If you've bought property in Sydney, you already know more than most buyers. The difficulty is that a good portion of it doesn't apply here, and the parts that don't apply are rarely the parts you'd expect.
We work with Sydney families moving north every year. These are the assumptions that cause the most trouble.
The contract works differently, and so does the culture around it
New South Wales runs on exchange of contracts, usually with a deposit paid at exchange, a five business day cooling-off period, and a 0.25% forfeit if you rescind. Most experienced Sydney buyers are used to being asked for a section 66W certificate to waive that cooling-off period and strengthen an offer.
Queensland has its own five business day cooling-off period with a similar 0.25% penalty, and it doesn't apply at auction. But the working culture around the contract is different. Queensland transactions commonly run on a conditional model — finance and building and pest conditions written into the contract with dates attached, and the deal firming up as those conditions are satisfied.
That changes what a strong offer looks like. In Sydney, strength is often about removing conditions. Here, it's frequently about the interplay between price, deposit, settlement timing and how much condition risk the seller is being asked to carry. A Sydney buyer who leads with an unconditional offer because that's what works at home can pay well above what was needed, or expose themselves badly. Getting that balance right is judgement, and it's local.
Since 1 August 2025 you'll also receive a Seller Disclosure Statement, Form 2, before signing. Useful, but it does not disclose structural soundness or flood history.