Anti money laundering checks when you sell: what changed, and what we need from you

If you are selling a property in Perth this year, your agent will ask you for identification before the campaign gets far. That is new, it applies to every agency in the country, and it is worth understanding rather than being surprised by it at the worst moment.

What changed on 1 July 2026

Australia has had anti money laundering laws for years, but they applied to banks, casinos and a handful of other sectors. From 1 July 2026 they were extended to a second group, which is why you will hear it called Tranche 2. Real estate agents are in that group. So are settlement agents and conveyancers, lawyers, accountants and dealers in precious metals and stones.

In practical terms, an agency that brokers the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate is now a reporting entity. It has to enrol with AUSTRAC, hold a written risk assessment and a compliance program, verify who its clients are, keep records, train its people, report anything suspicious, and submit an annual compliance report. None of that is optional and none of it is unique to KPR.

The part most people get wrong: property management is not caught

If you own a rental with us, or you rent one from us, nothing about this changes for you. Property management and residential tenancy agreements sit outside the regime. The obligations attach to buying and selling, not to leasing.

We mention it because owners of rental properties often hear “new identity laws for real estate” and assume they are about to be asked for a passport to renew a lease. They are not.

What we will actually ask a seller for

Identity, and where it is not obvious, where the money comes from. For an individual that usually means a current photo identity document and confirmation of your name, date of birth and address. Where a property is owned by a company, a trust or a self managed super fund, we also need to understand who sits behind that structure and who controls it. If you are selling as an executor or under a power of attorney, we will need the document that gives you the authority.

There are two further checks that happen quietly in the background on every client: a sanctions check and a politically exposed person check. Almost nobody ever registers on either. They still have to be run.

How KPR does it, and why it is not painful

We use First AML, a dedicated verification platform, rather than asking you to email photographs of your licence to an agent’s inbox. You receive a secure link, you verify yourself in a few minutes on your phone, and the result comes back to us. Your documents live in the platform rather than in somebody’s email, which is better for you and better for us.

For a straightforward individual seller it is usually done in one sitting. For a company or a trust it takes a little longer, because there are more people to identify, which is exactly why we start it early.

Start it early, because settlement will not wait

The single practical piece of advice we can give: do the verification when you list, not when you are under offer. Verification that has not been completed can hold up a transaction at the point where everyone is trying to get to settlement, and that is a stressful place to discover that a director overseas still has not clicked a link. Done at listing, it is a five minute administrative task nobody thinks about again.

Why this exists at all

Property is a large, legitimate, high value market, which is exactly what makes it attractive to somebody trying to move money that should not be moved. The regime is designed to make that harder. For the overwhelming majority of sellers and buyers, who are simply moving house, it means one identity check and nothing else.

Questions

If you are unsure how this applies to your sale, or you own through a structure and want to know what we will need, call the office on 08 6385 6800 or email [email protected] and we will walk you through it before you list.

You will be asked for identification more than once in a sale, and it is not duplication for its own sake. Your settlement agent is a reporting entity under these same reforms, so they run their own customer checks on you. Separately again, they must verify your identity before they can act for you inside the electronic settlement Workspace, which is how almost every Western Australian settlement is now completed. Different obligations, different people, and neither one is allowed to lean on the other having done it. Deal with all of it in the first week and it never touches your settlement date. There is more on the settlement side in what a settlement agent actually does in Perth.

This article is general information about how the process works at KPR. It is not legal advice. AUSTRAC publishes guidance for consumers and businesses, and your settlement agent or lawyer can advise on your particular circumstances.

Not sure what happens between the contract and the keys? Read what a settlement agent actually does in Perth.

By James Yeoman, Director of KPR Perth Pty Ltd T/A Key Performance Real Estate