The agency licence in Queensland: company, person in charge, office

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Walk into a Queensland real estate office and there are usually several licences in play at once. The agent at the front desk may hold a registration certificate. The principal holds a full real estate agent licence. And the business itself, if it is a company, holds a licence of its own. Clients tend to think of the agent they deal with. The law starts with the business.

That matters because the business is what a seller appoints, what holds a buyer's deposit and what answers to the regulator. This guide sets out how an agency is licensed in Queensland under the Property Occupations Act 2014: the difference between an individual's licence and a corporation's, who has to be in charge and where, what counts as a place of business, what must be reported and when, and how anyone can check. It draws on the Act and on the Office of Fair Trading's published guidance. It describes the general rules and is not advice on any application.

Sources: Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld), section 24; Office of Fair Trading guidance on updating licence details and on places of business.

Who licenses an agency

Real estate agencies in Queensland are licensed by the Office of Fair Trading, which is part of the State's justice department. The governing law is the Property Occupations Act 2014. A companion law, the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, covers trust accounts and the claim fund.

Section 24 of the Property Occupations Act provides for three classes of licence: an auctioneer licence, a real estate agent licence and a resident letting agent licence. Section 28 also allows limited licences, restricted to particular activities. An agency that sells and manages property works under the real estate agent licence.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance describes what that licence permits. The holder may own or manage a real estate agency; buy, sell, exchange or rent houses, land and businesses on behalf of others; negotiate for buyers, sellers and landlords; show and inspect property; collect rent; advertise; and operate trust accounts. It does not permit the holder to conduct an auction, which needs the separate auctioneer licence.

Below the licence sits the registration certificate held by a real estate salesperson. A registered salesperson works for a licensed agent and cannot run an agency in their own right.

The individual licence and the corporation licence

A real estate agent licence can be held by a person or by a company, and the tests are different.

For an individual, section 45 of the Act requires the applicant to be at least 18 and to hold the educational or other qualifications approved by the chief executive. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance, last updated on 14 May 2026, sets the qualification at 19 units of competency drawn from the Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice and the Diploma of Property (Agency Management). A person who held an equivalent licence within the previous two years is treated as meeting the requirement.

For a corporation, the test is about who runs it. Under section 45, a corporation is eligible for a real estate agent licence only if a person in charge of the corporation's real estate agency business is a real estate agent. In other words, a company cannot be licensed on the strength of its shareholders or its capital. It needs a licensed individual at the head of the agency work.

Many agencies are sole traders or partnerships, and for those the principal's individual licence is the agency's licence. Where the business is a company, both licences exist side by side: the company's, and that of the person in charge.

The suitability test and who it covers

Holding the qualifications is not enough. An applicant must also be a suitable person, and for a company the test reaches the people behind it.

Under section 34 of the Act, an individual is not suitable if they are an insolvent under administration, have been convicted of a serious offence within the previous five years, or are currently disqualified from holding a licence. The Office of Fair Trading describes a serious offence as one carrying three or more years' imprisonment. Section 36 then lists what the chief executive must weigh in any case: the person's character and business associates, any earlier suspension or cancellation of a licence, any claim paid from the claim fund because of their conduct, their criminal history and anything else relevant.

Section 35 applies the same test to corporations, with one extension. A corporation is unsuitable if the corporation itself, or any of its executive officers, would fail the test. A company cannot be used to put a licence in the hands of someone who could not obtain one personally.

A criminal history check is part of an application. The Office of Fair Trading's fee schedule lists it as mandatory for an initial application unless one was completed in the previous six months, and its guidance warns that the check is thorough and takes time. The Office gives a processing time of four to six weeks for a licence application, longer if the application is incomplete.

The registered office and the person in charge

Every licensee has a registered office, and the Act is particular about it. Section 31 requires an applicant to state a place of business, and that place must be one where a document can be served personally. A post office box is not acceptable. The point is that clients, courts and inspectors must be able to find the business at a real address.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on places of business sets out who must be there. The principal licensee must be in charge of the business at the registered office. That is a personal obligation: the principal cannot nominate a salesperson to be in charge of the principal office.

For a company, the person in charge is the licensed individual on whom the corporation's eligibility depends. If that person leaves, the company's entitlement to its licence is in question until another licensed agent takes charge. A change of office bearers is one of the events a company must report.

Branch offices and the one-place rule

An agency may operate from more than one place, and each additional place brings its own requirement.

According to the Office of Fair Trading, every place of business other than the registered office must have a licensed person in charge, or in some circumstances a real estate salesperson. That person may not be in charge of more than one place. An agency with a head office and two branches therefore needs three qualified people: the principal at the registered office and one person in charge at each branch.

The guidance limits when a salesperson can fill the role. A salesperson cannot be in charge of the principal office. A salesperson whose registration is conditional must not run a place of business or influence how the business is run.

What counts as one place is defined narrowly. Separate premises are treated as a single place of business only if they are directly attached to each other or share a boundary, and are not separated by a public road. Two shopfronts on opposite sides of a street are two places.

The Office does not approve locations. Its guidance says no government approval is needed under the current law to open a place of business, although local government rules about the premises still apply. Agencies may also share an office with other licensees.

