Real estate designated services

If you work in the real estate sector, learn about the new designated services we’ll regulate relating to brokering of the sale, purchase and transfer of real estate.

Designated services

If your real estate business provides one or more designated services that have a geographical link to Australia, you’ll have anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations.

You’re likely to provide these designated services if you do any of the following:

work as a buyer's or seller's agent
are a property developer or other business selling house and land packages, apartments off the plan, and blocks of land in new subdivisions, and you don't engage independent real estate agents to broker your sales.

If you’re a lawyer or conveyancer who helps plan or execute the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate, you may be regulated under different designated services.

Learn more in our professional services guidance.

The impact of being regulated

If you’re providing any of these designated services, you must comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the Act) and Rules from this date.

This means you’ll need to enrol with us and meet your AML/CTF obligations.

You must also complete the necessary steps to know your customer before you start to provide them with a designated service. Learn more at initial customer due diligence.

We’ve developed this guidance to support you to meet these obligations.

Defining real estate

This section refers to the Act section 5 and the Explanatory Memorandum paragraphs 303, 305 and 306.

The term ‘real estate’ covers real property ownership and some ownership-like leases. It refers to an interest in land within Australia where a person (including both individuals and ‘non-individuals’) has any of the following:

‘fee simple interest’ – which is the usual form of land ownership in most of Australia
leasehold interest of more than 30 years (excluding options for renewal, extension or further terms)
land use entitlement. This means an entitlement to occupy land conferred through ownership of shares in a company, or units in a unit trust scheme, or a combination of a shareholding or ownership of units together with a lease or licence.

Examples include:

99-year leases in the Australian Capital Territory
crown and pastoral leases
residential site agreements where the term of the leasehold interest in the land is longer than 30 years.

Real estate also covers an interest, estate, right or entitlement in land in a foreign country that’s equivalent to one of the above interests or otherwise confers ownership rights. While the ‘real estate’ can be located in a foreign country, you'll only have obligations under the Act if the designated service has a geographical link to Australia.

Designated services relating to real estate regulate the sale, purchase and transfer of these interests whether or not there was payment or other consideration involved in the transfer. For example, a conveyancer who helps a parent transfer ownership of the family home to their child without consideration will provide a designated service.

Exclusions from the definition of real estate

This section refers to the Explanatory Memorandum paragraph 306.

The definition of real estate excludes interests such as:

leases of 30 years or less
incorporeal hereditaments (for example, easements and restrictive covenants)
mortgagee interests
dwellings not attached to land, where the resident owns the dwelling but leases the land on which the dwelling is located, such as caravan parks and some retirement villages.

This means that a business involved in the sale, purchase and transfer of these interests won’t be providing a designated service relating to real estate.

For example, a person may own a caravan but only has a lease that’s less than 30 years over the land on which it’s located. In this situation, neither the caravan nor the lease of land qualifies as real estate. The caravan is treated as a chattel under law and the lease is too short.

Real estate, as defined by the Act, doesn't include arrangements that only give a person limited contractual permission to occupy premises. For example, a standalone licence to occupy.

To determine if an arrangement is real estate, don’t rely only on the title of a written agreement. Consider all the legal and practical rights the arrangement gives the occupant.

Feature	Standalone licence to occupy	Leasehold interest
Can grant interest in land	No	Yes
Exclusive possession	Usually no	Usually yes
Can be registered on title	No	Yes, subject to requirements under state or territory law
Rights	Contractual	Contractual but can create an independent interest in land

For example, a resident may pay a contribution to a retirement village operator and enter a standalone licence to occupy agreement. Under the agreement:

the resident may live in the unit while the agreement remains in force
the resident’s name isn’t recorded on the property title.
the resident can’t sell, transfer or sublet the unit
the resident doesn’t have rights over the unit from shares in a company or units in a unit trust (this could make the licence a land use entitlement, which is real estate)
the operator retains rights to enter, manage or control the unit in certain circumstances.

On these facts alone, this type of arrangement would not be real estate as defined by the Act. This is because the resident has limited contractual rights to occupy the unit. Services relating only to this licence wouldn’t be real estate designated services.

Brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate

This section refers to the Act section 6.

You’re providing a designated service when you broker the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate as part of a business.

The relevant designated service defined in the Act is extracted below:

Table 5 — Real estate services

Item	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
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: (a) the seller or transferor; and (b) the buyer or transferee

This means that:

real estate doesn’t need to be bought or sold for consideration; brokering the transfer of property without consideration is sufficient
both the buyer and seller (or transferee or transferor) of real estate will be the customer of the same reporting entity for the purposes of the designated service.

For example, when a real estate agent acts for the seller and brokers the successful sale of a house, their customer is both the buyer and the seller. This means they’ll have AML/CTF obligations in relation to both parties.

What it means to ‘broker’ a sale, purchase or transfer of real estate

We consider a broker is a person who acts as an intermediary or agent for another person for consideration.

