Two agents have stood in your lounge room and quoted you different numbers. One wants 2.0%, the other 2.5%, and on a $900,000 house, that gap is $4,500. It feels like one of the hardest decisions you have to make.
It shouldn’t be. The higher-priced agent needs to achieve roughly half a per cent more on your sale price to leave you exactly where the cheaper one would have. Sale results between agents vary by considerably more than half a per cent. This guide gives you the current rates across Australia, the maths that shows you how little the percentage matters, and the one negotiation that is actually worth having.
How much commission do real estate agents charge?
Real estate agent commission in Australia typically ranges from 1.6% to 3.5% of the final sale price, with a national median near 2.65% in 2026. Metropolitan rates sit at the lower end, regional rates at the higher end. Commission is unregulated and negotiable in every state, quoted separately from marketing costs, and usually paid from the sale proceeds at settlement.
On a $900,000 sale, 2.0% is $18,000 and 2.5% is $22,500. Add GST at 10% if the agent quoted “plus GST”, which most do.
What the commission covers, and what it does not
Commission pays for the agent’s time, judgement and negotiation: pricing strategy, buyer qualification, open homes and private inspections, offer management, and shepherding the contract through to settlement. Those are the things that separate one result from another, and they are worth weighing before you compare percentages, because what actually makes a top agent has very little to do with the rate they quote.
It doesn’t usually cover the campaign that puts your property in front of buyers. That is a separate line called vendor-paid advertising (VPA), and it is the cost sellers most often forget to ask about until the invoice arrives.
Commission rates by state in 2026
Rates vary more by local competition than by workload. Melbourne and Sydney carry the lowest percentages in the country because hundreds of agencies compete for the same stock. In those two markets, the choice between a local or large agency will move your result far more than the half-point of commission separating them.
Regional markets run 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points higher because the buyer pool is smaller, the travel between appointments is real, and a lower sale price needs a higher percentage to produce a comparable fee. Mid-sized capitals such as Perth and Adelaide sit between the two extremes.
| State or territory | Typical metro rate | Typical regional rate |
| NSW | 1.8% to 2.5% | 2.5% to 3.5% |
| VIC | 1.6% to 2.5% | 2.5% to 3.5% |
| QLD | 2.5% to 3.0% | 2.75% to 3.5% |
| WA | 2.4% to 3.0% | 3.0% to 3.25% |
| SA | 2.0% to 2.75% | 2.75% to 3.0% |
| TAS | around 3.25% | around 3.25% |
| ACT | 2.5% to 4.0% | not applicable |
| NT | around 2.55% | around 2.55% |
These are indicative 2026 ranges compiled from published market comparisons. Last updated September 2026.
Queensland is the odd one out. Many Queensland agencies still quote a two-part scale: 5% on the first $18,000 of the sale price, then 2.5% on the balance. On an $800,000 sale, that produces $20,450, or an effective rate of 2.56%. The structure is a leftover from the state’s former legislated fee scale, which no longer applies. It survives by convention, and competition among Brisbane agents is strong enough that the two-part scale is worth challenging rather than accepting as a given.
The ACT carries the highest rates in Australia. Tight land supply, high prices and a small agency pool mean Canberra sellers routinely see quotes starting at 2.5% and reaching 4%.
Tasmania sits near the top of the national range for the same structural reason. Hobart and Darwin sellers have fewer agencies to play against one another, so the rate moves less under pressure, and the individual agent’s track record carries more of the outcome.
What is the break-even uplift on agent commission?
The break-even uplift is the extra sale price a higher-commission agent must achieve to leave the seller in the same net position as a cheaper agent. Calculate it as the difference in commission rate divided by one minus the higher rate. For a 2.0% agent against a 2.5% agent, the break-even uplift is 0.51% of sale price, or about $4,600 on a $900,000 home.
Run the numbers on your own sale price, and the result is consistently underwhelming:
| Cheaper agent | Higher-priced agent | |
| Commission rate | 2.0% | 2.5% |
| Sale price | $900,000 | $904,615 |
| Commission paid | $18,000 | $22,615 |
| Seller nets | $882,000 | $882,000 |
The higher-priced agent needs $4,615 more on the hammer. That is one more bidder staying in the room for two more increments. It is a single well-handled counter-offer. Agents who consistently achieve above an appraisal range are not beating their competitors by half a per cent; they are beating them by three to eight.
The half a per cent you are arguing over is a rounding error against the price gap between a good agent and an average one. Spend the negotiation energy on the agreement terms instead, and spend the research time on the agent’s actual results.
This is the reason a low quote deserves a question rather than a signature. An agent who drops their rate the moment it is challenged has shown you how they will handle a buyer who challenges your price. The hidden cost of choosing the wrong agent is almost never the fee they charged.
Is real estate commission negotiable in Australia?