What an agency must keep and show

A licensed business has standing obligations that a client can test at any time.

The Office of Fair Trading's rules about holding a licence, updated on 12 May 2026, say a licensee must be able to show a client or an inspector a copy of their licence, the corporate licence and any employee's licence or registration, and must keep copies at the relevant premises. A client who asks to see the licence under which an agency operates is asking for something the agency is required to produce.

The same rules cover who may do what inside the office. Sales and letting work can be carried out by a licensed agent or a registered salesperson. An auction must be called by a licensed auctioneer whatever their employment arrangement, and the auctioneer's name must be displayed clearly at the auction.

Since June 2025, property licensees and registered salespeople in Queensland have also been subject to mandatory continuing professional development, which the Office of Fair Trading lists among the conditions of keeping a licence or registration current.

Changes that must be reported within 14 days

A licence records a set of facts about the business, and the licensee is responsible for keeping them accurate. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on updating licence details, updated on 29 June 2026, puts it plainly: changes must be reported within 14 days.

One change cannot be made by notice at all. If a company's Australian Company Number changes, the guidance says a new licence application is required. The licence belongs to a specific legal entity, and a different entity needs its own. This is the rule that matters most when an agency is sold: buying a company's shares leaves the licensed entity intact, while buying the business into a new company means the new company must be licensed before it trades.

When the licensee is away

A principal licensee who is going to be absent can appoint a substitute, and the Act sets limits according to how long the absence lasts.

For an absence of 30 days or fewer, no application is needed. Section 66 of the Act requires the appointment to be in writing with the substitute's signed consent, and the documents to be kept at the registered office. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance puts a ceiling on this route of 12 weeks in any 12 months.

For an absence of more than 30 days, the licensee must apply to the Office for approval of the substitute. Approved appointments can run for up to 26 weeks in any 12 months, and the Office gives a processing time of four to six weeks. The schedule in force from 1 July 2026 sets the fee for the appointment or extension of a substitute licensee at $101.70.

The Office recommends a substitute who holds the same class of licence. Otherwise the substitute must be a suitable adult: not insolvent under administration, not disqualified, with no conviction for a serious offence in the previous five years, and capable of performing the licensee's duties.

What the licence costs a business

Licence fees are set by regulation and published by the Office of Fair Trading. A company's licence is cheaper than an individual's, which reflects the fact that the person in charge is separately licensed and separately charged.

A licence can be taken for one year or three. A company that lets its licence lapse pays a restoration fee instead of the renewal fee: $628.00 for one year or $1,416.30 for three. More important than the fee is the gap. A business whose licence has expired is not licensed, and the consequences of trading in that state are far larger than the cost of renewing on time.

What happens when the rules are broken

The Office of Fair Trading publishes the categories of breach it acts on. They include offences about appointments, auditing, commission, inspections, licences and registration, premises, trust accounts, unlicensed operation, and warnings and disclosure.

The amounts it lists show how seriously licensing is treated. Carrying out work without the required licence carries a maximum of $34,540 or two years' imprisonment for an individual. The Office says maximum penalties for individuals across the property laws range from $8,635 to $172,700, with terms of imprisonment of up to five years for the gravest offences, and that corporations can face up to five times the maximum that applies to an individual.

Court is not the only outcome. The Office may accept an enforceable undertaking, which it describes as an alternative to court action: a legally binding agreement in which the business commits to stop the conduct and not repeat it.

There is a commercial consequence as well. Under the Act, an agency's entitlement to its commission is tied to being properly licensed and properly appointed. A business that is unlicensed at the time it acts puts its fee at risk along with everything else.

How anyone can check an agency's licence

The licensing system is public by design. The Office of Fair Trading keeps a register of all licensed property agents, salespeople and corporations, and it can be searched online free of charge.

For most purposes the online search is enough. It shows whether a licence exists and whether it is current. The Office notes that the online register is for information only and cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings. For that, or for a formal record, anyone can request an official extract. The extract sets out the licence holder's name, the registered business name and place of business, the licence number and class, and the licence status, which may be current, expired, refused, cancelled or suspended. The fee from 1 July 2026 is $20.70, and the Office says an extract arrives within 10 working days.

Two practical points follow. A trading name and a licensed name are often different, so a search under the name on the signboard may need to be repeated under the company name on the appointment form. And where the agency is a company, there are two entries worth finding: the corporation's licence, and the individual licence of the person in charge.

An agency's brand can change overnight. The licensed name on the register is the one that signs the appointment and answers for the money.

The licence is the entry point to everything else the law asks of an agency. Only a licensed business can be appointed to sell or manage property, and the appointment must be made on the prescribed form before any service is performed. Only a licensee can hold clients' money in trust, under the separate rules of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014. And it is the licensee's conduct that the claim fund stands behind if money goes missing.

For owners and buyers, that is the reason the structure is worth understanding. The person across the desk may be a salesperson of two years' standing or a principal of thirty. Behind them is a licensed business with a registered office, a named person in charge and a public entry on a register, and each of those can be checked before anything is signed.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →