AML Software for Real Estate Agents

From 1 July 2026, every Australian real estate agent is a reporting entity

Under the amended AML/CTF Act 2006 and the AUSTRAC Tranche 2 reforms, real estate agents who sell, auction, or assist in the transfer of real property provide a designated service. From 1 July 2026 you must enrol with AUSTRAC, maintain a written AML/CTF program, verify every client, screen against the DFAT sanctions list, lodge suspicious matter reports, and keep records for 7 years.

AUSTRAC explicitly names buyer's agents as providers of a designated service: "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." Selling agents are captured from the moment the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate is on foot.

AMLTranche turns AUSTRAC's real estate guidance into a working workflow: a CDD file that matches how an agent already onboards a client, with auction and exchange delayed CDD timers, reliance pack exports for the conveyancer, and a tamper-proof audit log.

Built for the inspection, the auction and the exchange — not the office desk

Real estate agents work on the move. AMLTranche is a web-based AML platform that runs on any device — iPad at an open home, phone after the fall of the hammer, laptop at the office.

Five common real estate transactions and what CDD looks like for each

Most AML training treats customer due diligence as a tick-box. In practice, real estate transactions vary enough that the same rule produces very different work. Here are five scenarios most Australian real estate agents see regularly, and how the obligations apply to each.

1. Off-the-plan apartment sold to a buyer SPV

A developer is selling an off-the-plan apartment to a buyer who has set up a special purpose vehicle, often a Pty Ltd company with a single director and shareholder. The agent is providing a designated service to the company at the point of contract. Initial CDD has to be done on the company before settlement, but the company often does not exist at the time of exchange and is incorporated only later in the acquisition timeline.

What the AML/CTF rules require for a corporate buyer:

• Verify the company name, ACN, registered office, and place of business
• Identify and verify each director
• Identify and verify each beneficial owner who holds 25 percent or more of the shares, or who otherwise controls the company
• Capture the source of funds for the deposit and the balance
• Capture the beneficial ownership chain if the SPV is itself owned by a trust or another company

Where it gets harder in practice. If the SPV is owned by a discretionary trust, beneficial ownership extends through the trust to the trustees and to any beneficiary entitled to more than 25 percent of trust assets. If the SPV is owned by another company, you trace through to the natural persons who ultimately control that parent. Inside AMLTranche, the company workflow walks the agent through ASIC company search, director ID checks, and beneficial owner verification with shareholder evidence uploaded against each ownership tier. The audit trail captures every step with a timestamp and the verifying user.

2. Auction-day delayed CDD

A residential auction runs on Saturday morning. Five registered bidders, none of whom has formally engaged the agency before today. Completing full CDD on every bidder before the fall of the hammer would shut the auction down. AUSTRAC anticipates this and provides a delayed-CDD pathway specifically for real estate.

How the timing works for a real estate agent:

• Initial CDD must be completed on the buyer or transferee 28 days after the exchange of contracts, or at least 3 days before the initially agreed day for settlement, whichever is earlier
• Until that initial CDD is complete, the agent is still required to monitor for suspicious matters
• If a bidder does not win, no CDD obligation crystallises on that person
• If a bidder becomes the successful purchaser, the timer starts on exchange

What this looks like at a Saturday auction. Bidder registration captures basic identification (name, address, contact). The auction proceeds normally. After the fall of the hammer and execution of the contract, the agent triggers full CDD on the successful bidder only. AMLTranche tracks the 28-day or pre-settlement timer per buyer, with alerts as the deadline approaches. The audit log records that delayed CDD was applied within the AUSTRAC-permitted window, which is what an examiner will look for years later.

3. Family discretionary trust as buyer

A family discretionary trust is purchasing a residential property for $2.4 million. The trustee is a Pty Ltd corporate trustee. The settlor is the family patriarch. The beneficiaries are spread across the family. Who do you do CDD on?

Under AUSTRAC guidance for trusts, the agent identifies and verifies:

• The trust itself: name of trust, type, ABN if registered, evidence the trust deed exists
• The trustee or trustees. If a corporate trustee, the company is treated under the standard company CDD rules above
• The settlor of the trust (the individual who created it)
• Beneficial owners of the trust, which generally means any beneficiary entitled to 25 percent or more of trust capital or income, plus any individual with effective control of the trust (for example, the appointor or principal who can change the trustee)

For a typical family discretionary trust where no single beneficiary is fixed, this often means CDD on the corporate trustee and on the appointor. Individual beneficiaries below the 25 percent threshold do not generally need full CDD unless they personally receive a designated service.

Where conveyancers and lawyers come in. The conveyancer often holds the trust deed and the bank's beneficial ownership analysis. AMLTranche supports the reliance framework in the AML/CTF Act, allowing a verified CDD pack to be exchanged between the agent and the conveyancer, with both parties retaining a copy for their own records and the audit trail tracking the handoff.

4. Foreign buyer with FIRB approval

An overseas-resident buyer is purchasing an Australian residential property after obtaining Foreign Investment Review Board approval. The agent is providing a designated service to a non-resident, and CDD obligations expand in two ways.

First, identification has to handle non-Australian documentation:

• Foreign passport with date of issue, expiry, and country of issue
• Overseas residential address with verification (utility bill or government correspondence, translated into English where required)
• FIRB approval document recorded against the buyer file

Second, enhanced customer due diligence may be triggered:

• If the buyer is from a country on the Financial Action Task Force grey or black list, ECDD applies
• If the buyer is, or is associated with, a politically exposed person, ECDD applies including additional source-of-wealth checks
• Source of funds verification typically includes bank statements showing the funds, evidence of overseas income or asset sale, and the FIRB approval documentation

A buyer from a low-risk country with clean PEP and sanctions screening can be processed under standard CDD. A buyer from a high-risk country, or one screening positive on PEP, requires a senior reviewer to approve before the contract proceeds. AMLTranche routes high-risk profiles to a designated reviewer and prevents the contract workflow from advancing until ECDD is signed off.

5. Joint buyers (couples and business partners)

Two individuals are buying a property together as joint tenants. The agent provides a designated service to each of them. CDD applies to each natural person, not as a single combined record.

What each buyer needs verified separately:

• Government-issued photo identification for each person
• Residential address verification for each
• DFAT and PEP screening run on each individually
• Source of funds documented per buyer where contributions are not equal
• Beneficial owner status confirmed for each (relevant if either has any unusual structure)

If the joint buyers are a couple, the practical workload is two CDD records that share most context (same conveyancer, same property, same exchange date) but distinct identification. If the buyers are business partners or family members combining resources, additional questions about the source of funds and the relationship between the parties become relevant for the risk assessment.

AMLTranche links joint buyers to the same property file so the agent sees one transaction view, but each buyer record carries its own identification, screening, and source-of-funds evidence. The 7-year audit trail covers each buyer independently, which matters when an examiner asks about a single party in the future.

These five examples cover the bulk of residential transactions. Commercial sales, off-market deals, expat sales, and SMSF purchases follow similar patterns with their own variations. The point is that the same AUSTRAC rule produces very different CDD work depending on the buyer structure, and software that knows the difference saves the agent from rebuilding the workflow from memory each time.