Key takeaways
From 1 July 2026, real estate agents, conveyancers, lawyers and developers must comply with the same AML/CTF laws that have applied to banks since 2006
Sellers are checked before their property can be advertised, and buyers are checked once their offer is accepted
Buying or selling through a trust or company means additional checks on every beneficial owner holding twenty five per cent or more of the entity
Repeat clients get no exemption and will be checked again on every transaction
Agencies face serious penalties for non-compliance, including multi-million dollar fines and potential imprisonment for individuals
Investors using trusts, companies or overseas funding sources should prepare their documentation well ahead of settlement to avoid delays
If you've bought or sold a property recently, you're used to a familiar process involving contracts, finance approval and a straightforward path to settlement.
That process has just changed, and it has changed for everyone, including experienced investors who've done this dozens of times before.
From 1 July 2026, Australian real estate agents, conveyancers, lawyers, accountants and property developers became subject to the same anti-money laundering laws that banks have been subject to since 2006.
It's a genuinely significant shift for our industry, and for anyone actively building a property portfolio, it's worth understanding properly rather than just grumbling about the extra paperwork.
Why this has happened
Australia has long been something of an outlier among developed economies. We were one of the last OECD countries without full anti-money laundering coverage for what regulators call "gatekeeper" professions, meaning real estate agents, lawyers, accountants and conveyancers.
Property has long been recognised internationally as one of the easiest ways to launder illicit money because it's a large, relatively illiquid asset that can absorb large sums and then appreciate quietly over time.
The Financial Action Task Force has repeatedly flagged this repeatedly in its reviews of Australia, and successive governments have spoken about closing the gap for nearly two decades before the legislation passed in December 2024.
So this isn't some knee jerk reaction to a scandal. It's the final piece of a reform that's been on the drawing board since before some of you bought your first investment property.
What actually changes for buyers and sellers
The core of the new regime is Customer Due Diligence, and your agent or conveyancer is now legally required to carry it out on every transaction.
For sellers, this happens right at the start of the process, and in practice it means you'll need to be verified before your agent can even advertise your property.
For buyers, the checks kick in once your offer has been accepted, so they become part of the path to signing rather than something that happens right at the very beginning.
Either way, you'll be asked to prove your identity with standard identity documents. If you're buying or selling through a trust or company, your agent will need to identify the beneficial owners behind that structure.
In some cases, they'll also need to ask about your source of funds or source of wealth, which is essentially the property version of the questions your bank has been asking you for years whenever you apply for a loan.
One detail that surprises many long-term clients is that being a repeat customer doesn't buy you anything here. Even if you've transacted with the same agency five times before, you'll go through the checks again, because the law doesn't allow anyone to skip the queue.
Why this matters more if you invest through structures
This is the part of the reform I think deserves the most attention, because a large proportion of serious investors hold at least part of their portfolio through trusts or companies for asset protection and tax planning.
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If that's you, the beneficial ownership checks will take longer and require more documentation than a straightforward individual purchase, particularly if your trust has multiple beneficiaries or your company has several directors and shareholders.
The sensible move is to have your trust deed, company register and identification for every beneficial owner who holds twentyfive per cent or more of the entity ready well before you're under contract, rather than scrambling for them during a tight settlement period.
I'd also encourage anyone using overseas income, family loans or a recent equity release to fund a deposit to plan ahead about how they'll explain that source of funds, because a vague answer is far more likely to slow things down than an honest, well documented one.
None of this means anything is wrong with your transaction. It simply means the paperwork trail now needs to be a little more complete than before.
What this means for agents and the industry
Spare a thought for the agents and conveyancers on the other side of these transactions, too, because the compliance burden they face is substantial.
Every real estate business now needs a documented AML and counter-terrorism financing program, a nominated compliance officer, regularly refreshed staff training, and seven years of retained records for every client file.
The penalties for getting this wrong are severe, running into the tens of millions of dollars for a business and including the possibility of imprisonment for individuals who knowingly ignore their obligations.
I suspect this will accelerate consolidation in an industry that already has plenty of small operators, because the cost of proper compliance software and training is far easier for a larger agency or franchise group to absorb than for a single office running on thin margins.
Over time some of that compliance cost will likely find its way into fees, though I wouldn't expect it to be dramatic given how competitive the agency landscape remains.
My take on all this
I've spent three decades in this industry, and I've watched it professionalise in stages, from the introduction of trust account audits to the licensing reforms of recent decades.
This is simply the next stage in that maturing process, and it's overdue, given how far behind other comparable countries we've been.
For genuine long-term investors building wealth through quality assets, this reform changes very little about the fundamentals of what makes a good investment. Location, land value and long-term demand drivers still matter just as much on 2 July as they did on 30 June.
What it does change is the administrative rhythm of a transaction, and the investors who come out ahead here will be the ones who treat their paperwork as seriously as they treat their due diligence on the property itself.
If you're planning to buy or sell in the months ahead, have your identification, entity documents and a clear explanation of your funding sources organised before you start, rather than after your offer's been accepted. It'll save you time and keep your transaction moving at the pace it deserves.
Want help navigating your next purchase or working out the right ownership structure for your portfolio in light of these changes? That's exactly the kind of strategic property and wealth advice our team at Metropole provides every day. Click here now and lock in a time for a wealth discovery chat with one of our wealth strategists.
