In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Getting a real estate licence in Queensland is an event. Keeping one is a routine, and routines are where things go wrong. A renewal notice goes to an old address. A salesperson takes parental leave and forgets the certificate runs on a different clock from the job. An agent moves from Sydney and assumes the New South Wales licence is good in Brisbane. A principal sells the business and never formally hands the licence back.
None of these people has done anything dishonest, and each can end up, for a time, doing licensed work without a licence. The consequences of that are out of proportion to the oversight: unlicensed work is an offence, and commission earned while unlicensed can be lost.
This guide follows a licence or registration certificate through its life after issue: renewal, the restoration window after a missed date, deactivation for time away, conditions, transfer from another state or New Zealand, and the ways a licence ends. It is drawn from the Office of Fair Trading's pages for licence holders. The rules are general, and the regulator decides individual cases.
Office of Fair Trading pages on renewing or restoring, and deactivating or reactivating, a property licence.
A licence has a term
Every Queensland property licence and registration is issued for a fixed term. The Office of Fair Trading offers two lengths, one year and three years, at first issue and at each renewal. The holder chooses.
The term runs from the date of issue, not from the start of a calendar or financial year. Two salespeople hired in the same week may have certificates that expire months apart if one was registered earlier than the other. The expiry date is personal, and the regulator's licence check service shows it for any holder who is unsure.
Related readRegional vacancies rise and property managers carry the conversationSeveral other obligations hang off the same date. The year for continuing professional development, compulsory since 6 June 2025, is counted from the anniversary of issue. The audit of a trust account is tied to the licensee. The term is the frame within which the rest of a licence holder's compliance is organised.
A licence is also personal: a certificate issued to one person does not cover a colleague. The regulator's rules on holding a licence require the holder to keep copies available at the place of business and to show them on request.
Renewing on time
The Office of Fair Trading says it sends a renewal notice four to six weeks before the expiry date. The notice is a courtesy; the obligation to renew exists whether or not it arrives. The regulator's page is plain that a licence must be renewed before it expires and that a person may not operate without a valid one.
Renewal can be done online through the regulator's portal, which has separate entries for individuals and corporations and asks for the licence number. It can also be done in person at an Office of Fair Trading office or by post.
Three things accompany the application. The first is the fee, which depends on the document and the term chosen. From 1 July 2026, the regulator's list gives $868.40 for a one-year renewal of an individual agent licence and $2,409.70 for three years; $201.45 and $489.05 for a salesperson registration; and $492.40 and $1,280.70 for a corporate licence.
Related readQueensland agent licence fees from 1 July: $1,709 for the first yearThe second applies to licensees. A licensee who operated a trust account attaches the audit report; one who did not attaches a statutory declaration saying that no trust account was operated.
The third is the statement about continuing professional development. Under the Property Occupations Act 2014, a renewal application is accompanied by a statement of whether the yearly training requirements were met, or by evidence of exceptional circumstances, and the regulator may take a failure into account.
Standard processing is four to six weeks, the regulator says, with a caution that current volumes may lengthen it and that complete applications with the fee paid are dealt with faster.
If the date is missed: the restoration window
An expired licence is not immediately dead. The Office of Fair Trading's page gives the holder three months from the expiry date to apply for restoration, and the Act puts the same limit in section 61.
The regulator's page adds a practical point of some importance: if the application is received within those three months, the holder can continue working while it is processed. The right to keep working depends on the application having been lodged, so the safest course for anyone who discovers an expired licence is to stop licensed work, lodge at once and keep the receipt.
Restoration costs more than renewal. On the regulator's list from 1 July 2026, restoring an individual agent licence for one year is $1,004.00, against $868.40 for renewing on time, a difference of $135.60. For a salesperson the figures are $225.75 and $201.45, a difference of $24.30.
Related readREIQ names its 2026 awards finalists after a record year for entriesAfter three months the position changes entirely. The page says the licence is then terminated, and the person must apply for a new licence. That means a first-issue fee, which for an individual agent licence is $1,709.00 for one year, a new criminal history check and the training requirements that apply to new applicants on that day. A person whose qualification dates from a superseded training package may find it is no longer accepted.
- Four to six weeks beforeThe Office of Fair Trading sends a renewal notice.
- Up to the expiry dateRenewal at the standard fee, with the audit report or declaration and the training statement.
- The expiry dateThe licence expires. Licensed work must stop unless a restoration application is lodged.
