The agent rings on a Tuesday night. Your offer on the three-bedroom place in Killarney Vale has been accepted. You book the building and pest inspection, send the contract to your conveyancer and tell your parents. On Friday the agent rings again. Another buyer came through on Thursday, offered more, and the seller has signed with them. That is gazumping, and in NSW it is perfectly legal.
We hear some version of this story from Central Coast buyers every year. It stings because it feels like a broken promise. The good news is that gazumping only works inside a specific window, and once you understand where that window sits you can make it very small.
An accepted offer is not a sale in NSW
In NSW, nothing is legally binding until contracts are exchanged. Exchange means you and the seller each sign an identical copy of the contract, the copies are swapped (usually by the two conveyancers), and you pay your deposit. Before that moment, a verbal “yes” from the agent, a handshake at the open home or an email confirming the price is just an agreement in principle. Either side can walk away.
The agent also has a duty to the seller, not to you. They are required to pass on every offer they receive until exchange, unless the seller has told them in writing not to. So when a second buyer turns up with a better number, the agent is not being sneaky by mentioning it. They would be in trouble if they didn’t.
This is where buyers get caught. The days between “offer accepted” and “contracts exchanged” feel like a formality. They are actually the most exposed part of the whole purchase.
Why it happens more on the Central Coast than people expect
Most homes here sell by private treaty rather than at auction, and private treaty is where gazumping lives. An auction ends with the hammer and an exchanged contract on the day, so nobody can come in over the top afterwards. A private sale has no fixed finish line, which means the property is still effectively on the market until exchange. If you are weighing up the two methods, our guide to buying by private treaty versus auction on the Coast covers the trade-offs in more detail.
The buyer mix matters too. A lot of the interest in places like Terrigal, Umina Beach and Avoca Beach comes from Sydney buyers who only get up the M1 on weekends. A local buyer can have an offer accepted midweek, and then a Sydney family inspects on Saturday and offers more. Nobody has done anything wrong. The seller simply has a better option before they are locked in.
Hot pockets with little stock are the worst for it. When several buyers have missed out on similar homes in the same street, every new listing draws a crowd, and the first accepted offer is rarely the last word.
What you lose if it happens to you
Money first. If you are gazumped, the seller and the agent owe you nothing for the costs you have already paid: building and pest reports, strata reports, conveyancing work, valuation or loan application fees. Those are gone.
A holding deposit is different. Some agents ask for a small deposit to show you are serious before exchange. In NSW that money is refundable, so if the property goes to someone else you are entitled to have it returned in full. Ask for it in writing and keep the receipt.
The bigger loss is usually time. Your pre-approval may be ticking down, you may have given notice on a rental, and you are back to scrolling listings with less energy than you had a week ago. That’s the part that hurts most people.
How to shrink the gap between yes and exchange
You can’t make gazumping illegal, but you can make it very hard to pull off. The whole game is speed and readiness. The fewer days between acceptance and exchange, the fewer chances another buyer has to come through the door.
Be ready before you offer
Have your finance pre-approved and your conveyancer engaged before you make an offer, not after. Ask the agent for the contract early, ideally on the day you first inspect, so your conveyancer can review it while you are still thinking. If the property is a unit, get the strata report ordered straight away.
Book inspections for the next day, not next week
Inspectors on the Coast get busy, especially in spring. Line yours up before you offer so you can book the moment the seller says yes. A report that takes a week to arrive is a week of exposure.
Ask for exclusivity
Some sellers will agree to take the property off the market for a short set period while you complete your checks. It isn’t automatic and it isn’t always offered, but it is worth asking, particularly if your offer is clean and you can show you are ready to move.
Consider exchanging with a 66W certificate
A section 66W certificate is signed by your solicitor or conveyancer and waives your cooling-off period, so you can exchange on the spot with no right to back out. It closes the gazumping window completely. The trade-off is serious: once you sign, you are committed. Only do this after your inspections are done, your finance is unconditional and your conveyancer has been through the contract. We explain how the cooling-off period and the 66W fit together in our Central Coast cooling-off period guide.
Make your offer the easy one to accept
Price matters, but sellers also weigh certainty. A buyer who can exchange in days with clear finance often beats a slightly higher offer that comes with a long list of conditions. A good relationship with the listing agent helps here as well. Agents talk, and they tend to keep the buyer they trust to complete informed when other interest appears.
Where a buyers agent changes the odds
Most of what stops gazumping is preparation and timing, and that’s the work we do every day. When we act for a buyer, finance, conveyancing and inspections are lined up before any offer goes in, and we push for exchange as fast as the checks allow. We also know many of the selling agents across the Coast, which means we usually hear early if there is other interest on a property and can respond before it becomes a problem.
We are flat fee buyers agents, so our job is to get you the right home on sensible terms, not to rush you into a contract. Our property negotiation service covers the offer, the terms and the run to exchange, which is exactly where gazumping happens.
If you have been gazumped once and don’t want it to happen again, or you are about to make an offer and want to lock it down properly, give us a call. We’ll talk through the property, how competitive it is, and what it will take to get you to exchange first.
Common questions about gazumping in NSW
Is gazumping illegal in NSW?
No. Gazumping is legal in NSW because a property sale is not binding until contracts are exchanged. Until then, the seller can accept a better offer from someone else, and the agent must pass every offer on unless the seller instructs otherwise in writing.
What does it mean to be gazumped?
It means a seller accepted your offer, then sold the property to another buyer who offered more or better terms before you exchanged contracts. You haven’t done anything wrong. You were simply not yet legally locked in.
Can I get my money back if I am gazumped?
A holding deposit paid before exchange is refundable in NSW, so ask the agent to return it in full. Costs you paid to third parties, like inspection reports or conveyancing fees, are generally not recoverable from the seller or agent.
Can you be gazumped at an auction?
No. When the hammer falls at a NSW auction, the winning bidder signs and exchanges on the spot, so the sale is binding immediately. There is no window for another buyer to come in afterwards.
What is gazundering?
Gazundering is the reverse: the buyer drops their offer just before exchange, betting the seller won’t want to start again. It is also legal before exchange, and it is one reason sellers sometimes favour buyers who can exchange quickly.
Can a seller change their mind after exchange?
Not without consequences. Once contracts are exchanged, the seller is bound to sell to you on the agreed terms. A buyer in NSW usually still has a cooling-off period after a private treaty exchange unless they waived it with a 66W certificate, but the seller has no equivalent right to back out.
