Real Estate and Property Development businesses subject to Anti-Money Laundering
Criminals have long used real estate as a way of laundering or concealing funds – not only can they get that trophy house, a real estate purchase allows a large amount of money to be laundered in a single transaction.
From 1 July 2026, Australian real estate agents and property developers that sell property directly to customers without an agent will be subject to Australia’s anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations as new ‘Tranche 2’ reporting entities.
The regime is a service-based regime. Whether you need to take notice or not depends on whether your business provides “Designated Services” or not. For Real Estate businesses, a Designated Service is:
Brokering the sale, purchase, or transfer of real estate on behalf of a buyer, seller, transferee or other transferor in the course of carrying on a business; and
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
Practically this will capture most real estate agents and buyers agents, as well as property developers or other businesses that sell property directly to customers without an agent – house and land packages, off-the plan apartments, blocks of vacant land will be captured where they are sold by those business using inhouse sales and marketing teams.
Early preparation will make it manageable — and protect your business’ reputation – but it is prudent to think about this as soon as possible. Obligations commence on 1 July 2026.
To do now:
Assess whether you provide Designated Services or not
Engage leadership — the AML/CTF obligations carry partner/director accountability and big penalties for non-compliance
Assess and map your services against the Designated Services list.
Perform a risk assessment of your practice.
We can help with all of this – register for a webinar or give our AML/CTF team a call.
Paul Gray
Principal
T 03 5225 5231 | M 0414 195 886
E pgray@ha.legal
Hugo Le Clerc
Senior Associate
T: 03 5225 5213 | M: 0438 089 334
E: hleclerc@ha.legal