- The next three monthsRestoration at a higher fee. Work may continue while a lodged application is processed.
- After three monthsThe licence has ended. A new application, with current training, is required.
Why a lapse is expensive
The fee difference is the smallest cost of a lapse. The larger costs are legal.
Acting as a property agent without a licence is an offence. The regulator's list of breaches, updated on 1 July 2026, gives a maximum of $34,540 or two years' imprisonment for an individual. A registered salesperson working on an expired certificate may also expose the employer.
Commission is at risk as well. An article published by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland, by a partner of Carter Newell Lawyers, explains that under section 89 of the Act a person who is not appropriately licensed cannot recover or keep commission. A seller whose agent was unlicensed at the relevant time has an argument that no commission is owed, however well the sale went.
The same article describes a tribunal decision of 2019 in which an agent who had sold 21 properties while bankrupt, between 2015 and 2017, was suspended for four months and fined $10,000. Bankruptcy cancels a licence automatically, and the agent's sales after that point were made without one.
For clients, a lapse creates uncertainty they did not ask for. For the agent, it puts income, reputation and in the worst case the licence itself at stake over a missed date.
Related readREIQ award entries close 12 July as the institute returns to the REIAChanging details and replacing a lost licence
Between renewals, a holder has a standing duty to keep the regulator's record accurate. The Office of Fair Trading has a process for updating licence details, and its list of breaches includes failing to notify a change of details, with a maximum of $17,270 for an individual from 1 July 2026.
The details that matter are those on the public register: the holder's name, the business name and the place of business. A licensee who opens or moves an office notifies the regulator of the intended place of business. An agency that changes its trading name, or a person who changes name, updates the record so that a member of the public searching the register finds a match.
A licence or certificate that is lost, stolen or destroyed can be replaced through a separate process on the regulator's site. Because a holder must be able to produce the document on request, and failing to produce it is also on the list of breaches, replacing a missing certificate is more than a formality.
A licensee who will be absent can appoint a substitute licensee to take charge of the business for a period, under rules the regulator sets out for agencies. Offences relating to substitute licensees range from $17,270 to $34,540 on the regulator's list.
Deactivating a licence for time away
A holder who stops working for a period, whether for parental leave, illness, study, travel or a change of career, has an alternative to letting the licence lapse. It can be deactivated.
The Office of Fair Trading's page describes deactivation as pausing the licence. The holder must cease trading immediately. The licence itself remains valid, which is why no part of the fee is refunded. A deactivation fee is payable.
Related readResident letting agents: the on-site manager's licence in QueenslandAn inactive licence still has a term and still has to be renewed, but at a lower fee than an active one. If an inactive licence is allowed to expire, the holder loses the right to reactivate it; the page lists a restoration fee, which includes a late fee, for an inactive licence that has expired.
Reactivation is done in writing. The holder returns the inactive licence, pays an activation fee and a criminal history check fee, and waits for processing, which the page puts at four to six weeks.
There is one limit on how long the pause can last without consequence. The page says that if a licence has been inactive for five years or more, the holder must complete all the current training before it can be reactivated. Section 75 of the Act is the source of the deactivation power.
Deactivation also interacts with the yearly training rule. According to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland's summary, continuing professional development is not required for a year in which the licence was deactivated for most of the year.
| Choice | What it costs | Coming back |
|---|---|---|
| Deactivate | A deactivation fee, then lower inactive renewals | Activation fee and a criminal history check; full retraining after five years inactive |
| Let it lapse | Nothing at the time | Restoration within three months, otherwise a new application |
| Surrender | Nothing at the time; trust accounts must be closed and audited | A new application |
Office of Fair Trading pages on deactivating, renewing and ending a property licence.
Conditions on a licence
Not every licence gives its holder the full range of permissions. The Office of Fair Trading may issue a licence with conditions that prohibit or limit some of the holder's activities.
Conditions arrive in three ways, the regulator's page says: at the holder's own written request, by order of the tribunal after disciplinary proceedings, or by a direction of the Office of Fair Trading. A condition might, for example, confine the holder to a kind of work or prevent the management of an office; the regulator's salesperson page mentions that a conditional registration can remove the usual ability to manage a secondary place of business.
Related readTop 50 and Top 100 agent rankings: what they count, what they missA holder who wants a condition changed or removed applies in writing, gives reasons and pays an application fee. Until the regulator agrees, the condition binds, and working outside it is working outside the licence.
