October 2026

Australia’s real estate industry is now discovering what happens when governments decide that another layer of bureaucracy is the answer to criminal behaviour.

From 1 October, AUSTRAC has begun issuing fines to real estate businesses that have failed to meet their so-called obligations – imposed by Big Brother – under the expanded anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime.

The penalties are significant – up to $21,840 for companies and $4,368 for individuals – and can continue mounting for every day a business remains non-compliant.

Nobody disputes the objective of stopping criminals laundering dirty money through Australian property or by other means.

But the method being imposed on the real estate industry is a stark example of bureaucratic over-reach.

Governments are effectively turning real estate professionals into unpaid police officers.

Selling agents, property managers and buyers’ agents are being required to undertake customer checks, assess risks, identify potentially suspicious behaviour, lodge reports, maintain compliance programs, train staff and keep extensive records.

These are people trained to negotiate, manage, sell or purchase property on behalf of their clients.

They are not detectives. They are not financial-crime investigators. They are not experts in organised crime, terrorism financing, identity fraud or sophisticated money-laundering structures.

Yet they are now expected to identify people who may be criminals – and face potentially serious penalties if they get it wrong.

And nobody is training them or paying them to perform this new law-enforcement role.

The absurdity becomes particularly obvious when these regulations are applied to buyers’ agents.

A buyers’ agent represents the purchaser.

In the normal course of a transaction, the buyers’ agent has no contact whatsoever with the property owner.

They deal with the selling agent, who represents the vendor.

Yet the regulatory regime can impose obligations requiring them to undertake due diligence and identify potential financial-crime risks with people they cannot normally identify or speak with.

How exactly is a buyers’ agent supposed to determine whether a vendor they have never met and likely will never meet is involved in money laundering?

Are they supposed to interrogate the selling agent?
Conduct their own criminal investigation?

Search for evidence of organised crime?

This is bureaucracy detached from the practical realities of how the property industry actually operates and what can be reasonably expected of them.

AUSTRAC says real estate should not provide criminals with a safe place to move dirty money.

Absolutely.

But investigating criminals is fundamentally the responsibility of trained and properly resourced law-enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Instead, governments are increasingly outsourcing that responsibility to ordinary small businesses – while leaving those businesses to carry the cost, administrative burden and legal risk.

The scale of the rollout also tells its own story.
According to Real Estate Business on 1 October, AUSTRAC estimated there were about 45,000 real estate offices nationwide, but only 18,350 had registered under the scheme.

Registration is just the beginning.

Businesses must also establish AML/CTF programs, conduct risk assessments, perform customer due diligence, report suspicious matters, train staff and maintain records.

All of that requires time, money and specialist expertise.

Criminal money laundering should be pursued aggressively.

But turning tens of thousands of small business people and their employees into amateur financial-crime investigators is not sensible regulation. It’s outrageous and plain stupid.

It is another case of government transferring its responsibilities, costs and risks onto private businesses – and threatening them with fines if they fail to perform a policing role they were never trained to undertake.