Real Estate

What this means for your firm

From 1 July 2026, a real estate agency carries AML/CTF obligations for the work it does brokering property transactions. If you act for a seller or a buyer in the sale, purchase, or transfer of real estate, that is a designated service, and the obligations attach to that engagement.

In practice, you will be identifying and verifying people you have dealt with for years, at the point you take the work on rather than after it completes. That is a change in process, not a change in who your clients are.

For the general test, see Obligations overview.

Which services are designated services

Tick the services your firm provides to see which ones are designated services. The detail for each item follows below.

Step 1 of 2

Which of these services do you provide?

Tick everything your business does, including work you think is out of scope.

Property

Act for a buyer or seller in a property sale as their agentSell property your business owns without an agent, for example as a developerProperty management, such as collecting rent and paying expenses for landlordsFind tenants and arrange leases for landlordsGive market appraisals without taking on the sale

Companies, trusts and structures

Help a client buy, sell or transfer a company or trust, including its shares or units

Client money

Hold client money in your trust account, or receive money from clients and pay it out on their behalf

Real estate has its own table. Agency work sits in Table 5 in s 6(5A) of the AML/CTF Act 2006, not in the professional services table, and the delayed CDD rule keys off which table and item applies. A lawyer or conveyancer who acts in the same transaction is under Table 6 item 1 instead, which is covered on Conveyancer.

Table 5 has two items, and they differ in who the customer is.

Item	What it covers	Customer	Typical examples
1	"brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate on behalf of a buyer, seller, transferee or transferor in the course of carrying on a business"	Both the seller or transferor and the buyer or transferee	Seller's agents and buyer's agents, for residential or commercial property
2	"selling or transferring real estate in the course of carrying on a business selling real estate, where the sale or transfer is not brokered by an independent real estate agent"	The buyer or transferee	Developers selling house and land packages, apartments off the plan or vacant lots through their own staff

Both items also need a geographical link to Australia: broadly, the service is provided through a permanent establishment in Australia, or by an Australian resident, or a subsidiary of an Australian resident company, through a permanent establishment overseas (s 6(6)).

Table 5 has no exception for a sale or transfer ordered by a court or tribunal. That exception is in Table 6 items 1 and 2 only, so an agent brokering a sale that gives effect to a court order still provides item 1.

What counts as real estate

"Real estate" is defined in s 5. It covers these interests in land in Australia:

• a fee simple, the usual form of ownership
• a leasehold interest, except a lease for a term of 30 years or less (not counting options for further terms)
• a land use entitlement, meaning a right to occupy land that comes from owning shares in a company or units in a unit trust, alone or together with a lease or licence.

AUSTRAC's examples of interests that qualify include 99-year leases in the ACT, crown and pastoral leases, and residential site agreements where the lease of the land is longer than 30 years. An equivalent interest in land overseas also counts, though you only have obligations for it where the service has a geographical link to Australia.

The definition excludes:

• leases of 30 years or less
• incorporeal hereditaments, such as easements and restrictive covenants
• a mortgagee's interest
• dwellings not attached to land, where the owner of the dwelling leases the land it sits on, such as a caravan in a caravan park
• a standalone licence to occupy, such as some retirement village arrangements, where the resident has contractual permission to occupy but no interest in the land.

For a licence, look at the rights it gives rather than its title. A licence that comes with shares in a company or units in a unit trust can be a land use entitlement, which is real estate.

The definition does not distinguish residential from commercial property. Brokering the sale of a commercial building is item 1 on the same terms as a house.

Item 1: brokering

AUSTRAC treats a broker as a person who acts as an intermediary or agent for another person for consideration. A common indicator is that you negotiate for the person you represent, or look for someone for them to transact with, in return for a commission. The brokering done by seller's agents and buyer's agents is the core of item 1.

A transfer counts whether or not anything is paid for it. Brokering the transfer of property without consideration is enough.

Who your customer is: brokering a sale makes both parties your customers. Where you act for the seller and the sale goes through, your customer is the seller and the buyer, and you have due diligence obligations in relation to both. A buyer's agent is in scope on the same basis, and the same dual-customer rule applies in the other direction. A standard sales appointment therefore produces two customers to identify, not one, and the party you are not acting for is not out of scope.

When it starts: item 1 begins at different moments for each side, and due diligence runs from the start of the service.

Where you are the seller's agent:

• The service starts for the seller when the agreement to broker the sale or transfer is signed.
• The service starts for the buyer when it is reasonably expected the transaction will proceed, which is typically when the buyer's offer has been accepted and the contract is signed.

Where you are the buyer's agent:

• The service starts for the buyer when the agreement to find or identify a property is signed.
• The service starts for the seller when it is reasonably expected the transaction will proceed, again typically on acceptance and contract.

