A contract for the sale of residential property in Queensland carries a cooling-off period of five business days. It starts the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties and ends at 5pm on the fifth day. A buyer who terminates within it forfeits a penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price, and the balance of the deposit must be refunded within 14 days. It does not apply to auction sales, to certain follow-up sales after an unsuccessful auction, to option contracts, or where the buyer is a listed corporation, the State or a statutory body, or is buying at least three lots at once. The seller has no equivalent right.
Last reviewed 7 September 2026.
Five business days, ending at 5pm
A contract for the sale of residential property in Queensland carries a statutory cooling-off period of five business days.
The clock starts on the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties. Not the day the buyer signed it, and not the day the offer was accepted verbally. If that copy arrives on a weekend or a public holiday, the period starts on the next business day instead.
It ends at 5pm on the fifth day. That is a hard time rather than end of day, which matters more than it sounds: a termination notice sent at 6pm on the fifth day is late, and the contract is binding.
Because the days are business days, a public holiday inside the period pushes the end date out. A contract received on the Thursday before Easter runs to a different date than the same contract received a fortnight later.
What it costs to use it
Terminating during the cooling-off period is not free, but it is cheap relative to the decision it protects.
The seller may keep a termination penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price. On an $800,000 contract that is up to $2,000. The rest of the deposit has to be refunded to the buyer within 14 days.
The wording is up to 0.25%, not a flat 0.25%, and the distinction is worth holding onto. It is a ceiling on what the seller may retain rather than a fixed fee that is automatically charged.
For a buyer, that is the price of the building and pest inspection coming back badly, or the finance conversation going the wrong way, in the first week. For a seller, it is the reason a cooling-off termination stings less than a finance clause failing three weeks later.
The period is five business days, so weekends and public holidays extend it
It ends at 5pm on the fifth day, not at midnight
The seller may keep up to 0.25% of the purchase price, and must refund the balance of the deposit within 14 days
Four contracts it does not cover
The cooling-off period is not universal, and the exclusions catch people out at auctions in particular.
It does not apply to a sale by auction. A registered bidder whose bid is accepted under the hammer is bound immediately, which is why an auction contract is normally signed unconditional and why building, pest and finance work has to be done before the auction rather than after it.
It does not apply to a follow-up sale after an unsuccessful auction, where the buyer was a registered bidder at that auction and the contract is formed before 5pm on the second business day afterwards. This is the one that surprises people: the property passed in, the negotiation happened in the agent's office an hour later, and it feels like an ordinary private treaty sale. It is not.
It does not apply to an option contract, or to a sale contract formed as the result of one. And it does not apply where the buyer is a publicly listed corporation or its subsidiary, the State or a statutory body, or where the buyer is purchasing at least three lots at the same time.
Waiving it, or shortening it
A buyer can give the period up, in whole or in part, and it happens more often than the legislation's tone suggests.
It takes a written document from the buyer stating either that they waive the cooling-off period entirely, or that it will end at 5pm on a particular day earlier than the fifth.
In a competitive market a waiver is a negotiating instrument. A buyer who has already completed their building and pest inspection and has unconditional finance is giving up little by waiving it, and a seller choosing between two similar offers will usually take the one that cannot evaporate on day four.
A buyer who has done none of that is giving up a great deal. Waiving the period to make an offer look stronger, and then discovering a problem, leaves them relying on whatever conditions survive in the contract rather than on a statutory right to walk.
The seller has no equivalent right
This is the question Google surfaces on this search and the ranking pages tend to skip, presumably because most of them are written for buyers.
The statutory cooling-off period is a buyer's right. There is no matching period during which a Queensland seller can change their mind and walk away from a signed contract at the cost of a small penalty.
Once the seller has signed, they are bound on the contract's terms. If the seller wants out, they are negotiating a release with the buyer, not exercising a right, and the buyer is under no obligation to agree.
