In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Before a Queensland home is listed, the owner signs an appointment that lets a stranger market the property, negotiate its price and, in most cases, hold the buyer's deposit. Before a tenancy starts, an owner hands over the keys and the rent roll. In both cases the person on the other side of the desk is allowed to do the work only because the State has licensed them to do it.
Checking that licence takes a few minutes and costs nothing. The Office of Fair Trading, which regulates the property industry, keeps a public register of every property licence and registration it has issued, and anyone can search it online. Few people do. Most assume, reasonably, that a person working under a familiar brand in a shopfront office is properly licensed, and in the great majority of cases that is true.
This guide explains what the register is, what an entry shows, how to match the class of licence to the work being done, and what the register does not cover. It describes the general position under Queensland law. A particular dispute about an unlicensed person, or about commission paid to one, needs advice on its own facts.
Office of Fair Trading, check a property licence page.
Why a licence matters to a client
Queensland does not let just anyone sell or let property for reward. The Property Occupations Act 2014 reserves that work for people who hold a licence or a registration certificate, and the Office of Fair Trading's licensing pages set out what stands behind each one.
An applicant has to be at least 18 and has to complete a set list of nationally recognised training units: 12 for a salesperson registration and 19 for a full agent licence, according to the regulator. The applicant also has to be a suitable person. The regulator's pages say a person is not suitable while disqualified from holding a licence or within five years of a conviction for a serious offence, a term that covers crimes punishable by three or more years' imprisonment, such as fraud. A criminal history check is part of every application. The regulator also weighs earlier cancellations or suspensions, insolvency, disqualification as a company director and successful claims against the property industry claim fund.
Related readRunning an open home in Queensland: the rules on the agent's sideHolding the licence brings continuing duties. Licensed agents who hold clients' money must keep it in a trust account that is audited. Since 6 June 2025, agents, salespeople and auctioneers have had to complete two approved professional development sessions each year. And the conduct rules in the regulation, such as the duty to avoid conflicts of interest, apply only to people the regulator can reach, which means licence holders.
A client who deals with a licensed person therefore has three protections that an unlicensed operator cannot offer: a person who has been trained and vetted, rules of conduct that can be enforced, and access to a statutory claim fund if trust money goes missing.
Where the register is and what a search costs
The register is kept by the Office of Fair Trading and is reached through its check a licence service on the Queensland Government website. The regulator's page says the online search is free and covers licensed property agents, salespeople and corporations.
A search can start from very little. A person's name, a business name or a licence number is enough to bring up an entry. The licence number is the most reliable way to search when a name is common, and an agent can be asked for it.
Checking is not an accusation; it is the property equivalent of reading the registration papers before buying a car.
What an entry shows
The regulator's page lists the fields that a register record contains. They are few, and each has a use.
| Field | What it tells a client |
|---|---|
| Name of the holder | Whether the person or company in front of you is the one licensed |
| Business name and place of business | Whether the office you are dealing with is the registered one |
| Status | Current, expired, refused, cancelled or suspended |
| Licence number and class | What kind of work the document permits |
Office of Fair Trading, check a property licence page.
The name deserves a careful look. Many agencies trade under a franchise brand, while the licence is held by a local company with a different legal name and by the individuals who work in it. The entry for the company and the entry for the person who signs the appointment are separate records, and both are worth finding.
Related readTop fine for most Queensland agent offences is now $34,540The place of business links the licence to an address. A licensee must notify the regulator of the places where business is carried on, and the regulator's rules on holding a licence require copies of the agency's licence, any corporate licence and the employees' licences or registrations to be kept at the relevant premises and shown on request. A client who prefers paper to a screen can simply ask to see them.
Reading the status line
The status is the heart of the entry. The register uses five words.
Current means the licence or registration is in force. This is what a client expects to see.
Expired means the term has ended without renewal. It is not always the end of the story. The Office of Fair Trading's renewal page says a holder has three months after expiry to apply for restoration, and that a person whose application is received within those three months can continue working while it is processed. After three months without an application the licence is gone and a fresh application is needed. An entry marked expired is therefore a reason to ask a question, not to draw a conclusion.
