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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA) has elected a new president, and for the next term the national body for the profession will be led from Brisbane. Real Estate Business and Smart Property Investment reported on 24 August 2026 that Zoran Solano, previously the association's vice-president, has taken over from Melinda Jennison, who stepped down after three years in the role.
A change of office-holders at an industry association is ordinarily a small item. This one comes at a moment when the association's views are being sought more than usual. In the past three months a large investment-focused buyer's agency has gone into liquidation owing clients more than $10 million, industry and investor groups have called for tighter licensing, lending to self-managed super funds for housing has ended, and buyer's agents have come under federal anti-money-laundering law. This article reports the change and explains what the association is, what it asks of its members and what it can and cannot do.
Real Estate Business and Smart Property Investment, 24 August 2026; REBAA's published membership criteria.
The change at the top
According to both reports, Mr Solano has worked as a buyer's agent for 17 years and is with a Brisbane buyer's agency. At 35 he is the youngest president elected since the association was founded in 2000. Henny Rahardja becomes vice-president, and the treasurer and secretary were re-elected.
The incoming president set out two aims. One is to grow the membership. "I look forward to continuing to grow our membership so that more buyers' agents operate to the highest possible standards," he said in the association's own announcement. The other is to increase what members receive for belonging, including building what he called an industry ecosystem of like-minded businesses that share ideas.
Related readSuper fund home lending ends on 10 August: buyer's agents braceMs Jennison pointed to membership growth and a higher profile as the marks of her term. Smart Property Investment quoted her as citing strong growth in membership and the association's "increasing profile with consumers and policymakers". Neither report gives a membership number, and none appears in the association's published membership information.
What the association is
REBAA describes itself as the national industry association for professional buyer's agents and advocates. It was set up in 2000 to raise standards in the industry and to establish guidelines for the professional conduct of agents who represent purchasers.
Its defining feature is exclusivity. The association's consumer information describes its members as exclusive buyer's agents: they represent buyers only. A member may not list property for sale, may not receive commissions from vendors or developers and may not accept kickbacks from third parties. That is a stricter position than the law takes. In Queensland, as in other states, the same real estate licence allows a person to act for sellers and for buyers, though not for both in the same transaction where their interests conflict.
The association is a voluntary body. A licensed agent does not need to belong to it to work as a buyer's agent, and many do not. Its authority is over its own members: it can admit them, set conditions and remove them.
What membership requires
The published criteria for an agency to join give a picture of where the association sets its bar.
| Requirement | What it says |
|---|---|
| Licensing | The principal and all staff acting as buyer's agents are licensed in every state or territory where the agency operates. |
| Buyers only | The agency does not list property for sale or act as a sales agent. |
| Insurance | Professional indemnity cover of at least $2,000,000. |
| Conduct | The agency upholds the association's code of conduct. |
| Cost | A $250 joining fee and $1,350 a year, plus $250 for each additional state. |
REBAA membership information. Staff of member agencies who advise clients join separately at $250 a year.
An agency must also have been operating as a buyer's agency for a minimum period before it can apply. The association admits affiliate members from related occupations, such as conveyancers, solicitors and finance brokers, provided they are not engaged in real estate sales.
Related readWhat a buyer's agent does in Queensland, and the licence it takesTwo of the rows matter particularly in Queensland. The licensing requirement means a member agency based in Sydney or Melbourne that buys in Brisbane must hold a Queensland licence, which is also what Queensland law requires of anyone doing the work here. The association has in the past named unlicensed interstate operators as a compliance problem and used Queensland as its example. And the insurance requirement fills a gap in what the public can see, since the Queensland licence register does not report whether an agent carries indemnity cover.
The questions in front of it
The new executive inherits a list of live issues, most of which the association has already spoken on.
The first is fees. After the liquidation of the buyer's agency Dashdot in May, the association published a statement on 29 June, made by Mr Solano as vice-president, saying a typical engagement fee is between $1,000 and $5,000 and that most of a buyer's agent's fee should fall due only when a purchase succeeds. Liquidators' figures reported by Real Estate Business in June showed 695 clients of the failed agency claiming $10.59 million in prepaid services and refunds.
The second is entry standards. In June 2025, under Ms Jennison, the association warned of a surge of undertrained entrants and called on regulators to add education requirements specific to buyer representation. It argued that general real estate licensing prepares people to sell property and does not teach the assessment, due diligence and negotiation that acting for a buyer involves. After the Dashdot collapse, Property Investment Professionals of Australia and the Property Investors Council of Australia made related calls, the former for national regulation and consistent state licensing pathways.
Related readAppointing a buyer's agent in Queensland: what Form 6 must containThe third is the market itself. New loans to self-managed super funds for residential property ended on 10 August. Real Estate Business reported on 7 August that agencies which specialised in those purchases expect a severe fall in work.
The fourth is compliance. Since 1 July 2026, real estate businesses, including those that act for buyers, have had obligations under federal anti-money-laundering law, which means identifying clients and keeping records in ways small agencies have not had to before.
What an association can and cannot do
It is worth being precise about the reach of a body like this, because the reforms being discussed are mostly beyond it.
An association can define good practice and publish it, as REBAA did on engagement fees. It can make that practice a condition of membership. It can give the public a directory of agencies that have met its criteria. And it can argue for changes to the law.
It cannot license anyone, and it cannot stop a non-member from trading. In Queensland those powers belong to the Office of Fair Trading under the Property Occupations Act 2014. The Act treats buying property for others for reward as real estate agency work, and the regulator's licensing pages set the requirement: a full licence resting on 19 units of training, or a salesperson's registration resting on 12, with no additional qualification for buyer's agents. The Office of Fair Trading also sets no limit on fees. Its guidance says agents are free to negotiate commission with clients, provided the amount and the date it is due are written into the appointment.
Related readBidding at a Queensland auction through a buyer's agent: the rulesThe association sets standards for members; the regulator licenses everyone
REBAA membership is voluntary and its rules bind only members. Licensing, discipline and prosecution of property agents in Queensland rest with the Office of Fair Trading.
So the specialised training the association asked for in 2025, and the limits on upfront fees that investor groups asked for in June, would each need a change to state law, in every state for the result to be consistent. That is a longer project than one presidential term.
The Queensland connection
For Queensland readers there is a local thread. The incoming president works in Brisbane, so the profession's national body will be led for the coming term by someone whose daily business is done under Queensland's rules.
That gives the state's framework some prominence in the national argument. Queensland requires every appointment of a buyer's agent to be made in writing before any work starts, on a prescribed form that must state the services, all fees and expenses and their due dates. It requires disclosure of benefits an agent expects from third parties. It maintains a public licence register that anyone can search without charge. Those are the foundations a tighter regime would be built on, and they are already in place.
What the state does not have is what the association has asked for: a qualification, or even a licence category, specific to acting for buyers. On the register, a buyer's agent and a selling agent hold the same licence.
What comes next
Neither report sets out a timetable for the new executive's plans, and the association has not announced a policy program beyond the aims its president described. The practical tests of the coming months are already visible: how the liquidation of the failed agency resolves for its clients, whether any government responds to the calls for licensing reform, and how many agencies come through the end of super fund lending.
For the association the measure it has set itself is membership. A larger share of the profession inside its rules would extend the reach of standards that, for now, the law leaves to choice.
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.
