AML Tranche 2 for real estate agents: what changed on 1 July 2026 and what your agency must do

What Tranche 2 is

Australia regulated banks, remitters and casinos for money laundering from 2006 (Tranche 1) but left out the gatekeepers of the property market. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 closed that gap: from 1 July 2026 real estate agents, buyers agents, developers selling direct, accountants, lawyers, conveyancers and dealers in precious metals are reporting entities when they provide a designated service. Property is the asset money launderers like most, which is why agents are now gatekeepers.

Which real estate services are designated

One brokered sale is enough. Volume affects the length of your program, not whether you need one.

• Brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate on behalf of a vendor or a buyer. Both the vendor and the buyer are the agency's customers in a brokered sale.
• Selling or transferring real estate you or your business owns, in the course of business, directly to a buyer (developers and other direct sellers).
• Money received into your trust account as part of a sale you broker is part of that designated service.

Which are not

An agency that only manages rentals is not a reporting entity. Keep a dated file note of the analysis; the moment the agency brokers a sale, it must enrol within 28 days.

• Residential property management and leasing, including rent and expenses managed through the trust account, which the Rules expressly exclude.
• Appraisals and marketing advice that do not lead to you brokering the sale.
• Receiving your own commission.

Who your customers are, and when the service starts

This is the question that is specific to real estate. The vendor who engages you is your customer from the moment the agency agreement is signed: identify and verify them, and the beneficial owners of any company or trust, then. The buyer becomes your customer when the transaction is reasonably expected to proceed, usually at acceptance of the offer or at the fall of the hammer. Because the buyer is often unknown until then, the Rules let you complete the buyer's initial due diligence as soon as practicable and no later than 28 days after exchange of contracts or 3 days before settlement, whichever comes first. A buyer's agent applies the same logic in reverse.

The dates that matter

• 29 November 2024: Amendment Act passed.
• 31 March 2026: enrolment opened for Tranche 2; new AML/CTF Rules 2025 commenced for existing entities.
• 1 July 2026: obligations commenced. Agencies already brokering sales had until 29 July 2026 to enrol.
• 30 September 2027: first annual compliance report (for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027).
• 30 June 2029 to 31 December 2030: first independent evaluation, by the last two digits of the AUSTRAC account number.

The obligations, in agency terms

1. Enrol with AUSTRAC and keep the details current (14 days for changes).
2. Adopt an AML/CTF program: risk assessment plus policies, approved by the principal or a director, reviewed yearly in practice and independently evaluated every three years.
3. Appoint a compliance officer at management level.
4. Identify and verify every vendor and buyer: identity, beneficial owners, purpose, risk rating; the buyer within the delayed-verification window.
5. Monitor and review clients by risk (commonly 24, 12 and 6 months for low, medium and high) while the relationship lasts.
6. Report: suspicious matters within 3 business days, cash of AU$10,000 or more within 10, the annual compliance report by 30 September.
7. Keep records for seven years after the relationship or transaction ends.
8. Train the sales team and screen the people in roles that touch sales and trust money.

Pre-commencement clients

Vendors and buyers you already had a business relationship with on 1 July 2026 are pre-commencement customers. You may continue without initial due diligence until a trigger: a suspicious matter report obligation, a significant change, or doubts about who they are. For most agencies that is a short list, because sales relationships end at settlement; the practical rule is to verify everyone in every new campaign from 1 July 2026.

How AUSTRAC said it would supervise new entities

AUSTRAC's regulatory expectations for 2025–26 commit it to education, sector starter kits and tailored guidance for Tranche 2, with enforcement reserved for businesses that wilfully ignore enrolment or are complicit in, or wilfully blind to, money laundering. An agency that enrolled, adopted a program and verifies its clients will be treated very differently from one that did nothing.

The AUSTRAC starter kit and RealtyAML

AUSTRAC publishes a free real estate program starter kit: a getting-started guide, a document library and worked examples of dealing with customers. If your agency fits its profile (small, mostly local individual clients, little high-risk work), read it first. RealtyAML covers the same ground in software: a questionnaire generates and versions your program, vendors and buyers are recorded with the document sighted and a risk rating, the buyer's verification deadline is diarised, reports start the legal clock, training is logged and every action lands in an audit trail. Many agencies use both: the kit to check completeness, the software to run the program during a campaign.