Marketing and Advertising Costs When Selling a House (2026)

Marketing your property is a cost that comes on top of the agent's commission. Understanding what each component is, what it buys you and where you can trim without consequence will put you in a stronger negotiating position before you sign an authority.

Why Vendors Pay for Marketing Separately

In Australian real estate, vendor-paid advertising (VPA) is standard practice. The agent's commission pays for the agent's time and expertise. The marketing budget pays for the actual advertising and promotion materials. These are separate costs, and agents generally present them as separate line items on an authority form.

Some agents include a basic marketing package in their service. Most price marketing as an add-on, quoted upfront and payable either before the campaign launches or at settlement. A few will defer the cost to settlement (worth asking about if cash flow is a consideration).

Understanding the distinction matters because it affects how you compare agents. A low commission with a high marketing quote can end up costing more overall than a full-service offer with both bundled. Use AgentBridge's cost-of-selling calculator and fee comparison calculator to model the total.

The Rule of Thumb

According to guides published by OpenAgent and Titlespace, a working rule of thumb is 0.5% to 1% of the expected sale price. Applied to a $700,000 property, that puts the marketing budget in the $3,500 to $7,000 range. On a $1.5M property, you might expect $7,500 to $15,000.

In practice, metro campaigns typically land between $3,000 and $8,000 all-in (OpenAgent, Titlespace). Regional properties tend to sit at the lower end of the percentage range, though no separate published dollar benchmarks exist for regional. Apply the 0.5% rule to the lower local price point as your guide.

The total can also blow out fast if you add home staging. More on that below.

For a full picture of what marketing sits inside your total cost to sell, read our guide to how much it costs to sell a house in Australia.

Component-by-Component Breakdown

The table below lists the key components of a typical residential marketing campaign, with indicative cost ranges sourced from OpenAgent and Titlespace (2026).

Component	Typical Range	Notes
Portal listing (realestate.com.au / Domain)	$600 to $2,800	realestate.com.au "Until Sold" listed at $699; Sydney premium tiers up to ~$2,000 for 45 days; Titlespace quotes $370 to $2,800 per platform
Professional photography	$300 to $1,500	Drone/video at the upper end
Floorplan	~$370	OpenAgent single-figure estimate
Copywriting	~$180	OpenAgent single-figure estimate
Signboard	$70 to $350	Varies by size and supplier
Brochures	~$200	OpenAgent single-figure estimate
Social media or print campaign	Varies	Bundled into upper-end packages; not always itemised

That totals roughly $1,720 to $5,400 for the listed items at mid-range, before any upgrades. National all-in campaign costs run $500 to $10,000 (OpenAgent, Titlespace), with metro campaigns typically $3,000 to $8,000.

Portal Listings: Standard vs Premium

Not all portal listings are equal. On realestate.com.au, a standard listing gets your property shown in search results. A Premiere or Highlight listing pushes it higher in the results for a period of time and gives it greater visual prominence.

When you review an agent's marketing schedule, ask two specific questions:

• What tier of listing is included? Is it a standard listing, a Highlight or a Premiere, and for how many days?
• What happens if the property doesn't sell within the initial campaign window? Does the listing roll to a lower tier, does the vendor pay to renew the premium, or does the agent absorb the extension?

The difference between a standard and premium listing is sometimes $500 to $1,000 or more, depending on the suburb and the platform. That gap can make a meaningful difference in how many buyers your property reaches organically.

Home Staging

Staging is the most variable cost in a marketing campaign and often the most misunderstood. It is not strictly an advertising cost. It is a presentation cost that affects how the property photographs and how it presents at inspections.

According to figures from OpenAgent and Titlespace, staging costs in 2026 run broadly as follows:

Property Size	Indicative Staging Range
1-bedroom	$2,000 to $3,500
3-bedroom	$3,500 to $6,000
4+ bedroom	$5,000 to $8,000+
Partial / basic package	From about $1,000

Whether staging earns its keep depends heavily on the property's existing presentation. An empty property or one with outdated furnishings is a stronger staging candidate than a property already well-presented by the owners. The decision is worth discussing with your agent before committing.

