Builder marketing rules in Victoria: ACL, DBCA and Consumer Affairs

Key takeaways

• Victorian residential builders sit under the Australian Consumer Law plus the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic), and Consumer Affairs Victoria co-regulates marketing with the Building and Plumbing Commission from 1 July 2025.
• Registration number and class must appear on any advertising for domestic building work, under the Building Act 1993 (Vic).
• Estimated prices in advertising are governed by section 31 of the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) plus the general ACL rules on price statements.
• Display homes carry additional Consumer Affairs Victoria disclosure rules on standard-inclusion boundaries and buyer walk-away rights.
• Fake and undisclosed incentivised reviews breach ACL sections 18 and 29 and now attract civil penalties under the 2024 Unfair Trading amendments.

The three regimes that apply

Victorian builder marketing is layered. The Australian Consumer Law covers all trade conduct nationally. The Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995 (Vic) adds price-estimate rules on top for domestic work. The Building Act 1993 (Vic) sits behind licence-display obligations.

Consumer Affairs Victoria administers the DBCA in the marketing and pre-contract space. The Building and Plumbing Commission, which replaced the VBA on 1 July 2025, runs registration compliance and can act on advertising that misrepresents registration status.

Estimated-price rules under the DBCA

Section 31 of the DBCA requires that any price quoted in advertising for a major domestic building contract be a genuine estimate based on all known factors. If a builder advertises a fixed starting price, that price must be honoured on the terms stated or the builder must show a clear basis for variation.

Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement has focused on display-home tender pricing where the advertised base price excludes site costs and standard inclusions that most buyers assume are covered. The Consumer Affairs guidance is that exclusions material to the price impression must be visible at the same prominence as the headline number.

Registration display

A registered building practitioner must include their registration number in advertising under the Building Act 1993 (Vic). The Building and Plumbing Commission publishes a public register buyers can check. A domestic builder registered as DB-L cannot advertise DB-U-scope work.

Display homes and buyer walk-away rights

Display-home advertising is treated as an offer to enter contract negotiations, not as a contract itself. A buyer who signs at a display home has the same 5 business day cooling-off right under section 34 of the DBCA as any other major domestic building contract signer, subject to the same exceptions. Advertising that suggests the display price is fixed at signing without noting cooling-off risks a misleading conduct finding.

What Victorian builders should audit today

• Registration number visible on every advertising channel.
• Estimated prices supported by a documented basis of estimate.
• Display-home headline pricing shows exclusions at equal prominence.
• Every review is a real customer; every incentivised review is disclosed.
• Cooling-off wording appears on any point-of-sale material at display homes.