AML/CTF for real estate agencies: both sides of every sale

The short version

If your agency brokers the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate for a client, it provides a designated service under Table 5 of section 6, and both the seller and the buyer are your customers, whichever side engaged you.¹

1. Confirm the service

   Brokering a sale, purchase or transfer, or selling your own stock without an independent agent. s 6

2. Enrol with AUSTRAC

   Within 28 days of your first designated service. The date for agencies already brokering before 1 July 2026 was 29 July 2026. s 51B

3. Have your program in place before you act

   A written ML/TF risk assessment and AML/CTF policies, approved by a senior manager. s 26B s 26P

4. Check both parties

   The client who engages you before you start; the other side within the settlement window. s 28 Rules 6-32

5. Report and keep records

   Suspicious matters, cash of A$10,000 or more, the annual compliance report, and 7-year records. s 41 s 43 s 47

What brings an agency in

Table 5 has two items.¹

• Seller's and buyer's agents both broker under item 1. A transfer counts even where nothing is paid.²
• What counts as real estate. The Act's definition includes a fee simple interest, a leasehold interest and a land use entitlement.³ In AUSTRAC's reading, only leases of more than 30 years count, so leases of 30 years or less, and the ordinary residential tenancies within that, are not real estate.²
• Property management. Managing a rent roll is not brokering a sale. Holding rent in trust raises a separate question under Table 6 item 3 (client money). The note to section 6(5C) gives property management services as an example of the "reasonably incidental" exclusion, which is open only to a business providing no other designated service, and AUSTRAC says the Rules also exclude an agency's management of rental income and expenses through its trust account.⁴ An agency that sells as well as manages is captured for its sales.
• Where you act. An item applies only to a service provided at or through a permanent establishment in Australia, or through a foreign permanent establishment of an Australian resident or a resident's subsidiary.⁵

AUSTRAC's Real estate designated services page covers each case. AUSTRAC links on this page open in a new window. AUSTRAC has not reviewed or endorsed this guide.

When the service starts

The start date matters because initial checks are due before the service begins. AUSTRAC's view:²

• Seller's agent: to the seller, when the agency agreement is signed; to the buyer, when it is reasonably expected that the transaction will proceed, typically when the offer is accepted and the contract is signed.
• Buyer's agent: to the buyer, when the agreement to find a property is signed; to the seller, when the transaction is reasonably expected to proceed.
• Auctions: the buyer may only be known after the fall of the hammer, and AUSTRAC says you can delay initial checks where completing them would disrupt the ordinary course of business.

Enrolment

1. 1 July 2026

   Program, customer due diligence, reporting and record-keeping obligations began for real estate services under Table 5.

   Sch 3 item 11
2. 29 July 2026

   Enrolment was due for an agency that was already brokering before 1 July 2026, and providing no other designated service.

   An agency that starts later has 28 days from its first designated service. The obligation to enrol continues until you apply, and each day late is a separate contravention.

   Sch 3 item 12 s 51B
3. 28 August 2026

   AUSTRAC said it had begun issuing section 167 notices to businesses, including real estate agents, that appear to provide designated services but have not enrolled.

   s 167 AUSTRAC media release

The application asks about each designated service and its start date, your business and its beneficial owners, staff numbers and approximate turnover, and ends with a declaration that the information is true and correct.⁶ Tell AUSTRAC of any change within 14 days.⁷ See our enrolment guide.

Your AML/CTF program

Your AML/CTF program is your ML/TF risk assessment plus your AML/CTF policies.⁸

• Risk assessment. Assess the risks you may reasonably face, having regard to your services, your customers, how you deliver the services, and the countries you deal with. s 26C Review it after a significant change, and at least once every 3 years. s 26D No designated service without an up-to-date one. s 26E
• Policies. Procedures, systems and controls that manage those risks and make sure you meet the Act and Rules, reviewed at least once every 3 years, and followed. s 26F s 26G Because the settlement window applies to you, your policies must also say how you will verify before settlement if an arrangement fails (see below). Rules 5-20
• Before the first service. Document both, and document each update within 14 days. A senior manager approves both, and every update. s 26N Rules 5-15 s 26P
• Oversight and a compliance officer. The governing body oversees the program. Designate a compliance officer at management level, resident in Australia and fit and proper, within 28 days of your first designated service, and notify AUSTRAC within 14 days. s 26H s 26J s 26K s 26M

Our program guide sets out what each document must contain.