Auctioneer Fee

If you're selling by auction, factor in the auctioneer fee. This runs $400 to $1,000 (Canstar, OpenAgent), though some states have seen fees as low as $200 and some listing agents who hold an auctioneer's licence will include the service at no additional charge. Confirm whether the auctioneer fee is bundled or extra before you sign.

If you're weighing up sale method, our guide to auction vs private treaty covers the trade-offs in detail.

Metro vs Regional: A Practical Reality

Metro vendors face higher portal listing costs because platform pricing in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane tiers upward based on suburb price brackets. A premium listing in an upper-quartile suburb can cost twice what the same tier costs in a regional market.

Regional vendors generally pay lower absolute marketing costs. However, the pool of active buyers searching regional markets on the portals is smaller, which raises a legitimate question about whether heavy portal spend is the best use of a limited marketing budget. No published benchmark dollar ranges exist for regional marketing campaigns. Apply the 0.5% to 1% rule to the lower end of local comparable prices and treat it as a guide, not a guarantee.

See also: selling residential property in a regional market.

Reading an Agent's Marketing Schedule

An agent's authority will typically include a marketing schedule listing each component and its cost. Before you sign, work through the following questions:

• What portal tier is included, and for how many days? Premiere listings lapse; know what you're getting and for how long.
• What carries over if the campaign needs to extend? A failed first campaign often needs renewed portal exposure, which can cost again.
• What is included vs optional? Some agents list video and drone photography as standard. Others charge extra. Brochures and floorplans are sometimes bundled; sometimes priced separately.
• Is staging quoted separately, or is the agent recommending a specific staging provider? Agents sometimes receive referral arrangements from staging companies. Worth asking about.
• Is marketing payable upfront or at settlement? Settlement terms reduce out-of-pocket cash before sale but increase the total outlay in some situations.

Where Marketing Money Earns Its Keep (and Where It Doesn't)

Professional photography on a well-presented property is one of the most consistent performers in a marketing budget. Buyers search online before they inspect. Poor photography can filter your property out before a buyer ever reads the price.

Portal listing tier matters more in high-competition periods when a lot of similar stock is on the market at the same time. When stock is tight, a standard listing may perform almost as well as a Premiere listing simply because there is less competition in the search results.

Heavy print advertising (newspaper supplements) has declined significantly as a primary search channel. Most buyers start online. Print remains useful for certain high-end or niche properties in specific markets, but is rarely an efficient use of general budget in 2026.

Staging adds value when it solves a problem (empty property, dated interiors, awkward room layout). It is a less efficient spend when the property is already well-presented and the primary challenge is price or buyer pool rather than presentation.

Where AgentBridge Fits

AgentBridge operates differently from a traditional single-agent listing. Rather than distributing your property through portal advertising weight, AgentBridge distributes your brief simultaneously to a national network of 80+ buyers agents. These buyers agents are actively searching on behalf of qualified, pre-approved buyers with specific briefs.

The property brief does the heavy lifting. Buyers agents are professional intermediaries with motivated clients; they don't need a portal advertising campaign to prompt interest. This is a structural difference in how buyers are reached, not a claim about outcomes.

AgentBridge's distribution fee is transparent and typically 30 to 40% below a traditional agent commission. To understand how the total cost compares for your property, visit /tools/cost-of-selling-calculator or /tools/fee-comparison-calculator. For more on the model, read how property distribution works for sellers and developers or contact the team at /contact.

You may also find it useful to read our companion piece on conveyancing fees for sellers and agent commissions and fees in Australia for a complete picture of what it costs to sell.

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General information only, not financial, legal or taxation advice. Confirm current figures with the relevant provider and get your own professional advice before acting.