So the party you are not acting for joins your customer base partway through, not on day one.

Off the plan and project sales: where a developer appoints your agency to sell its stock, you are brokering on the developer's behalf, which is item 1. The developer's own sales are then brokered by an independent agent, so they fall outside item 2.

Item 2: developers and direct sellers

Item 2 catches a business selling real estate without an independent agency, which in practice means developers and others selling directly, including through their own in-house agents, sales or marketing staff. AUSTRAC's examples are house and land packages, apartments off the plan, and blocks of vacant land in new subdivisions.

Two further cases are in scope:

• A transfer for no value still counts. The words "sale or transfer" are deliberate, so a transfer without consideration is in scope.
• Granting or re-granting a leasehold interest counts where it is done as part of selling real estate.

Item 2 begins when there is a commitment to sell or transfer the property, typically when the agreement to sell or transfer is entered.

What is not a designated service

• Leasing: a lease for a term of 30 years or less (not counting options for further terms) is not real estate, so arranging or granting one is not a designated service. A longer lease is an interest in real estate.
• Property management: managing a rental property for its owner does not broker a sale, purchase or transfer. Managing rental income and expenses through a trust account is also specifically excluded from Table 6 item 3 (AML/CTF (Class Exemptions and Other Matters) Rules 2007, Chapter 2, made under s 6(5C)(f)).
• Incidental sales: a business that sells premises it owns and used for its own operations is not carrying on a business selling real estate, so the sale is not item 2.
• Private sales: a private sale of a residential property is not in scope.
• Residential site operators selling dwellings: a dwelling on a residential site is not real estate, so selling dwellings attached to the site does not make the operator a business selling real estate. An operator only provides item 1 if it brokers a transfer of real estate for another person, or item 2 if it sells or transfers real estate in the course of a business selling real estate.

Check which side of the line a sale falls on

That is a narrower net than "anyone who sells property". The test for item 2 is whether the seller carries on a business of selling real estate, not whether it sells a property in the course of some other business.

Trust money

Holding a deposit or settlement funds in a trust account for a sale you broker is part of your Table 5 item 1 service. It is not a separate designated service, because s 6(5C)(e) excludes Table 6 item 3 where the conduct is another designated service. The Class Exemptions Rules also exclude managing rental income and expenses through a trust account from item 3.

Table 6 item 3 (receiving, holding and controlling, or managing, a person's money or property as part of a transaction) is only a question where you hold or manage client money outside a transaction you broker and outside rental management.

AUSTRAC guidance used for this section:

• Real estate designated services
• Exemptions from AML/CTF obligations, which lists the property management exclusion
• Real estate program starter kit: getting started

What to watch for in real estate

The delayed CDD window

This rule is specific to this vertical. It exists because property transactions do not settle the moment you take the work on.

Ordinarily, initial due diligence must be complete before you provide the service. For a real estate transaction, the Rules allow a firm to commence before that is finished, inside a defined window: as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 28 days after exchange of contracts, or 3 days before the initially agreed settlement day, whichever is earliest.

Three things about it are commonly misunderstood:

• It is one window covering both roles. The rule covers the party you are not acting for, and the same window applies to a legal practitioner or conveyancer assisting a buyer or transferee. It is not a shorter rule for anyone.
• The settlement limb is anchored to the initially agreed day. A settlement that slips does not extend your deadline, and one brought forward does not pull it in.
• It is a narrow exception, not a routine option. Both gateway conditions in s 29 must be met and recorded before you start, including that the additional risk from the delay is low.

An auction is a case where the window is designed to help. A buyer may only be known after the fall of the hammer, and the short time between that and signing the contract will often be insufficient to complete due diligence.

Delayed CDD without a recorded reason is a contravention

Relying on delayed CDD without the recorded justification leaves you having provided a designated service without completing initial due diligence, which is what the Act prohibits.

The full conditions, and the exact wording of the window, are on Customer due diligence. Read that page before relying on this route.

The window covers legal and conveyancing work too

If you work alongside a solicitor or conveyancer on a transaction, they are on the same window, not a shorter one. See Conveyancer.

Where to start

In the order you will need them:

1. Obligations overview: the designated service test, since scope turns on the individual appointment.
2. Customer due diligence, which carries the delayed CDD window and its conditions.
3. Enrol with AUSTRAC and Appoint your AMLCO, which run to deadlines.
4. Creating a matter and Onboarding a customer, to open an appointment and bring both parties in.

Related pages

• Conveyancer, which shares the delayed CDD window.
• Legal, for practices that also act in property work.
• Deadlines, for the window and the setup dates.