AML for buyer's agents vs sales agents: what's different?

A question we hear regularly from buyer's agents is: "Do these new AML laws actually apply to me, or just to the sales side?"

It is a fair question. Most of the public discussion about AUSTRAC's Tranche 2 reforms has focused on real estate agencies in general terms. But buyer's agent businesses are separate, smaller, and their day-to-day work looks quite different from a sales agency.

The short answer: yes, buyer's agents are caught. So are sales agents. Both roles provide a designated service under the AML/CTF Act. Both need to enrol with AUSTRAC, build an AML/CTF program, and complete customer due diligence on every client before formally acting for them.

The longer answer: while the legal framework is the same, the practical shape of your compliance work differs by role. Your clients are different, your risk exposures are different, and some specific scenarios arise more frequently on one side than the other.

This post walks through both roles side by side.

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Both roles are designated services

The AML/CTF obligations apply when you provide a designated service. For real estate, AUSTRAC defines the designated service as:

AUSTRAC is explicit that both buyer's and seller's agent arrangements fall within this definition. Whether you represent the person selling a property or the person buying it, you are brokering a transaction on their behalf. Both roles are in scope.

This means both buyer's agents and sales agents must:

• Enrol with AUSTRAC by 29 July 2026
• Build and maintain an AML/CTF program
• Complete customer due diligence (CDD) before providing the designated service
• Screen clients against DFAT's consolidated sanctions list and check for Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs)
• File Suspicious Matter Reports and Threshold Transaction Reports when required
• Keep records for seven years

The deadline is the same. The reporting obligations are the same. The penalty framework is the same.

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Who is your client - and who do you do CDD on?

Here is where the practical work starts to look different.

Sales agents (seller's agents / listing agents) represent the vendor. Your client is the property owner who has engaged you to sell. CDD must be completed on your vendor before you formally take on the listing and start acting for them.

Buyer's agents represent the buyer. Your client is the person or entity who has engaged you to search for and secure property. CDD must be completed on your buyer before you formally begin acting for them - before you start searching, shortlisting, or making offers on their behalf.

In both cases, you are completing CDD on your own client. The obligation follows the agency relationship.

One rule applies to both sides: if a client tells you they are acting on behalf of another person, you must identify both the person you are dealing with and the person they represent. Intermediaries and principals both need to be identified.

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Where the practical differences show up

Verifying your clients

Sales agents typically meet their vendor clients face to face at a listing appointment. That in-person context makes verification straightforward: you can inspect the original identity document, confirm the face matches the photo, and complete initial CDD in one meeting before signing the agency agreement.

Buyer's agents more often work with clients who are not local. An interstate investor who has engaged you to find property in a specific market, or an overseas buyer purchasing remotely, may never physically attend your office. In these cases, you need to use a remote verification method.

AUSTRAC accepts video call verification as an alternative to in-person inspection: you conduct a live video call, ask the client to hold their identity document up to the camera, and confirm the face matches the photo. You must record the date, the platform used, and your attestation that the face matched the ID.

Electronic verification via the Document Verification Service (DVS) is another option - and one that works well for clients you cannot easily meet in person.

Risk profile of your clients

The typical risk profile of a buyer's agent's client differs from a sales agent's vendor client.

Buyer's agents tend to see a higher concentration of these risk factors:

• Remote and interstate buyers - clients who have never physically inspected the property are a specific risk factor AUSTRAC flags. The lack of a physical relationship is worth noting in your risk assessment.
• Overseas buyers - purchasing from overseas raises questions about jurisdiction risk, source of funds, and whether Enhanced CDD is warranted. If a buyer is from a country on the FATF grey or black list, Enhanced CDD is required.
• Complex ownership structures - buyers purchasing through trusts, companies, self-managed super funds (SMSFs), or syndicates are more common in buyer's agent practice than in typical residential sales agency work. These structures trigger the beneficial ownership obligation: you must identify individuals who own 25% or more, or who exercise effective control.
• Cash purchases - buyers who are not financing through a lender present a higher risk. There is no mortgagee doing their own identity checks, and the source of funds can be harder to assess. AUSTRAC lists "unfinanced purchases" as a specific risk factor for the sector.
• Purchases sight-unseen - a buyer who has never seen the property is a flag worth noting in your transaction records.

Sales agents face a different but equally real set of risk factors:

• Vendors who are not the legal or beneficial owner of the property
• Unusual urgency to complete the transaction regardless of standard processes
• Instructions to direct sale proceeds to unexpected third parties
• Requests that depart from standard settlement arrangements without clear explanation
• Vendors who are reluctant to provide identification

Neither role has an easier compliance task - the risks just arise in different places.

Enhanced CDD triggers

Both buyer's agents and sales agents must apply Enhanced CDD when specific triggers are present. The triggers are the same for both roles:

• The client is a foreign Politically Exposed Person (a head of state, senior politician, senior government or judicial official, senior military officer, or senior executive of a state-owned enterprise - or their family or close associates)
• A Suspicious Matter Report has been or will be filed in relation to the client
• Your agency's risk assessment rates the client as high risk
• The client is from a high-risk jurisdiction, or the transaction involves a high-risk country
• The transaction involves complex ownership structures with no clear legitimate purpose

In practice, buyer's agents encounter foreign PEP risk more frequently - overseas buyers in the premium property market are more likely to have connections to foreign political or government circles. But the trigger and the response are the same regardless of which role you hold.

Note that domestic PEPs - Australian officials in equivalent roles - should also be screened by both sales agents and buyer's agents. Domestic PEPs are treated as lower risk and do not automatically trigger Enhanced CDD, but they must still be identified and considered as part of your customer risk rating.

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Side-by-side comparison

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A practical note for buyer's agents with small teams

AUSTRAC's Program Starter Kit is designed for agencies with 15 or fewer personnel providing only one designated service - brokering the purchase, sale, or transfer of real estate. A buyer's agency that operates within those parameters can use the Starter Kit as the foundation for its AML/CTF program.

A small buyer's agency - say, two agents and an administrator working exclusively on buyer's agent engagements - falls squarely within the Starter Kit's scope. You do not need a large, complex program. You need a program that is proportionate to your actual risk profile, covers the right risk categories (your clients, your services, your delivery channels, and your geographic focus), and is documented and approved by senior management.

The key difference to reflect in your program compared with a typical residential sales agency: your risk assessment should address the higher likelihood of remote clients, overseas buyers, complex ownership structures, and unfinanced purchases - the factors that are more prevalent on the buy side.

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AML Simple is built to handle both buyer's agent and sales agency compliance. The program wizard asks about your specific business model and risk profile, so your program reflects what your agency actually does.

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