Around 46,000 licensed real estate professionals — sales agents, buyer's agents, commercial brokers, agency principals — become reporting entities on 1 July 2026. Real estate has been a recurring concern for AUSTRAC for over a decade. With Tranche 2 commencing, the regulator finally has clean visibility into the sector.
What changes at the front line
The biggest operational change for sales agents is buyer identification. From 1 July, you cannot complete a sales transaction without verifying the identity of the buyer (and where the buyer is a non-individual, the beneficial owners). This includes biometric or document-based ID verification, and risk-based source-of-funds enquiries where indicators are present.
Where the friction lives
- International buyers, particularly from higher-risk jurisdictions, requiring extended verification.
- Buyers using corporate or trust vehicles to acquire property.
- Cash deposits or unusually structured payment arrangements.
- Off-market and private treaty transactions where the buyer is reluctant to engage with paperwork.
Modern real estate AML platforms aim to do most of the verification at open homes, on the agent's phone, with the buyer present. This compresses the friction into the moments where the buyer is most willing to provide information — rather than three days before exchange.
Who is the reporting entity?
The selling agent is the reporting entity for the listing. Conveyancers and solicitors at the other end of the transaction are separately captured. The agency principal is responsible for the agency's compliance and faces personal liability for systemic failures.
What property managers should know
Property management for residential rentals is generally out of scope — the designated services are around sales transactions. However, where a property manager facilitates a sale (e.g., disposal of a managed property), that activity falls back into scope and the agency's program needs to handle it.