Sellers sometimes assume the arrangement is symmetrical because the phrase sounds neutral. It is not, and the asymmetry is deliberate: the period exists to protect a buyer who has committed to a large purchase quickly, which is not the position a seller is in.
How this sits with the disclosure regime
Since 1 August 2025 a Queensland buyer has had two separate exits, and they behave nothing like each other.
The cooling-off period is short, unconditional and costs the buyer up to 0.25%. It exists whatever the seller did or did not do.
The seller disclosure right is long, conditional and free. It arises only where the seller failed to give a proper disclosure statement and prescribed certificates before signing, and where it exists it runs all the way to settlement.
A buyer who discovers a problem on day three uses the cooling-off period, because it is simple and certain. A buyer who discovers on day forty that the disclosure was defective is in the other regime entirely. Confusing the two costs a seller far more than it costs a buyer.
Common questions
Five business days. It starts on the day the buyer receives a copy of the contract signed by both parties, and ends at 5pm on the fifth day. If the contract copy arrives on a weekend or public holiday, the period starts on the next business day instead. Because the count is in business days, a public holiday inside the period pushes the end date out.
The seller may keep a termination penalty of up to 0.25% of the purchase price, which is up to $2,000 on an $800,000 contract, and must refund the balance of the deposit to the buyer within 14 days. The figure is a ceiling on what the seller may retain rather than a flat fee automatically charged on every termination.
No. A sale by auction carries no cooling-off period, which is why building, pest and finance work has to be completed before the auction rather than after it. The exclusion also extends to a follow-up sale after an unsuccessful auction where the buyer was a registered bidder and the contract is formed before 5pm on the second business day afterwards. That second case catches people out, because negotiating in the agent's office after a property passes in feels like an ordinary private treaty sale.
No. The statutory cooling-off period is a buyer's right and there is no equivalent period for the seller. Once a Queensland seller has signed, they are bound on the contract's terms, and getting out means negotiating a release that the buyer is free to refuse. The arrangement is deliberately asymmetrical: the period exists to protect a buyer who has committed to a large purchase quickly.
With a written document from the buyer stating either that they waive the period entirely, or that it will end at 5pm on a nominated day earlier than the fifth. In a competitive market it is used as a negotiating instrument, and a buyer who already holds a clear building and pest report and unconditional finance gives up very little by waiving. A buyer who has done neither gives up a great deal, because they are then relying only on whatever conditions remain in the contract.
Where to next
- Seller disclosure statements in Queensland/seller-disclosure-statement-qld
- What it costs to sell a house in Queensland/cost-of-selling-a-house-qld
- Building and pest inspection costs/building-and-pest-inspection-cost-queensland
- Deposits on an investment property/how-much-deposit-investment-property
- Sell with FAA Property/sell-with-faa-property
- The Form 6 appointment/form-6-appointment-of-agent-qld
- Negative Gearing Changes Explained (2027)/negative-gearing-changes-explained
- Using Super to Buy an Investment Property in Australia/using-super-to-buy-investment-property
- SMSF Commercial Property Rules, August 2026/smsf-commercial-property
General information only. This page doesn't consider your personal circumstances and isn't financial, tax, credit or legal advice, so get licensed advice on your own position. Whether a cooling-off period applies to a particular contract, and how it is calculated, depends on the terms of that contract and its own facts, and FAA is not a solicitor or conveyancer. The length of the period, its start and end, the termination penalty, the waiver process and the contracts to which it does not apply come from Queensland Government guidance on the cooling-off period for residential property contracts, read on 7 September 2026. FAA Property Pty Ltd holds QLD OFT real estate licence 4220395. FAA Property earns a commission from builders and developers when a property purchase proceeds. The strategy session itself costs you nothing. Because we're paid by the supply side, you should weigh our recommendations with that in mind. Financial advice and credit sit with other FAA Group companies, which are authorised representatives of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd, AFSL 229892. FAA doesn't lend money.