Mutual recognition is one source of conditions. When an interstate licence is transferred, the regulator may add conditions to the Queensland licence so that it matches the scope of the original.
Bringing a licence from interstate or New Zealand
Queensland recognises most property licences issued by other Australian states and territories and by New Zealand. The Office of Fair Trading's page on transfers explains that, under mutual recognition, a holder can obtain the equivalent Queensland document without requalifying.
Most agent licences and most salesperson registrations transfer. The page names the exceptions. A New South Wales salesperson registration cannot be transferred. Nor can a Class 2 real estate agent licence from New South Wales or the Australian Capital Territory. Corporate licences cannot be transferred from anywhere. In each of those cases the person or company makes a fresh Queensland application.
The process uses two approved forms, one for licences and one for registrations, lodged in person or by post. The applicant attaches a copy of the current licence, certified identification and, if a name has changed, the document recording it. The page stresses that a photocopy is not a certified copy; certification is done by a justice of the peace, a commissioner for declarations, a solicitor, a barrister or a notary public.
A criminal history check is part of every transfer. Applicants born in New Zealand, or holding its passport, provide a New Zealand check, which the page says can take up to 20 working days and carries no fee, and which must be dated within a month of lodgement.
Related readWhat a property manager does in Queensland: licence, appointment, dutiesProcessing takes four to six weeks. In the meantime, the page says, the applicant may continue working under the existing licence, provided its restrictions are observed and the fee receipt is kept to show an inspector. Once the Queensland licence is issued, its holder is subject to every Queensland rule, including the two yearly training sessions.
Surrender, suspension and cancellation
A licence can end by the holder's choice or by the regulator's.
Surrender is the voluntary route. The Office of Fair Trading's page says the holder writes to the regulator and immediately returns the licence or certificate. A licensee must also close all trust accounts, tell the regulator when they are closed and provide a final audit within two months. The licence is invalid from the date of surrender. The final audit is not optional: the regulator's list of breaches gives a maximum of $34,540 or two years' imprisonment for failing to lodge a final audit report within two months of ceasing to be a principal licensee.
Suspension is temporary and imposed. The page lists the grounds: a licence obtained on materially incorrect or misleading information, suspected trust account irregularities, an employee who may be responsible for a trust account deficiency, failure to file audit reports, the appointment of a receiver, or a breach of property legislation. A suspension lasts up to 28 days, or indefinitely where audit reports have not been filed. The holder is notified within 14 days of the start, must stop trading immediately and must return the documents within 14 days.
Related readWhat a Queensland agent must disclose to a buyer and to a sellerCancellation is immediate in defined cases. A licence is cancelled on conviction of a serious offence, on personal bankruptcy or insolvency, or when a corporate licensee is wound up or struck off. A registration is cancelled on conviction of a serious offence. A serious offence is one punishable by three or more years' imprisonment; the page lists fraud, violence, drug trafficking, extortion, arson, stalking, harassment and sexual offences. Trading must cease at once and the licence must be returned within 14 days.
Bankruptcy ends an agent licence without any decision by the regulator
Personal bankruptcy or insolvency is a ground of immediate cancellation for a licence, the Office of Fair Trading says. An agent in financial difficulty who keeps selling after that point is working unlicensed, with the consequences for commission that follow.
A calendar for licence holders
Most of the rules above reduce to dates. A holder who records four of them has done most of what the system asks.
The first is the expiry date of the licence or certificate, with a reminder set six weeks ahead in case the regulator's notice goes astray. The second is the end of the three-month restoration window, which is the last date on which a lapse can be repaired. The third is the end of the current year for continuing professional development, counted from the anniversary of issue. The fourth, for licensees, is the due date of the trust account audit.
Agencies have their own interest in the same calendar. An employee's lapsed certificate can call into question the commission on every sale that employee handled in the meantime. An agency can keep a list of its staff's expiry dates for that reason, and the public register lets a principal verify each one at no cost.
Why the system is built this way
Seen from a holder's side, renewal can look like a fee collected at intervals. Seen from the client's side, each renewal is a moment at which the regulator asks again whether the holder is still suitable, still trained and, for licensees, still accounting properly for other people's money.
The restoration window and the deactivation option are the system's allowances for ordinary life. They let an honest holder recover from a missed date or step away for a few years without starting again. The hard edges, at three months after expiry and five years of inactivity, mark the points at which the law treats a person as having left the industry and asks them to qualify afresh.
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.