Suspended means the regulator has stopped the holder from trading for a period. The regulator's page on ending a licence gives the grounds: a licence obtained with materially incorrect or misleading information, suspected trust account irregularities, audit reports not filed, the appointment of a receiver, or a breach of property legislation. A suspension can last up to 28 days, and can continue indefinitely where an audit report is outstanding. The holder must stop trading immediately.
Related readRegional vacancies rise and property managers carry the conversationCancelled means the licence has been ended. The same page says cancellation follows conviction of a serious offence, personal bankruptcy or insolvency, or, for a company, being wound up or struck off.
Refused means an application was made and the regulator declined it.
An expired entry may belong to someone who is still allowed to work
A holder who applies for restoration within three months of the expiry date may keep working while the application is processed, the Office of Fair Trading says. The honest answer to a client's question, in that case, is a copy of the lodged application and the fee receipt.
Matching the class to the work
A current status is only half the check. The other half is the class, because each class of licence permits some work and not other work.
A real estate agent licence is the full licence. The regulator's page says its holder may open and run an agency, buy, sell, exchange or let houses, land and businesses for clients, collect rent, and administer a trust account. It does not allow the holder to conduct an auction.
A real estate salesperson registration is the employee's document. Its holder may list, show, negotiate, sell and let property, and may manage a secondary place of business, but may not operate a trust account or conduct an auction. The regulator's page is direct on one further point: salespeople can only work as employees, and a contractor must hold a full agent licence.
An auctioneer licence is separate. Anyone who calls an auction of real property needs it, whether employed or contracted, according to the regulator's rules on holding a licence.
A resident letting agent licence covers the on-site manager of a unit complex, who lets lots in the building and collects rent for their owners. The regulator says such a manager must hold that licence or a full agent licence; a salesperson registration is not enough.
Related readQueensland agent licence fees from 1 July: $1,709 for the first yearA corporate licence belongs to the company that trades as the agency. Limited licences exist for business letting and for affordable housing, and any licence may carry conditions that restrict what its holder can do.
| Document | Sell privately and let for clients | Run a trust account | Call an auction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate agent licence | Yes | Yes | No |
| Salesperson registration | Yes, as an employee | No | No |
| Auctioneer licence | No | No | Yes |
Office of Fair Trading licensing pages and rules about holding a licence; Property Occupations Act 2014, sections 26 and 27.
In an ordinary sale several documents are in play at once. The agency holds a corporate licence. Its principal holds an individual agent licence. The salesperson who lists the home holds a registration. If the home goes to auction, the person with the gavel holds an auctioneer licence, and may be an outside specialist hired for the day. A client checking the register can expect to find each of them.
Checking the agency as well as the person
Sellers tend to choose a person, but they appoint an agency. The appointment form names the licensee, and the trust account that will receive the deposit belongs to the agency, not to the salesperson.
Three points follow from the regulator's rules. The company should hold a corporate licence if the business trades through a company. The principal place of business must be managed by a person who holds an individual licence, and operating premises without licensed supervision is an offence on the regulator's schedule of breaches. And a registered salesperson's authority depends on being employed by a licensee, so a salesperson who presents as running an independent business on a registration alone is outside what that document allows.
The address in the register entry is a simple cross-check. If the office named on the appointment form does not match the place of business on the register, there may be an innocent reason, such as a new branch whose details are being updated. The regulator requires licensees to notify changes of details, and the question is a fair one to raise.
Related readREIQ names its 2026 awards finalists after a record year for entriesPeople who work beside the licence
Not everyone in an agency needs a licence, and the register will not list people who are not doing licensed work.
Reception and administrative staff, marketing coordinators and bookkeepers can work in an agency without a registration, provided they do not carry out the activities the Act reserves for licence holders, such as negotiating a sale or a letting. A person who conducts open homes, discusses price with buyers and takes offers is doing licensed work and should appear on the register.
