A question we often get asked by clients: “How are we going to keep the property purchase price undisclosed and details of the transaction kept private and confidential?” This is a tricky one, because many people aren’t aware that under the NSW Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998, the price of a property does not fall within the definition of personal information.
So the short answer is yes, we can try keeping a property price undisclosed, but the price will only remain confidential until settlement. Even then, it can only be suppressed if the agent is willing. It’s their prerogative to update various websites with what we commonly see as ‘price undisclosed’.
Once the property has settled (ie transferred ownership), property sales documentation is gathered by New South Wales Land Registry Services (NSW LRS). The relevant information is detailed on transfer documents and accompanying Notice of Sale. These forms contain privacy notes stipulating that the information supplied will be made publicly available. It’s at this time the specifics about the transaction becomes public.
According to NSW LRS, it does not under any circumstances suppress or withhold the purchase price of a property. NSW LRS is required by legislation to collect property sales information and make it available for public viewing.
Therefore, websites that display property sales prices but not the names of property owners are not in breach of any privacy legislation. The websites may be contacted directly, but it is their prerogative if they suppress information. NSW LRS stresses that it does not have any involvement in the decision making of external and independent websites.
As well as maintaining various public registers for this purpose, NSW LRS also collects property information data on behalf of Valuation Services (ie NSW Valuer General). Valuation Services then on-sells property sales data to licenced property sales resellers eg RP Data.
The various resellers then supply their electronic information to subscribers such as real estate agents, mortgage brokers, etc with regular updates of newly registered sales. These resellers maintain their own databases and websites containing data sourced from Valuation Services and elsewhere to develop their own property related information products.
So there you have it, a simple question with a short and a (boring) long answer. If you have any burning real estate questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.