How to check a buyer's agent is licensed

A buyer's agent who cannot be found on a public register is not a specialist. They are a risk. Real estate licensing in Australia is a state and territory job. Each jurisdiction keeps a register so a buyer can check that the person taking a fee to search, negotiate or bid is allowed to do that work. The search takes minutes. Skipping it is how people hire a confident stranger with a nice Instagram grid.

This is the first check in our checks and red flags hub, and it is the one that does not care how charming the first meeting was. A licence is not a personality reference. It is the legal permission to do the job described in what a buyer's agent does. Everything else — REBAA membership, testimonials, a trophy wall of off-market wins — sits on top of it, or it sits on nothing.

This article is general information. It is not a ruling on a particular person, and it is not a substitute for the register or for advice from a solicitor if something looks wrong.

What you are actually checking

In most jurisdictions a buyer's agent (also called a buyer's advocate) must hold a real estate agent's licence, or a certificate of registration as a salesperson working under a licensed agent, in the state or territory where they are doing the work. The labels on the plastic differ. The idea does not. Consumer pages from NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, WA Consumer Protection, Consumer and Business Services in South Australia, Access Canberra, Tasmania's CBOS, and Licensing NT all describe some version of the same duty: do not pay an unlicensed person to do licensed work.

Ask for the number in the first meeting. Ask whose name is on it. Ask whether you are hiring the licensed agent, a salesperson under that agent, or a brand that markets "our buyers' agents" while the legal entity is someone you have not met. Then go to the public register for the jurisdiction where the property sits — or where the agent is carrying on the business, if those are different, in which case you may need both — and search.

You are looking for a current record that matches the person and the company. Expired, surrendered, suspended or "no result" are not rounding errors. A record in a different name, or a company licence with no obvious link to the individual who will bid for you, is a question, not a tick. Some registers also show disciplinary history. Read it. A past condition on a licence is not automatically a deal-breaker, but it is not a secret the agent gets to keep because the meeting was going well.

Where the registers live

You do not need a clever workaround. You need the regulator's search page.

New South Wales — NSW Fair Trading maintains a public register of property professionals. Search the person and the corporation. Fair Trading is the regulator, not an industry club.

Victoria — Consumer Affairs Victoria publishes an estate agent licence check. If the firm is a corporation, check that as well as the individual.

Queensland — the Office of Fair Trading licences real estate agents under the state's property occupations framework. (QBCC is a different register, aimed at building work, and it will not save you if the buyer's agent is unlicensed.)

Western Australia — Consumer Protection, through the state's licensing arrangements, is the place to search. A handsome Subiaco meeting is not a substitute.

South Australia — Consumer and Business Services (CBS) holds the register.

Australian Capital Territory — Access Canberra.

Tasmania — Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS).

Northern Territory — Licensing NT / NT Consumer Affairs, depending on how the search is labelled that year.

The URLs move. The existence of a register does not. If a firm's website says "fully licensed" and will not name the jurisdiction or the number, believe the silence. Our red flags piece lists unlicensed operators first for a reason.

If you are buying in a different state from the one the agent lives in, do not assume portability. Real estate work is local. A Sydney licence does not, by itself, authorise a Perth purchase. Some firms have licensed offices in more than one state. Some "national" brands are a marketing wrapper around local licensees. Ask which licence covers this file, then search that register. If the answer is a shrug, you do not have an interstate specialist. You have a brochure.

What a licence does not prove

A current licence means the person is allowed to do the work. It does not mean they are good at it. It does not mean they are insured, though you should still ask for professional indemnity insurance and have the certificate on the file. It does not mean they act only for buyers. It does not mean they are a member of any association. It does not mean their fee is reasonable. It does not mean the buyer's agency authority is fair.

Two extra checks sit beside the register and take another ten minutes.

Who pays them on this deal? Exclusive buyer agents should not take vendor commission on the same deal. If the person is inside a selling agency, or is paid by a developer, or hopes to list your next property, you are not hiring an independent advocate. You are hiring a related party. Read buyer's agent versus selling agent.

What does the authority say about success fees if you find the home yourself? A licence will not save you from a vague clause. Get the fee GST-inclusive, in writing, with termination and self-found-property rules in English. The fees hub is the longer version.

Association membership is the check people confuse with licensing. REBAA is a professional association, not a regulator. It can set standards for members and it can expel them. It cannot issue a licence and it cannot replace Fair Trading. Membership can be a useful signal — exclusive buyer work, a code of conduct, a peer group — and it is still optional. Plenty of licensed, competent buyer's agents are not members. Plenty of members still need the register search. Do both. Do not do the comfortable one and skip the legal one.

How to ask without turning the meeting into a raid

You do not need a speech. You need a sentence: "What is your licence number, and which register should I search?" A professional will be pleased you asked, because it means you are the sort of client who will also let them book a building inspection. An amateur will change the subject to off-market stock.

Take a photo of the licence or write the number down. Search that day, not after you have paid an engagement fee. If the person at the meeting is not the licensed agent, ask to see the licensed agent's details and the supervision arrangement. Salespeople can do real work under a licensee. Ghosts cannot.

If the search is clean, you still have a hiring decision. Licensed is the floor. The rest of the interview — local sales, a readable authority, a fee that does not punish you for finding a house, a refusal to promise bargains, a plan for inspections — is the job. Use our questions to ask. If the search is not clean, stop. There is no off-market listing so rare that it requires an unlicensed intermediary.

When this check is the whole decision

Some readers do not need a buyer's agent at all. If you already know the house, the campaign is quiet, and you have a conveyancer, read when you do not need a buyer's agent and spend the fee on due diligence. If you do hire, hire a licensed person in the right state. The register is the one part of the industry that was built for you rather than for the agent's marketing calendar.

Keep a screenshot of the search with the date on it. If something later goes wrong, you will want to show that you did the ordinary, adult thing. If nothing goes wrong, you will have lost four minutes. That is the correct ratio.

The short version

Buyer's agents do licensed real estate work. Each state and territory has a public register — Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, OFT, Consumer Protection WA, CBS, Access Canberra, CBOS, Licensing NT. Search the person and the company. REBAA is not the register. A licence does not prove independence, insurance or a fair fee, but the absence of a licence is enough reason to walk away. Unlicensed operators, guaranteed bargains, and a refusal to give you a number are the same class of problem: someone hoping you will not check.