Checking both parties

Before you start the service to a customer, you must have established on reasonable grounds who they are, who is behind them, whether any of them is a politically exposed person or designated for targeted financial sanctions, and the nature and purpose of the dealing. You collect KYC information and verify it "using reliable and independent data", as the customer's risk requires.⁹

The second party: delayed checks. Once you have started acting for the seller, you may start the service to the buyer before checks are finished, and the other way round, if the delay is essential to avoid interrupting the ordinary course of business, the extra risk is low, and your policies deal with it.¹⁰

The conveyancer arrangement. Where brokering is the only designated service you provide to the customer, you are taken to have established some of the section 28 matters (the people the customer acts for, beneficial owners, politically exposed person and sanctions status, and Rules matters) if you have taken reasonable steps on an individual's identity, rated the customer's risk and collected KYC information, and you take part in an arrangement under which another participating reporting entity will collect and verify the KYC information within 28 days after exchange, lets you have it and the verification data at least 3 days before the initially agreed settlement day, and documents each participant's responsibilities, including for records.¹¹ Your policies must say how you will verify before settlement if the information does not come.¹²

A party who will not cooperate. If you have taken all reasonable steps with the other side of a sale you are brokering but could not complete the checks because that person would not cooperate, you are taken to have met the requirement if you record the steps and difficulties, and record your consideration of whether a suspicious matter report is required. The refusal must be taken into account in that decision.¹³

The rest of the checks. Enhanced checks are mandatory where the risk is high, for a foreign politically exposed person, and for the other triggers in section 32. s 32 Keep monitoring for unusual transactions and behaviour. s 30 A client whose relationship with you involved only Table 5 services at the start of 1 July 2026 is a pre-commencement customer: initial checks apply only once a suspicious matter reporting obligation arises, or a significant change in the nature and purpose of the relationship makes their risk medium or high. s 36 Our customer due diligence guide covers each step.

Reports to AUSTRAC

• Suspicious matter report (SMR). Within 3 business days of forming a suspicion; within 24 hours for terrorism financing; within 5 business days where some, but not all, of the information may be privileged and the privilege belongs to someone else. s 41 Content: Rules 9-1 to 9-4. See our SMR guide.
• Threshold transaction report (TTR). Within 10 business days of a transaction involving A$10,000 or more in physical currency, such as a cash deposit. Electronic transfers are not physical currency. s 43 s 5
• Annual compliance report. First reporting period 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, lodged in AUSTRAC's approved online form between 1 July and 30 September 2027. s 47 Rules 9-9

Records

Keep transaction records for 7 years from when they are made, documents a customer gives you about a transaction for 7 years, customer-check records for 7 years from the end of the relationship or the one-off transaction, and program records for 7 years after they stop being relevant, all in English or readily convertible to it. s 107 s 108 s 111 s 116 See our record-keeping guide.

Penalties

The penalty unit has been A$364 since 1 July 2026.¹⁴ The maximum civil penalty a court can order is 100,000 penalty units (A$36.4 million) for a body corporate and 20,000 penalty units (A$7.28 million) for anyone else.¹⁵ Failing to enrol can attract an infringement notice of 60 penalty units (A$21,840) for a body corporate or 12 (A$4,368) for anyone else, unless the Rules set a different number for that kind of contravention, up to 120 and 24 units.¹⁶ AUSTRAC says it will "take a pragmatic and proportionate approach as businesses transition", while expecting businesses to "work towards full compliance".¹⁷

Where to check each obligation

Where we fit

AUSTRAC's real estate program starter kit is free. AUSTRAC designed it for agencies of 15 or fewer personnel that only broker, do not broker overseas property, only handle customer funds directly related to real estate transactions and do not sell property they own; outside that profile, AUSTRAC says you cannot rely on it to meet its expectations.¹⁸

Our kit (A$497, one-off) builds on it. The real estate agency edition adds a procedure for the delayed-checks window and settlement verification, with fields for the exchange date, the initially agreed settlement day and the resulting deadline, and a conveyancer-arrangement form. Our set-up service (from A$990) tailors it to your agency. We do not act as your compliance officer, lodge reports for you or carry out your independent evaluation.

• Your sector page: real estate agencies. Working with conveyancers? See the conveyancer guide.
• More guides: the guides page, and every source on our sources page.

Independent. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, AUSTRAC or the Australian Government.