Off the Plan in Queensland: The Sunset Clause Gap That Apartment Buyers Need to Know About

Buying off the plan — committing to purchase a property before it is built, on the basis of a developer's plans and a deposit — is one of the more common ways buyers in Queensland access new apartment stock. It is also one of the more legally exposed positions a property buyer can occupy in 2025-26, for a reason that most buyers do not know about: Queensland's sunset clause reforms, introduced in November 2023, do not apply to apartment purchases.

The gap is not a technicality. It means that buyers signing contracts for off-the-plan units in Cairns, on the Gold Coast, or anywhere else in Queensland right now have substantially fewer legal protections than buyers purchasing off-the-plan land in the same market. And in a rising market — where the gap between a 2021 contract price and a 2025 completion-day value can be measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars — this asymmetry carries real financial consequences.

What a Sunset Clause Does and Why It Matters

A sunset clause is a standard feature of off-the-plan contracts. It sets a deadline by which a development must be completed. If the deadline is not met and neither party agrees to an extension, the contract can be terminated. The original purpose was protective: if a developer ran out of money, went insolvent, or could not build what they promised within a reasonable timeframe, the buyer could exit and recover their deposit.

In a rising property market, the dynamic inverts. A developer who signed contracts in 2021 at prices reflecting 2021 valuations may find, in 2025, that the completed dwellings are worth significantly more than the contracted price. The sunset clause becomes a mechanism to terminate the 2021 contracts — returning deposits with no compensation — and re-sell at current market rates. The buyer loses the property. The developer captures the appreciation.

SBS News and Nine Entertainment outlets reported in detail on several Queensland cases through 2024 and 2025. The Dune development on the Gold Coast saw a buyer's $5.5 million contract cancelled via sunset clause; the property was subsequently listed at $8.5 million. The Kokomo development at Carrara saw buyers who signed contracts in 2021 and 2022 facing demands for up to one million dollars in additional payment or facing the possibility of contract termination as sunset deadlines approached. The Midwater Tower project at Main Beach — a $100 million development — stalled with minimal construction progress; buyers who had paid deposits on contracts worth over one million dollars were watching a development whose properties were now worth substantially more, and wondering whether completion would ever arrive.

The Reform Gap That Leaves Apartment Buyers Exposed

In November 2023, the Queensland government amended the Land Sales Act to restrict how developers can use sunset clauses on land contracts. Under the reforms, a developer who wants to terminate a land contract using a sunset clause must obtain either the written consent of the buyer or a Supreme Court order certifying that the termination is "just and equitable." Unilateral developer termination of land contracts is no longer legally available in the same way it was.

These reforms explicitly do not apply to apartments or community title schemes — units, townhouses, or any property registered under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act. Apartment buyers remain in the pre-reform position. A developer who can demonstrate that a sunset date has been reached may, under current Queensland law, terminate an apartment contract without buyer consent and without a court order.

The Queensland government has acknowledged this gap. Reviews to extend the protections to apartment purchases were described by officials as "one to two years away" as of 2025. Buyers signing apartment contracts in 2025 and 2026 will likely do so before any equivalent protections are in force.

What Buyers Can Do

The protections that exist for land buyers are largely absent for apartment buyers, but this does not mean buyers are entirely without recourse or negotiating leverage before they sign.

The sunset clause itself — its duration, its terms, and the conditions under which either party can invoke it — is a negotiable element of the contract. A buyer represented by a lawyer before signing can request a shorter sunset period, an explicit provision limiting the developer's ability to invoke the clause without buyer consent, or a liquidated damages clause that applies if the developer causes the delay that triggers the sunset. Not all developers will agree. But a developer refusing to negotiate any limiting terms on a sunset clause — in a market where apartments are selling quickly and the developer needs buyers — may be signalling something about their intentions or their construction confidence.

Construction milestones embedded in the contract provide another layer of protection. A sunset clause tied to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy, accompanied by contractual milestones that require the developer to reach defined construction stages by specified dates, creates accountability that a purely date-based clause does not. If a developer is not meeting their construction milestones, a buyer's lawyer may be able to argue that the developer's own conduct is the cause of any delay — which can complicate a developer's ability to rely on the sunset clause in good faith.

Progress inspection rights — the right for a buyer or their nominee to physically inspect the construction site at defined intervals — are not universally offered but can be negotiated. A buyer who has no visibility into construction progress has no early warning that a project may be drifting toward a sunset date.

The Market Context in Far North Queensland

In Cairns, the supply of new apartment stock relative to demand is tight. Vacancy across the residential market sits below one percent. Developers who bring new stock to market in this environment are operating in conditions where pre-sales are achievable and buyers are motivated. The conditions that create sunset clause risk — rising values between contract signing and completion — are present in the Cairns market in 2025-26.

The Match Before Market platform, which provides pre-market and pre-development access to buyers registered for specific property criteria, offers one structural approach to reducing sunset clause exposure: by matching buyers to development opportunities at an earlier stage, and through a process that tends to involve more direct developer engagement than a standard off-the-plan sales campaign, buyers are in a stronger position to negotiate contract terms before the standard form is presented.

For any off-the-plan purchase, the same principle applies: independent legal advice before signing is not optional. The contract a developer presents is written by the developer's lawyers to favour the developer. A buyer's lawyer reviewing the same document before execution is the most reliable way to identify and negotiate the provisions — including sunset clause terms — that create the greatest exposure.

What to Check Before You Sign

For any off-the-plan apartment purchase in Queensland in 2025-26:

Identify the sunset date and calculate the margin. How long between now and the sunset deadline? How long is the construction period realistically expected to take? Is there a buffer, and who controls it?

Ask what happens if the developer invokes the sunset clause. In the current legal framework, the developer is not required to have buyer consent for apartment contracts. Understand this before signing, not after.

Ask whether construction milestones are included in the contract, and what the consequences are if they are not met. A contract with no milestone obligations gives a developer unlimited time to build — limited only by the sunset date.

Confirm the developer's track record. Developers who have completed projects of comparable scale, on time, in the current construction environment, are meaningfully different from those who have not. Pre-sales campaigns for projects that have not yet received development approval are a category requiring particularly careful scrutiny.

Get independent legal advice. The OFT's guidance on off-the-plan purchases is publicly available and is worth reading. Your lawyer's advice on the specific contract is worth more.

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Sources: Queensland Government — Land Sales Act 1984 (as amended November 2023); SBS News — Off-the-Plan Sunset Clause Reporting 2024-25; Nine Entertainment — Kokomo and Midwater Tower Case Reporting 2024; Queensland Office of Fair Trading — Off-the-Plan Purchase Guidance; Body Corporate and Community Management Act 1997 (QLD); REIQ — Off-the-Plan Contract Advice Framework.