You've found a listing that's about to go to auction, and sitting alongside the photos and the floor plan is a separate document with a name like "Statement of Information." It has a price range on it, and underneath, a short list of other addresses with sale prices and dates next to them. It looks official because it is. This is one of the few moments in the buying process where an agent has to show you their working alongside the pitch.
What a statement of information is
A statement of information is a document some agents are legally required to prepare and attach to a listing, setting out an indicative selling price and the evidence used to arrive at it. It exists because a price guide on its own is only a number someone chose. The statement forces that number to come with a paper trail: recent, genuinely comparable sales the agent says they relied on when setting the guide. Instead of asking you to trust the figure, it shows you how the figure was built.
Where it applies, the document has to be prepared honestly and kept current. Where the guide and the comparable sales do not line up, that is the underquoting problem, a separate topic with its own rules and remedies. What matters here is simpler: read the document properly and it tells you something useful before you ever ask a question.
What it must contain
The core of a statement of information is two things sitting side by side: an indicative price or price range for the property, and a short set of comparable sales the agent has used to support that figure. The comparable sales aren't decorative. They're meant to be recent, in a similar location, and similar enough in type and condition that the comparison actually holds up. A well-built statement lets you look at the guide, look at the sales underneath it, and see the logic connecting the two.
Exactly what has to be included, how recent the comparable sales must be, and how the document has to be formatted and updated varies by jurisdiction. This is not a case of learning one standard form and applying it everywhere. Your state or territory's consumer affairs or fair trading body sets the detail, and that's the source to check if you want the precise requirements for where you're buying.
How to read the comparable sales
This is the part worth slowing down on, because it's where the real information sits. For each comparable sale, ask three things: how recent is it, how similar is the property, and how close is the location. A sale from well outside the immediate area, or of a property that's meaningfully bigger, smaller, or in different condition, tells you less than the agent's list might suggest. A tight cluster of recent, closely comparable sales is a strong signal that the guide is grounded in something real. A scattered list of older or loosely similar sales is a signal to ask more questions before you rely on it.
It also helps to do your own quick check on what's sold nearby recently, so you can see whether the agent's chosen comparables are representative, or whether they've been selected to support a particular number. Your state or territory consumer affairs or fair trading body is the place to start if you're not sure what's available to you as a buyer.
Where it applies and where it does not
This is the detail that trips people up: a statement of information is not a national requirement. Some states, including Victoria, require agents to prepare and provide one for residential properties advertised for sale. Other states and territories handle price transparency differently, with their own rules, or none, around what an agent must disclose about how a guide was reached. If you're buying interstate, or comparing a listing from one state against one from another, do not assume the same document exists or means the same thing in both places. Check with the consumer affairs or fair trading body in the state where the property is actually located.
Using it to sense-check a guide
Where a statement of information exists, treat it as a starting point for your own judgement, not a promise about where bidding will land. The final price comes down to the market and the negotiation or auction on the day, and it can land above or below the range shown. What the document gives you is the agent's stated reasoning, plus the raw material to check that reasoning yourself.
Before you get attached to a property, read the comparable sales the same way you'd read any evidence: recency, similarity, location. Cross-check a couple independently if you can. If you're buying somewhere that doesn't require this document, do the comparable-sales homework yourself, since no one is required to hand it to you.