What Happens To Contracts Over The Christmas Break 2025-2026?

If you’ve gone under contract to buy or sell residential property in the weeks prior to Christmas, you’re probably wondering what happens to your contract while everything shuts down over the holiday period!

Queensland

The standard REIQ contract defines a ‘business day’ as any day excluding weekends, public holidays, or the 27th to the 31th of December.

Critical milestone dates such as due dates for finance, building and pest conditions, or settlement, that would otherwise fall on one of these non-business days will automatically be postponed until the next business day.

That means that contract conditions due between Christmas Day and the 1st of January will move to the 2nd of January automatically. As this is not a statutory requirement, but rather, a standard condition in the contract, it may be varied by special condition.

The Cooling Off Period and the Christmas Break in Queensland?

Standard contracts for the sale of residential property in Queensland usually include a cooling off period of five business days, unless the property has sold at auction, the cooling off period has been waived, or another exception applies.

The definition of a ‘non-business day’ as it pertains to the Christmas break does not apply to the cooling off period. Over the Christmas break, the cooling off period will continue to run on any days that are not weekends or public holidays.

This means that even though due dates in the contract are paused from Christmas Day to the 1st of January, the cooling off period will continue to run during the period 29th – 31st December.

Victoria

In Victoria, a Business Day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday. This means that for the 2025/2026 holiday period, the days not counted as business days are;

• Thursday 25 December 2025 (Christmas Day)

• Friday 26 December 2025 (Boxing Day)

• Saturday 27 December 2025

• Sunday 28 December 2025

• Thursday 1 January 2026 (New Year’s Day)

As many banks, conveyancers and law firms operate with reduced staff or are closed over the Christmas/New Year period, it’s vital to carefully consider any contractual dates that fall around this time. Before signing a contract, check that you’ll still be able to meet your obligations if key deadlines land during this closure period.

Northern Territory

In the Northern Territory, the Christmas holiday period runs from 25 Dec 2024 to 5 Jan 2025. Contract Condition and Settlement due dates do not automatically extend through the Christmas holiday period. Typically, it is a matter of mutual agreement between parties to recognise such extensions, and confirmation of this understanding should be sought by your conveyancing solicitor.

Absent this confirmation, if a due date falls in the Christmas holiday period, the conditions will still be due, so you need to ensure that appropriate extensions are sought to avoid unintentionally breaching the contract.

It is also common for specific clauses addressing the Christmas period to be included in the contract to ensure that due dates are extended automatically.

More Questions?

If you have entered into a contract that runs over the Christmas period and you would like to know more about how these rules apply to you, give our experienced conveyancing lawyers a call today – we are more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

The above is not legal advice and is general information only.