AUSTRAC Tranche 2: AML guide for real estate agents.

Routine residential property management — collecting rent, arranging maintenance, managing a standard tenancy agreement — is generally not itself a designated service under Tranche 2. The capture focuses on sale, purchase, and transfer transactions. If your agency handles both sales and property management, the sales side is captured and the AML/CTF program needs to cover it; the property management side is generally not captured unless it crosses into finance-adjacent services.

For a listing agent, the customer is the vendor (seller). For a buyers' agent, the customer is the purchaser. CDD must be performed on the customer. AUSTRAC guidance indicates that risk-based CDD on the counterparty (the buyer, in a listing scenario) is also required where risk indicators are present — foreign-corporate buyers, trust-structure buyers, or high-value cash deposits.

Self-managed super fund purchases of real estate have become routine. The SMSF is typically captured as a trust arrangement — the trustee (often a corporate trustee) is the legal person with which the agency transacts. Ironbark resolves the corporate trustee and the recorded directors; the agency's AML/CTF program sets out the additional identification required for the fund's members and controlling principals.

A threshold transaction is a transaction involving the movement of AUD 10,000 or more where the reporting entity is a party to the transaction or receives, pays, or transfers the money. Deposit receipts into the trust account, settlement payments passing through, and agent commission receipts are all potential triggers depending on the structure. AUSTRAC guidance provides the detailed worked examples. Practical advice: integrate TTR lodgement with the settlement workflow so nothing is overlooked.

No — foreign-ownership flags trigger enhanced due diligence, not automatic refusal. The AML/CTF Rules set out the risk factors that require enhanced CDD: foreign PEPs, customers in jurisdictions the Financial Action Task Force identifies as high-risk, and complex or opaque ownership structures. Foreign-corporate buyers from low-risk jurisdictions with a transparent ownership chain are routine.

Under s 123 AML/CTF Act 2006 (Cth), once an SMR has been formed or lodged, the reporting entity is prohibited from disclosing to the customer, or a third party, that the SMR has been made or is being considered. In real estate this most commonly arises when a sales agent forms a suspicion about a buyer's funds. The agent must not mention the suspicion to the buyer or the vendor. The AML/CTF program should set out the internal escalation path so front-line staff are not placed in a difficult position.

No. State real-estate licensing legislation (the Property and Stock Agents Act and equivalents) governs trust-account conduct, licensing, and professional conduct. It does not discharge the AML/CTF Act 2006 (Cth) obligations that Tranche 2 introduces. The two regimes are cumulative and must both be complied with.

Each reporting entity appoints its own AMLCO. In a franchise arrangement, the franchisor is typically a separate legal entity from each franchisee office. Each franchisee that is a separate legal entity providing designated services is its own reporting entity and appoints its own AMLCO. Franchisor-provided policy templates and training are common and efficient, but the legal obligation sits with each reporting entity.

Ironbark resolves a trust or SMSF to its trustee (usually a corporate trustee) and screens the trustee's ASIC particulars, directors, and beneficial ownership. Where the trust is a discretionary trust with named beneficiaries that are recorded only on the trust deed and not on a public register, the screen flags that source-document evidence is required — Ironbark does not invent beneficiary data that Australian registers do not hold.

Sanctions and PEP screening is one component of CDD and it's what most global screening tools specialise in. On its own it does not cover ABR status, ASIC company and director particulars, ASIC banned-and-disqualified persons, AUSTRAC enforcement history, AFSA insolvency, or Federal Court matters. For a real estate agency, the highest-value data in the Ironbark screen is typically the ASIC chain — who controls the corporate buyer — rather than the sanctions check alone.