# AUSTRAC Has Started Knocking on Real Estate Agencies

By 29 July 2026, every real estate agency providing a designated service was supposed to be enrolled with AUSTRAC. Six weeks later, only 17,970 agencies had, out of roughly 45,000 offices nationwide, according to AUSTRAC's own figures. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas has confirmed the regulator is now issuing section 167 notices over that gap, telling [Real Estate Business](https://www.realestatebusiness.com.au/industry/32386-aml-crackdown-begins-austrac-puts-real-estate-agencies-under-scrutiny) that the notices "are consistent with that approach" and that businesses choosing not to enrol "should expect regulatory scrutiny." A separate scam warning landed in the same window, aimed at the same inboxes.

## What a section 167 notice actually is

A section 167 notice is a compulsory information request. AUSTRAC uses it to test whether a business can produce real evidence of compliance, not just describe it. One law firm put it well: it's less a request for documents and more a reality check.

Under the reformed AML/CTF Act, the power is wider than it used to be. A section 167 notice can now go to any person AUSTRAC reasonably believes holds relevant information, not only to reporting entities or their staff, [a genuine expansion from the pre-reform position](https://www.corrs.com.au/insights/new-austrac-investigation-and-examination-powers-take-effect). That includes current and former employees, customers, third-party agents, contractors and related companies. Before the reforms, the notice was largely limited to a reporting entity itself.

For real estate specifically, the notices reported so far ask for enrolment records, details of the agency's business structure and operations, the services it provides, its payment methods, and its brokering or agency agreements. Several have also asked for cash-handling policies, plus invoices, receipts, purchase orders and transaction records for any deal involving cash or virtual assets.

Two things follow from all of this. First, you have to respond whether or not you were ever required to enrol. The obligation sits with the notice, not with your enrolment status. Second, receiving one isn't an accusation. Ignoring it is a separate, worse problem than answering it honestly. Notices set their own response window, so treat the date on the letter as the deadline and check it the day it arrives.

## Real notice or scam? Two letters, same week

A few days before the section 167 notices started landing, AUSTRAC's CEO issued a separate warning: scammers are impersonating the agency and its staff, using official-looking emails, calls and messages to pressure people into paying money or handing over personal details.

That means a genuine notice and a fake one are circulating in the same inboxes right now, aimed at businesses that are new to this regime and don't yet know what a real one looks like.

Here's how to tell them apart:

| Genuine AUSTRAC contact | Impersonation scam |
| --- | --- |
| Names the section of the Act it's issued under | Vague about its legal basis |
| Explains why it was issued and what you need to do | Creates urgency, avoids specifics |
| Gives you AUSTRAC staff contact details and invites questions | Pushes you to a link or a private channel |
| Where money is genuinely owed, writes first and gives you time to ask questions | Demands immediate payment |
| Never asks for payment in cryptocurrency or through a messaging app | Frequently asks for crypto, WhatsApp or Telegram |

AUSTRAC has [been direct about the rule](https://www.austrac.gov.au/scam-alert-scammers-impersonating-austrac-staff): the agency doesn't contact people out of the blue demanding payment, and it will never ask you to pay in virtual currency or through a social media or messaging app.

If something feels off, stop. Don't click the link in the message. Verify it yourself using contact details from AUSTRAC's own website, not the ones printed in the letter or email.

## The gap AUSTRAC appears to be looking at

Why move so fast? The enrolment numbers are the obvious answer. As of 20 August 2026, roughly 40% of real estate offices nationwide had enrolled. That's not a measure of how many agencies are actually breaking the law: only agencies providing a designated service have to enrol at all, and a lot of the shortfall is probably agencies that genuinely don't need to.

In real estate, the services that bring you in are broad. Brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of property for a client counts, and so does selling property without an independent agent involved. Pure rent collection is a narrower question with lower risk, and some offices in that 60% may sit outside the regime entirely, or may have closed, merged or otherwise fallen out of the count.

Even accounting for that, a notice wave this early tells you AUSTRAC isn't waiting for a slow, educational rollout. It's checking who's actually there.

## Enrolment was never the finish line

It's tempting to read all of this as purely an enrolment problem. It isn't.

Being on the Reporting Entity Roll means AUSTRAC knows your agency exists. It says nothing about whether your AML/CTF program actually fits your business, whether due diligence happens at the right point in a transaction, whether your beneficial ownership checks go deep enough, or whether your training records would hold up if someone asked.

A section 167 notice can ask two different things: whether you provide designated services, and whether you're meeting your obligations. The answer to the second question lives in your program, your CDD records and your training file, not in your enrolment confirmation.

Enrolment is the entry point. It was never the pass mark.

## One deadline most agencies still have wrong

The notices are this month's urgent story, but there's a slower change that affects every reporting entity, and most published compliance calendars still get the date wrong.

The annual compliance report has moved from a calendar-year cycle to a financial-year one. The first reporting period under the new rule runs 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, and the submission window is 1 July to 30 September, meaning the report for that period is due by 30 September 2027. [That's AUSTRAC's own published position](https://www.austrac.gov.au/business/core-guidance/reporting/austrac-compliance-reports), and its real estate program materials have been updated to match.

A lot of agencies still have 31 March diarised, carried over from the old cycle. If that's what's on your calendar, fix it now. You've got a year of runway to do it in, not a fortnight.

## What to do this week

1. **Confirm your status.** If you broker sales, purchases or transfers for clients, you're very likely captured. Check AUSTRAC's guidance rather than assuming your agency's size exempts you.
2. **Check the Roll, not your assumption.** Being unenrolled while providing a designated service is its own breach, separate from anything else.
3. **Know what a genuine notice looks like before one arrives.** Agree who opens AUSTRAC correspondence, who verifies it, and that nobody pays anything based on an email alone.
4. **Test your compliance officer's AUSTRAC Online access now.** Reports are lodged there. Access that only starts working after an IT ticket fails you at exactly the wrong moment.
5. **Re-read your program against what you actually do.** A starter kit put together in June and left untouched since is worth re-testing against the deals you've actually run since.

## Where this leaves your agency

AUSTRAC moved fast: notices within weeks of the enrolment deadline, an information-gathering power that now reaches well beyond reporting entities, and a compliance-report date that's shifted out from under most calendars.

AMLHive is built specifically for Australian real estate agencies: Your Virtual Compliance Officer for the obligations that now sit inside your sales process. If you're not certain where your agency actually stands, start a 14-day free trial, or contact us for implementation services (Go-Live & Adoption, Secure Data Migration & Configuration, Integration Discovery and Delivery, Enterprise Rollout); contact for pricing.

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*This is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. It does not cover every obligation or scenario. Compliance decisions, and legal responsibility, remain with the reporting entity. AMLHive does not lodge reports for you, is not a statutory body, and is not approved or endorsed by AUSTRAC.*