General information only, current at September 2026. This is not legal advice — confirm your obligations with a property lawyer in the relevant state.
You can start selling off the plan as soon as you can legally exchange a contract — which means development approval in hand, a complete disclosure statement, and sales material a buyer can commit to. For most small Australian developments that's earlier than developers assume, and the delay is almost always the sales material, not the paperwork.
The cost of starting late isn't lost time at the front. It's the sunset date at the back.
What has to be in place before you can sell?
In Victoria, the Section 32 vendor's statement must be given to the purchaser before they sign. In New South Wales, a disclosure statement in the approved form, with all schedules attached, is required before exchange. Disclosure non-compliance can trigger rescission rights across all states — missing documents give purchasers exit rights that undermine the security of your presales.
That last point matters more than it reads. A presale that a buyer can walk away from on a technicality is not a presale your lender will count.
The sunset date is your real deadline
A sunset clause ends the contract if a defined event hasn't happened by a defined date. New South Wales defines that event as creation of the lot or issue of the occupation certificate. Victoria frames it as registration of the plan of subdivision or issue of an occupancy permit. Queensland calls it a relevant event and includes registration of the plan, creation of a separate title, or settlement.
Typical sunset periods run 12–18 months for townhouses and land subdivisions, 18–24 months for standard apartments, and 24–36 months for complex high-rise.
The statutory backstops differ:
- Queensland, vacant land: a buyer can terminate if settlement hasn't occurred within 18 months of the contract date, under the Land Sales Act 1984. Queensland reformed these provisions in November 2023 to strengthen buyer protections — the reforms apply to vacant land, not to community titles.
- Queensland, community titles (apartments, townhouses): up to 5.5 years if elected at contract time, or 3.5 years where the contract specifies no sunset date.
- Victoria: a purchaser may terminate if the plan of subdivision hasn't been registered within 18 months of the contract date.
- New South Wales: no legislatively prescribed sunset date — it's whatever the individual contract says.
Setting realistic dates with 25–50% buffers is the standard advice, and it exists because the alternative is a court application.
The cross-border trap
If you develop in more than one state, this one catches people. New South Wales and Victoria both run their 28-day rescission notice period back from the proposed rescission. Queensland runs its 28 days back from the sunset date. Miss that distinction and the notice is late before the date even arrives.
And rescission is not a formality. In the first case decided under the NSW regime, a developer who had offered purchasers a sunset extension conditional on a higher price, then served rescission notices on those who refused, was denied permission to rescind. A rescission notice is a statutory instrument, not a courtesy letter.
So the early start is the point
Run the sequence backwards from a 12–18 month sunset date on a townhouse project. Construction runs most of it. Plan registration and settlement take weeks more. That leaves a very thin window at the front for accumulating the presales your lender wants before the first drawdown — and every week you spend waiting on sales material is a week taken out of the only part of the programme that has slack.
The practical answer: the visuals should be commissioned while the DA is still with council, not after approval lands. Renders don't depend on approval — they depend on the design, which is already fixed by the time you lodge. Developers who wait for the stamped plans lose months for no reason, then compress their entire sales campaign into the gap.
The sequence that works:
- Design locked, DA lodged
- Renders and floor plans commissioned — runs parallel to assessment
- Approval issued, disclosure statement completed
- Sales material and listings live within days, not months
- Presales accumulate
- Finance drawdown, construction starts
Steps two and three happening in parallel rather than in series is usually worth a full quarter. On a project with an 18-month sunset date, a quarter is not a rounding error.
Before you rely on any of this
Sunset provisions, disclosure requirements and notice periods are state-specific and change. Get your contract and disclosure documents drafted and reviewed by a property lawyer in the relevant state before you market anything — this article describes the shape of the rules, not your obligations under them.