← Back Sellers · 6 min read

Using Comparable Sales to Counter a Lowball Offer in Brisbane

A low offer is a claim about value. Comparable sales are the most credible way to answer it. Here is how to build that case and use it well in a negotiation.

When a buyer submits an offer that is materially below your asking price, the instinct is to take it personally. The property you have lived in, maintained, and prepared for sale is being valued at less than you believe it is worth. That reaction is understandable but it is rarely useful as a negotiation stance. What is useful is evidence: specifically, what comparable properties have sold for in your suburb in the past three to six months.

Comparable sales, or comps, are the same data that buyers, agents, and valuers use to assess property value. They are not an agent's opinion or a vendor's wishful thinking. They are factual transaction records. When your comps are strong and your property compares well to them, that is the most effective way to push back on a low offer without it becoming a personal dispute.

What comparable sales actually tell you

A comparable sale tells you what a willing buyer paid a willing seller for a property similar to yours, under similar market conditions, in the recent past. That is a specific and limited piece of information. It does not tell you what your property will sell for. It tells you what the market has actually demonstrated it will pay for properties of that type, in that location, at that time.

When you are assessing comps in Brisbane's inner east, the relevant attributes are land size, dwelling type, bedroom and bathroom count, position within the suburb, school catchment, and presentation. A renovated highset on 607 square metres in Bulimba is not the same comparable as an original condition lowset on 450 square metres one street back. The tighter the match across these factors, the more weight a comp carries in a negotiation.

Recency also matters. Sales from the past three months are the most relevant because they reflect current financing conditions and buyer sentiment. Sales from three to six months ago are still useful but may require context if the market has moved meaningfully. In Brisbane's inner east, where price movements over a two-quarter window can be significant, your agent should be able to speak to any shift between the comp date and today.

How to build a comps case before negotiation

Your agent should be doing this before your campaign launches, not in response to a low offer. A properly prepared vendor brief includes three to five comparable sales that benchmark your property's expected range, with notes on how your property differs from each one and why. When a low offer arrives, you are then responding with a prepared position rather than scrambling to justify a price you have not thought through rigorously.

If your agent has not done this preparation, ask for it before your first open home. You want to understand: which recent sales most closely resemble your property, what did they achieve, and in what ways does your property compare favourably or unfavourably? That analysis gives you a factual basis for your asking price and a structured way to discuss value with buyers who push back.

When a low offer is received, the response is not to reassert your price without explanation. The response is to walk through the comparable sales evidence specifically. Something like: "Our asking price reflects the three sales below. These are the properties most similar to ours in the past four months. Your offer is materially below what the market has demonstrated for this type of property in this suburb." That is a different conversation to "we think it is worth more."

When the buyer has their own comps

A sophisticated buyer submitting a low offer will often have their own comparable sales to support their position. The right response is to ask to see them. Buyers using comps to justify a low price will sometimes cite older sales, distressed sales, properties with significantly inferior attributes, or sales from adjacent suburbs that are not genuine comparables for yours.

Once their references are on the table, you can engage with them specifically. If a buyer references a sale from nine months ago, you can note that market conditions have changed over that period and present more recent evidence. If they cite a property on a much smaller block, you can explain how land size affects value in that particular street or suburb. This shifts the conversation from a positional dispute about who wants what price to a technical discussion about which evidence is more relevant, and that is a conversation you are more likely to win if your preparation is sound.

Occasionally, a buyer's comps will be strong and yours will be weak. That is important information. If the comparable sales evidence genuinely does not support your asking price, no amount of negotiation skill will overcome that fundamental problem. The right response in that case is to reassess your pricing, not to keep pushing back on buyers who are reading the market correctly.

What your property's condition does to the comparison

Comparable sales are a starting point, not a fixed answer. Two properties with identical land size, bedroom count, and street address can justify meaningfully different prices based on presentation and condition. In Brisbane's inner east, the difference between a well-renovated Queenslander and an original condition property on the same land size can be substantial, sometimes exceeding $200,000 at the same price point.

When you use comps in a negotiation, you need to be able to articulate specifically why your property justifies a price at the upper end of the comparable range, or why a comp at a lower price is not the right reference. That explanation needs to be about specific, observable features: the kitchen renovation completed two years ago, the new bathrooms, the extra off-street parking, the extended living space. Vague claims about presentation or lifestyle do not hold up under scrutiny. Specific capital improvements with approximate costs and dates carry significantly more weight.

The limits of comparable sales in negotiation

Comparable sales evidence works when your asking price is defensible. If your property is priced materially above what the comps support, presenting those same comps as evidence will not help your case because a thorough buyer will identify the gap themselves. The precondition for an effective comps-based counter is that your pricing is grounded in the evidence to begin with.

It is also worth noting that a low offer is not always a negotiating tactic. Sometimes it reflects a genuine buyer who has assessed the property differently to you. The comps conversation helps establish whether the gap between your position and theirs is a negotiating posture or a genuine difference in assessment. If it is the latter, there may not be a deal at your target price with that buyer, and knowing that sooner rather than later is valuable.