To provide this designated service you must be operating as a broker in the course of carrying on a business. A common indicator of this will be if your services include negotiating on behalf of the person you represent or seeking to find a person for the person you represent to transact with, in return for a payment of a commission.

Activities that’ll generally be a designated service of this kind include brokering conducted by seller’s and buyer’s agents.

When you start providing a designated service

This section refers to the Explanatory Memorandum paragraphs 320 and 321.

When you start providing a designated service depends on whether you’re acting for the buyer or seller.

Seller’s agent

A person acting as a seller’s agent starts providing a designated service to a seller or transferor when an agreement to broker the sale or transfer of a property is signed.

This agent starts providing a designated service to the buyer or transferee when it’s reasonably expected that the transaction will proceed. This is typically when the buyer’s offer has been accepted and the contract to buy or transfer ownership of the real estate is signed.

Buyer’s agent

A person acting as a buyer’s agent starts providing a designated service to a buyer or transferee when an agreement to find or identify a property is signed.

This agent starts providing a designated service to the seller or transferor when it’s reasonably expected that the transaction will proceed. This is typically when the buyer’s offer has been accepted and the contract to buy or transfer ownership of the real estate is signed.

Auction

When real estate is sold at auction, it’s possible for a buyer to only be known after the fall of the hammer. You can delay initial customer due diligence (CDD) where completing initial CDD would disrupt the ordinary course of business. This will often be the case where the short time between the end of the auction and signing the contract of sale isn’t sufficient to complete initial CDD.

Learn more about delayed verification for initial CDD.

Selling or transferring real estate without an independent real estate agent

This section refers to the Act section 6(5A) and Explanatory Memorandum paragraphs 317, 318 and 319.

Selling or transferring real estate without an independent real estate agent as part of a business selling real estate is a designated service.

The relevant designated service defined in the Act is extracted below:

Table 5 — Real estate services

Item	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
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

Examples of this designated service include property developers and other businesses who sell any of the following:

house and land packages
apartments off the plan
blocks of vacant land in new subdivisions.

This includes where the property developer or other business sells the real estate with their own in-house agents, sales or marketing employees rather than engaging an external agency for this work.

References to the ‘transfer’ of real estate make sure that situations where real estate is transferred for no value or consideration are still within scope of the designated service.

This also includes the granting or re‑granting of a leasehold interest. Where a business grants or re-grants a leasehold interest as part of selling real estate, this is considered selling real estate for the purposes of this designated service.

Incidental sales of real estate by a business and private sales of residential property aren’t captured under these designated services. For example, where an individual runs their business on premises that they own negotiates and directly sells their premises to a buyer. This is because these sales wouldn’t be carried out as part of a business selling real estate.

When you start providing this designated service

This section refers to the Explanatory Memorandum paragraph 318.

This designated service relates to real estate transactions that include a sale price or a transfer for no consideration.

You start providing this designated service when there’s a commitment to sell or transfer the property. This is typically when you enter an agreement to sell or transfer the property.

Residential site operators

A residential site agreement is between a residential site operator and homeowner. This allows the owner to move their home onto a residential site and use it as their residence. These agreements apply in cases where a person owns their home but not the land it’s on.

A residential site operator is a person who has a business that leases this residential land. For example, a person operating a caravan park or aged care facility.

Leaseholds in residential land will qualify as real estate where the duration of the lease is more than 30 years. A dwelling located on a residential site, as distinguished from the leasehold interest in the land on which the dwelling is based, doesn’t qualify as real estate.

A residential site operator who leases or transfers real estate will only be providing the brokering designated service under item 1 of table 5 if they’re brokering the transfer, sale or purchase of real estate on behalf of another person.

This means that a residential site operator only provides this designated service if all of the following are satisfied:

they’re not acting for themselves
they’re acting for one of the parties to the purchase, sale or transfer
they’re brokering the purchase, sale or transfer of real estate in the course of carrying on a business selling real estate, meaning they’re acting as a broker or agent for compensation, and
the interest being purchased, sold or transferred is real estate.

A residential site operator will only be carrying out a designated service under item 2 of table 5 if they transfer or sell real estate in the course of carrying on a business selling real estate.

The fact that a residential site operator sells dwellings attached to the site of a residential park won’t be sufficient to qualify as a business selling real estate, as these dwellings don’t qualify as real estate.

This guidance sets out how we interpret certain Australian legislation, along with associated Rules and regulations. Australian courts are ultimately responsible for interpreting these laws and determining if any provisions of these laws are contravened.

The examples and scenarios in this guidance are meant to help explain our interpretation of these laws. They’re not exhaustive or meant to cover every possible scenario.

This guidance provides general information and isn't a substitute for legal advice. This guidance avoids legal language wherever possible and it might include generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.

Last updated:
31 Aug 2026

Was this page helpful?

Yes

Why or why not? (optional)

Please note that feedback you provide here will be used only for the purpose of improving our website. If you have a specific question about your AML/CTF obligations, please contact us.

Leave this field blank