Interstate agents are a special case. Queensland recognises most property licences from other states and from New Zealand under mutual recognition, and the Office of Fair Trading's page on transfers says an applicant may continue working under the existing licence while the Queensland application is processed, within that licence's limits and with the fee receipt available for an inspector. Such a person will not yet appear on the Queensland register, and the home state's register is the place to look.
Short-term letting has drawn the regulator's attention. Managing holiday or short-stay lettings for owners for reward is letting work. The Office of Fair Trading's register of court outcomes records that on 27 May 2026 the Brisbane Magistrates Court fined a short-term letting manager $5,000 for acting as a property agent without a licence.
What the register does not show
The register is a record of status. It is useful to know its limits.
The fields the regulator lists are the holder's name, business name and place of business, status, number and class. On that description, an entry is not a record of complaints, of the holder's experience, of training completed or of sales results. A current entry says the person is entitled to work; it does not rank them.
Related readREIQ award entries close 12 July as the institute returns to the REIAThe regulator publishes enforcement results in a different place, its court outcomes list, which names the court, the date, the industry and the result of each prosecution. Tribunal and court decisions are published by those bodies.
The online search also has a legal limit. The Office of Fair Trading's page says the free online result cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings. A person who needs proof of someone's licence status, for example in a dispute over commission, has to request an official extract. The page says a fee applies and that the extract takes up to 10 working days.
Finally, the register is only as current as the regulator's processing. The Office of Fair Trading says on its salesperson registration page that it is receiving more applications than usual and that this is affecting processing times. A newly qualified salesperson may be waiting on a certificate that has been applied for and not yet issued, and until it is issued that person cannot do licensed work.
If a search finds nothing
An empty result has several possible causes, most of them harmless. Names are the usual problem: a person may be licensed under a full legal name and known by another, or the search may have caught a spelling variant. Searching by licence number, or asking the person for it, resolves most cases.
If the number does not match, or the status is cancelled or suspended, the sensible first step is to ask the agency's principal, who is responsible for the people working under the agency's licence. A principal has every reason to answer quickly, because the consequences of unlicensed work fall on the agency as well.
Related readResident letting agents: the on-site manager's licence in QueenslandThose consequences are substantial. Acting as a property agent without a licence is an offence that carries a fine and a possible prison term of up to two years, according to the regulator's schedule. The civil effect can be larger than the fine. An article published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, written by a partner of Carter Newell Lawyers, explains that under section 89 of the Property Occupations Act a person who is not appropriately licensed cannot sue for commission or keep it. It cites a 2008 decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal in which an unlicensed intermediary was ordered to refund $121,000 in commissions that had already been paid.
A member of the public who believes someone is working without a licence can report it to the Office of Fair Trading, which has inspectors with powers to require documents and information.
A five-step check before signing
The whole exercise fits in the time it takes an agent to print an appointment form.
- Ask for the numbersThe licence number of the agency and of the person who will handle the listing or the tenancy.
- Search the registerUse the Office of Fair Trading's free online check for each number or name.
- Read the statusCurrent is the expected result. Ask about anything marked expired, suspended or cancelled.
- Match the classA registration for an employed salesperson, a full licence for a principal or contractor, an auctioneer licence for an auction.
- Compare the detailsThe name and place of business on the register should match the appointment form.
For owners who live elsewhere and appoint a manager by email, the same five steps apply and matter more, because there is no office to walk into.
What agents gain from being checked
The register protects licence holders as much as their clients. Every person who works without a licence competes against those who paid for the training, passed the suitability test, keep an audited trust account and complete their yearly professional development. An unlicensed operator carries none of those costs.
A public register makes the difference visible. It lets a careful agent prove standing in seconds, and it gives sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants a neutral source that does not depend on a brand, an online review or a recommendation. The register answers one narrow question, whether this person is allowed to do this work today, and it is the question on which every other protection in Queensland's property law depends.
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.
