National Licensing for Property Occupations Consultation Regulation Impact Statement

Current licence categories

Currently the licensing of property occupations work may be characterised as fitting into nine main areas:

real estate agent

business agent

strata managing agent

stock and station agent

buyers agent

property managing agent

agent’s representative

business agent’s representative

auctioneer (real property and stock)

Table E.2 illustrates which of these areas are covered by the various jurisdictional regulatory arrangements. The nomenclature of the licences issued differs across jurisdictions and may not necessarily be the same as the licence listed in the first column. For example, real estate agents are called land agents in South Australia and estate agents in Victoria. Agent’s representatives are called sales representatives in South Australia and Western Australia.

Table E.2: Property occupations licensing arrangements by jurisdiction (shaded area denotes licensing)

	NSW	Vic	Qld	WA	SA	Tas	ACT	NT
Real estate agent
Business agent		b	b		b	b
Strata managing agent		f				k	b	b
Stock and station agent			b
Pastoral house agent
Buyer’s agent		b	b	b	b		b	b
Property managing agent		b & i	b	b	b & j			b
Auctioneer (real property)	a	b	d	d	e	c	b
Auctioneer (stock)	a			d			b
Agent’s representative		g		j
Business agent’s representative		h	h	10	h
Strata managing agent

a No separate auctioneer licence category, but an endorsement is placed on a real estate agent’s or stock and station agent’s licence for competent persons.

b Not a separate licence category but forms part of the scope of work of a real estate agent or stock and station agent.

c Included in the scope of work of a real estate agent and can issue a separate registration for a general auctioneer.

d Queensland’s and Western Australia’s auctioneer’s licence captures the auction of both real and personal property. (Auctioneers in WA are licensed in the Magistrates Court.)

e An auctioneer must also be licensed as an agent or sales representative in order to obtain an auctioneer’s licence.

f A ‘light touch’ registration scheme with limited eligibility criteria.

g Assessment of eligibility and recording of details of the public register is delegated to the employing agent.

h Not a separate licence category but forms part of the scope of work of an agent’s representative.

i Victoria – Restricted to collecting rent.

j Sales representatives are required to be licensed (as a sales representative) only if they are performing commercial property management work (and must work for a licensed land agent). Those performing residential property management work do not currently require a sales representative licence, but they must still work for a licensed land agent. A single registration is issued for sales representatives to act as either a real estate sales representative or a business sales representative or both a real estate sales representative and a business sales representative.

k Tasmania operates a negative licensing scheme.