THE NEW (AND COSTLY) HAT REAL ESTATE AGENTS WILL SOON HAVE TO WEAR

Later this year the Federal Government will be again introducing another role of responsibility to the real estate industry. This time it is that of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing investigator, and at the up front cost of the real estate agent. Over the last 10 years we have picked up a few new jobs: pool certificate verifier, electrical inspector, fire detection device inspector amongst other jobs. But this new role is going to be quite cost exhaustive. Each office or licensed agent, performing as a business, will need to appoint a compliance officer.

Every transaction, with every buyer and seller will then need to be checked and recorded on the official and approved platforms from AUSTRAC for verification. This is again a well-intentioned initiative and it will involve the legal industry as well as the real estate industry. But is the juice going to be worth the squeeze? In my discussion with industry leaders in New Zealand, where this has been in place for four years, it has not made much on a dint. Based on the information that was shared to me, it has only led to approximately three convictions each year.

That’s from the thousands and thousands of transactions it is now monitoring. So I assume it’s either really, really effective or not at all. The other astonishing information that was shared with me is that it only applies to properties sold by real estate agents. So a private sale or internal transfers doesn’t have to go through the rigmarole or wear the cost. Surely this could be done by the titles office prior to settlement and handled by the powers that be. They have a view on every sale and rather than fine agents who are in the firing line for a few jobs already, they could simply make it a requirement when completing settlement .