Yes. Real estate commission is unregulated across every Australian state and territory, and there is no legislated minimum or maximum. Most agents have 0.2 to 0.5 percentage points of movement on a standard listing, and more on high-value properties where the dollar fee is already substantial. Marketing costs, auctioneer fees and the agency agreement term are also negotiable.
Better negotiation is not about the base rate at all.
Tiered commission: Useful, and widely misused
A tiered commission, sometimes called a commission accelerator, pays the agent a lower base rate up to an agreed price and a much higher rate on everything above it. Every article on this topic calls it a win-win. That is true only when the threshold is set honestly.
Take a $900,000 expectation. Compare a flat 2.2% against a tiered structure of 1.8% up to $900,000 plus 12% of anything above.
| Outcome | Sale price | Commission | Seller nets |
| Flat rate, agent hits expectation | $900,000 | $19,800 | $880,200 |
| Tiered, agent hits expectation | $900,000 | $16,200 | $883,800 |
| Tiered, agent pushes past expectation | $960,000 | $23,400 | $936,600 |
The tiered structure only earns its keep in the third row. Compared against the realistic alternative, which is a flat-rate agent stopping at the appraisal figure, the seller is $56,400 better off and has happily paid $3,600 more in commission to get there.
But here is the part that gets left out. At the same sale price, flat beats tiered once the price climbs high enough. On these numbers, the crossover sits near $936,700. Above that, a flat 2.2% would have cost the seller less for the identical result. The tiered structure is worth having because it changes behaviour, not because it is cheaper on paper.
Which means the threshold is everything. If the agent sets the bonus trigger at a number their own comparable sales evidence says they will hit anyway, they have not accepted an incentive. They have given themselves a pay rise and called it alignment.
Ask for the comparable sales that support the appraisal, then set the bonus threshold at or above the top of that range. If the agent resists moving the trigger upward, the trigger was never a stretch.
The four terms worth more than the rate
- The exclusive agency period. Ninety days is standard and often too long. Sixty days with a mutual extension keeps everyone attentive and gives you an exit if the campaign stalls, which matters a great deal if you are buying and selling at the same time and working to a settlement deadline.
- What happens if it does not sell? Confirm in writing whether marketing costs are still payable on a withdrawn or passed-in property. This is where sellers often get caught.
- The marketing budget, itemised. Not a package name. A list, with the portal spend, photography, signboard and auctioneer priced separately.
- Whether the quoted rate includes GST. A 2.5% quote plus GST is 2.75%. On $900,000, that difference is $2,250.
The costs that sit on top of commission
Commission is the biggest number, but it is roughly two-thirds of the total. Budget 2.5% to 4% of your sale price for everything, and more if the property needs work before it goes to market.
| Cost | Typical range |
| Agent commission | 1.6% to 3.5% of sale price |
| Marketing and advertising (VPA) | $2,000 to $8,000, higher in capital cities |
| Conveyancing or legal | $800 to $2,500 |
| Auctioneer fee | $300 to $1,000 |
| Strata or body corporate certificates | $200 to $600 |
| Pre-sale repairs and styling | $0 to $15,000 |
Vendor-paid advertising is the line with the widest spread and the least scrutiny. Campaigns in premium capital city suburbs regularly run past $20,000. Deferred payment products let you settle the marketing bill out of the sale proceeds instead of upfront, which is genuinely useful for cash flow and makes it easier to agree to a bigger campaign than you intended. Decide the budget based on evidence of what comparable properties needed, before anyone offers to finance it.
Whether you sell by auction or private treaty changes this mix, since an auction campaign front-loads marketing spend and adds the auctioneer’s fee.
Some owners run these numbers and decide to hold the property instead. If that is you, the cost to compare against is ongoing rather than one-off. Start with property management fees, then work out whether the property is a better fit for rental yield or capital growth before you commit either way.
When do you pay the agent’s commission?
Commission is paid at settlement, deducted from the sale proceeds by the conveyancer or solicitor before the balance reaches the seller. No sale means no commission under a standard agency agreement. Marketing costs are treated differently and may be payable whether or not the property sells, depending on what the agreement says.
That structure is the strongest thing about the commission model. The agent carries the risk of the campaign alongside you, which is exactly the incentive you want in the room when an offer $20,000 below expectation arrives on a quiet Tuesday. If you are rolling the proceeds straight into your next purchase, talk to a mortgage broker about the timing before you agree to a settlement date.
What to do before you sign anything
Get three appraisals, and ask each agent for the comparable sales behind their number rather than the number itself. Then run the break-even uplift between your cheapest and most expensive quote. On most Australian sales, it will land between 0.3% and 0.6%, which tells you how small the gap you are negotiating really is.
Put the energy you were going to spend on the rate into two things instead: the agent’s recent results on properties like yours, and the terms of the agency agreement.
If you would rather start from a shortlist than a search, we maintain vetted lists of top-performing agents across every capital city and major region in Australia, selected on sales results and client outcomes rather than advertising spend. Interview three, ask all three the same questions, and let the comparable sales evidence guide your decision.
