The Real Estate Institute of Queensland Chief Executive Officer, Antonia Mercorella, spoke to more than 200 agents in Brisbane's west near Ipswich, as part of a state-wide roadshow to help real estate professionals get their head around the new Property Occupations Act.

She told the crowd one of the most controversial changes was the fact a ban on price guides for properties going to auction would now be strictly enforced on December 1.

"I'm the first to concede, the REIQ went too extreme on this," she said.

"The profession told us we were wrong, and we were."

Even Premier Campbell Newman and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie warned Ms Mercorella at a private meeting they were "worried about consumers".

They told her most buyers started searching for their dream home on the internet, which would be difficult without a price guide.

But despite admitting the changes were overkill, the REIQ is still going ahead with them.

The compromise between the State Government, acting to protect consumers, and the REIQ, acting to protect agents, was to allow a price guide or range "at the back end" when it came to listings on the internet.

This meant if a potential buyer put in a specific range when searching of say, $500,000 to $600,000, the property going to auction and likely to sell within that range would appear.

If the property lover tried to discuss this, Ms Mercorella advised agents to simply reply "this property has popped up in that price (range) but you shouldn't rely on that as a price guide."

So agents could list a property within a specific range, they just couldn't talk about it.

They also wouldn't be allowed to put an actual price tag on a home going to auction.

"I don't want to be seeing any dollars," Ms Mercorella warned.

The REIQ made another mistake in the early stages of writing the new act - realising an agent would be breaking the law if, at an auction, they declared the property had reached the reserve price and was now 'on the market'.

In fact, agents who disclosed a reserve price or gave a price guide faced penalties of up to $61,479.

"It's something we saw and said 'that's a problem'," she said.

Obviously on the day, auctioneers would now be able to disclose the reserve price, under auction conditions, but not beforehand.

"While auctioneers aren't allowed to reveal the reserve (prior to auction), they can disclose the existence of a reserve.

"You can say, 'yes there's a reserve price set, but I can't disclose it to you'."

Ms Mercorella has only just started working in the top job.

The former head of the REIQ, Anton Kardash, was dumped in June, after the institute suffered financial losses.

He had previously lobbied the government heavily for the new laws, along with Ms Mercorella.

She said the positive changes were "history in the making", helping to stamp out underquoting, which was rife in New South Wales.

"Anyone who is out there saying 'poor consumers, they can't get information', I'm sorry but I don't buy it."

Although price guides are already banned, agents still have the right to list a guide on the internet, as long as they didn't verbally discuss it with potential buyers.

But only for another week.

The new act will make the ban on price guides for properties going to auction water-tight.

Agents will still be allowed to list prices for properties selling through a normal sale.

However, there are no rules when it comes to properties selling by private treaty.

Ms Mercorella said agents would have to act on their client's advice as to whether or not they could give a price guide or range. Otherwise, interested buyers would submit an offer they were willing to pay.

Most agents attending the roadshow felt positive about the new laws.

Kalbar Real Estate agent Dick Forsyth said the changes had been sought by the real estate industry for nearly five years.

"The government was keen to protect the rights of consumers, I think they have struck a reasonable balance," he said.

"There's so much property information on the internet today, if a person wants to buy at auction, they should be able to research a price."

Professionals Ipswich and Springfields agent, Les Thornton, added that banning price guides for properties selling at auction would also make the sale process easier for agents.

"The problem is agents don't really know the price (of a property) until it's sold," he said.

"They have some idea but they're not always right. Agents can get around that by providing intending buyers with a market analysis of other sales (provided they've been given permission to do so from the seller.) It's no worse and probably even better than what we've got now."