How to Check a Queensland Real Estate Agent's Licence

Real estate agents in Queensland are licensed under the Property Occupations Act 2014 and regulated by the Office of Fair Trading. The register of licence holders is public, and checking it is free.

It is a two-minute check that most people never make, usually because the person in front of them clearly appears to be an agent.

What to check

Search the Office of Fair Trading’s public licence register by name or licence number. What you are confirming:

• That the licence exists, and the name on it matches the person you are dealing with
• The licence type — a full agent licence, a salesperson registration, or a restricted category. These are not equivalent, and the scope of what each permits differs.
• That it is current, not expired, suspended or surrendered
• Any conditions attached to it
• The entity — whether the licence is held personally, by a corporation, or both

Where a licence is held through a company, check the company’s licence as well as the individual’s, and then run an ASIC extract on that company.

Reading the result properly

Two errors are common.

Assuming the licence covers the activity. A real estate agent’s licence authorises dealing in property on behalf of others. It does not authorise providing financial product advice, operating a managed investment scheme, or dealing in securities. Those are regulated separately by ASIC under the Corporations Act.

If someone holding a real estate licence is offering you an interest in a development vehicle, the relevant question is not whether they hold a real estate licence. It is whether the offer itself requires an Australian Financial Services Licence or a disclosure document, and whether any exemption they are relying on actually applies.

Treating the licence as an endorsement. A licence confirms that the holder met entry requirements and has not been removed. It is a floor, not a rating. It says nothing about competence, and nothing at all about conduct outside licensed activity.

Other credentials worth verifying

The same principle applies to any professional qualification put forward as a reason to trust someone:

• Legal practitioners — the Queensland Law Society and the Legal Services Commission maintain registers of practising certificates and disciplinary action
• Barristers — the Bar Association of Queensland maintains a roll. Note that membership categories differ, and an associate or non-practising category is not the same as a practising barrister
• Accountants — CPA Australia, CA ANZ and the IPA maintain member directories
• Builders — the QBCC licence register

The point of checking is rarely to catch an outright fabrication, though that happens. More often it is to establish the category. Credentials are frequently described in a way that is technically accurate but conveys more standing than the category actually carries.

If someone’s professional membership is a material part of why you are willing to trust them with money, confirm exactly what that membership is, and what it permits them to do.

What a licence check cannot tell you

The register shows current status and formally recorded conditions. It does not show:

• Complaints that did not result in action
• Civil proceedings
• Personal bankruptcy — that is the AFSA register
• Companies the person has been a director of, or what happened to them

A complete check on a person offering you an investment is a licence search, an ASIC company and director search, a bankruptcy search, and a court file search. Each is cheap. Run together they take an afternoon and occasionally change a decision entirely.

If something does not match

If the register shows no licence, an expired licence, a different name, or a different category from the one claimed, that is worth resolving before proceeding — in writing, so the answer is recorded.

There are innocent explanations for most discrepancies. A licence held through a company, a recent name change, a renewal in progress. Ask, and get the answer in a form you can keep.

Consumer complaints about licensed agents can be made to the Office of Fair Trading, which has powers to investigate and to take disciplinary action.