au, the vendor disclosed a $1,600,000
reserve before auction day, two more buyers confirmed they would bid, and the home sold for $69,000
over the reserve.9 A Queensland auction seller can't do that.
Where the method is a choice, sellers have their own reasons. The Real Estate Institute of
Australia's president, Leanne Pilkington, has pointed to gauging the market before settling on a
figure, especially for an unusual home or in a fast-moving market.9
What buyers are left with
The law stops an agent publishing a price at auction. It doesn't stop the market
evidence around a home being published. Every property for sale on Fields carries a Valuation Guide,
showing the comparable sales behind it and the method used, whether or not the listing shows a
price.
Notes. The local count covers residential listings marked for sale in Robina,
Varsity Lakes and Burleigh Waters on 7 October 2026, compiled from public listing records. A listing
counts as "no dollar figure" when its advertised price contains no dollar amount. Listings change daily.
This article reports data and does not constitute advice.
Licensed Queensland real estate agent, founder of Fields Real Estate and Lead Analyst at Fields Research. Covering Gold Coast market data, comparable sales analysis and suburb intelligence.
Where does your own home sit?
Fields keeps a record of every active listing and recent sale across the southern Gold Coast, and reads any address against the sales around it — the comparables, the range they support, and the method behind it. This analysis of the Gold Coast comes from the same database.
