Queensland agent licence fees from 1 July: $1,709 for the first year

In this article

Written by

Kooky

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

About Kooky and Shaka →

The Office of Fair Trading updated its fee list for the property industry on 1 July 2026, the first day of the new financial year. The page now shows $1,709.00 for a new real estate agent licence held for one year and $401.10 for a new real estate salesperson registration over the same term, with separate amounts for renewals, late renewals and companies.

The list matters to almost everyone who works in a Queensland agency. Nobody can sell or let property for a client without one of these two documents, and every one of them comes up for renewal either yearly or every three years. The figures below are the ones an agent, a salesperson or an agency principal will be paying from today, according to the Office of Fair Trading page dated 1 July 2026.

Office of Fair Trading, fair trading fees page, property industry section, last updated 1 July 2026.

What the fee list shows

The Office of Fair Trading, which sits inside the Department of Justice and regulates property agents under the Property Occupations Act 2014, groups its property fees by the kind of holder. An individual who wants to run an agency or work as a contractor needs a real estate agent licence. An employee who sells or lets under a licensee's supervision needs a registration certificate as a real estate salesperson. A company that trades as an agency needs its own corporate licence on top of the licences of the people inside it.

For each of the three, the page gives a price for a first issue, a price for renewal and a price for restoration, which is the name for a renewal lodged after the expiry date. Each of those comes in a one-year and a three-year version.

Two smaller lines sit beside the main schedule. Adding a further category to an existing licence is listed at $199.00. A criminal history check costs $47.35 per person and, the page says, is charged when a check has not been carried out in the previous six months.

One year or three: the arithmetic

Every applicant chooses a term, and the fee list rewards the longer one. The saving can be worked out from the figures above.

Take an individual agent who starts on a one-year licence and renews twice. The first issue costs $1,709.00 and each renewal $868.40, a total of $3,445.80 across three years. The three-year licence bought at the outset is listed at $3,205.00. The gap is $240.80.

The same sum for a salesperson gives $401.10 plus two renewals of $201.45, which is $804.00, against $681.50 for a three-year registration bought at the start: a difference of $122.50. For a company, three years bought one at a time come to $1,957.80, and the three-year corporate licence is $1,755.00, which is $202.80 less.

Renewals follow the same pattern. Three single-year agent renewals total $2,605.20, while one three-year renewal is $2,409.70, a difference of $195.50. For a salesperson the equivalent figures are $604.35 and $489.05, a difference of $115.30.

The shorter term has its own logic. A person who is new to the industry and unsure of staying, or who expects to move from a registration to a full licence within a year or two, pays less up front on the annual option. The fee list does not say what happens to the unused part of a three-year term in that case, and the answer depends on the circumstances of each holder.

The price of renewing late

Restoration is the step that catches people out. The Office of Fair Trading's renewal guidance says a licence or registration must be renewed before it expires, and that a holder who misses the date has three months to apply for restoration. After those three months the licence ends for good and the person has to apply again as a new applicant.

The fee list puts a number on the delay. Restoring an individual agent licence for one year costs $1,004.00 instead of the $868.40 charged for a renewal on time, which is $135.60 more. The same $135.60 separates the three-year figures, $2,545.30 against $2,409.70, and it is also the gap for a corporate licence at either term. For a salesperson the late amount is smaller: $225.75 against $201.45, a difference of $24.30, and the same $24.30 at three years.

The more expensive outcome is the one beyond the three-month window. An agent who lets a licence lapse entirely no longer pays a renewal of $868.40 but a first-issue fee of $1,709.00, and has to meet the application requirements that apply to a new licence on the day of the new application.

How the agent and salesperson fees compare

The distance between the two main documents is wide. A first-year agent licence costs a little more than four times a first-year salesperson registration: $1,709.00 divided by $401.10 is about 4.3.

The difference follows what each document permits. The Office of Fair Trading's licensing pages say a registered salesperson can list, show, negotiate and let property, but only as an employee, and cannot run a trust account or conduct an auction. A licensed agent can open an agency, work as a contractor and hold clients' money in trust. The training behind each is different as well: the same pages list 12 units of competency for a registration and 19 for a full licence.

For a small agency the lines add up quickly. A sole director who holds an individual licence and trades through a company pays for both documents. On one-year terms, the first year comes to $1,709.00 plus $973.00, or $2,682.00, before any criminal history check, and each later year to $868.40 plus $492.40, or $1,360.80.

What the fee does not cover

The schedule is only the regulator's charge. Several other costs of holding a licence sit outside it, and the Office of Fair Trading's own pages point to them.

The first is training. Units of competency are delivered by registered training organisations, which set their own prices. The second is the criminal history check of $47.35, which is added to an application when no check has been run in the past six months. With it, a first-year agent licence comes to $1,756.35 and a first-year salesperson registration to $448.45.

The third has existed for just over a year. Since 6 June 2025, property agents, salespeople and auctioneers in Queensland have had to complete two approved continuing professional development sessions in each year of their licence, and the Office of Fair Trading's renewal page reminds holders that the training is a condition of keeping the document. Some approved sessions are free, including those run by the Residential Tenancies Authority; others are sold by industry bodies and training companies.

The last applies to principals. A licensee who operated a trust account has to attach an audit report to the renewal application, the renewal page says, and a licensee who did not has to attach a statutory declaration saying so. The audit is paid for by the agency.

Who pays, and when

The date a fee falls due is personal. A licence or registration runs from its date of issue, so renewals are spread across the calendar instead of landing on 1 July. The Office of Fair Trading says it sends a renewal notice four to six weeks before expiry. A holder whose document expires in the coming weeks will be the first to see the amounts on the updated list.

Applications are lodged online, in person at an Office of Fair Trading office or by post, and the regulator's pages give a standard processing time of four to six weeks for a complete application, with a warning that current volumes may stretch it. The salesperson registration page says the office is receiving more applications than usual. A complete application with the fee paid is dealt with first, according to the same page.

Anyone who is moving from interstate is also affected. The Office of Fair Trading's page on transferring a licence under mutual recognition says fees apply to a transfer application and to the criminal history check, and refers applicants to the same fee list.

What comes next

The fee list is a reference page, and the amounts on it stay in place until the Office of Fair Trading updates it again. The page gives no end date for the current figures.

For the people the schedule applies to, the next dates are individual ones: the expiry printed on the licence or certificate, the renewal notice that arrives four to six weeks before it, and the three-month restoration window that follows a missed deadline. The regulator's public register, which is free to search, shows the status and the class of any licence, so an agent who is unsure of an expiry date can look up the record before the notice arrives.

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 →