In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Most people who buy a home in Queensland deal with one real estate professional, and that person works for someone else. The agent who opens the door on Saturday morning, answers the questions and takes the offer has been appointed by the seller and is paid by the seller. A buyer's agent is the same kind of professional standing on the other side of the sale: appointed by the purchaser, paid by the purchaser, and working to the purchaser's instructions.
The idea is simple, but the details are not always well understood. There is no separate "buyer's agent licence" in Queensland, no special register and no distinct rule book. The work is done under the ordinary real estate licensing system, which was written mostly with selling and letting in mind. This guide sets out what a buyer's agent does, which licence or registration the law requires, what the training covers, what the appointment must look like, which conduct rules apply and where a client can turn if something goes wrong. It is general information about the rules, not advice on whether to use one.
Office of Fair Trading licensing pages for real estate agents and real estate salespeople, Queensland Government.
What the job covers
The Queensland Government's home-buying guidance has a page on appointing a real estate buyer's agent, and it lists four things such an agent can do: find suitable properties, negotiate with the seller on the buyer's behalf, do background checks on the property and the area and explain the local market, and bid for the buyer at an auction.
Those four items describe a spectrum of work. At one end is the full search, where the agent takes a written brief, looks for homes that fit it, inspects them, reports back, researches the one the buyer prefers and then negotiates the purchase. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA), the national association for the profession, describes this in its public information as a "full search, inspection, due diligence and negotiation service". At the other end are narrower engagements. The same association notes that a buyer's agent can be engaged for specific tasks only, such as negotiating on a home the buyer has already found, or bidding at one auction.
Related readBuyer's agent or selling agent: who works for whom in QueenslandThe background checks are the least visible part of the job and often the largest. They can include comparing recent sales to form a view on price, looking at the planning and flood information a council publishes, reading the documents the seller is required to hand over, and noticing what an inspection of the street at different times of day reveals. None of this replaces the work of other professionals. A building and pest inspector reports on the structure, and a solicitor or conveyancer reads the contract and carries out the legal searches. The Government's guidance, on the same set of pages, tells buyers they should strongly consider a solicitor when purchasing. A buyer's agent sits beside those roles, not in place of them.
One licence for both sides of a sale
Queensland regulates the people who do this work through the Property Occupations Act 2014. The Act does not sort agents by which side they act for. Section 26 sets out what a real estate agent's licence authorises, and the list begins with buying: the holder may, as an agent for others for reward, purchase, sell, exchange or let real property, and negotiate those transactions. The phrase "as an agent for others for reward" is the heart of it. A person who is paid to buy property for someone else is doing real estate agency work, exactly as a person paid to sell it is.
The Office of Fair Trading, which administers the Act, describes the licence in plainer terms on its licensing pages. A real estate agent licence allows the holder to buy, sell, exchange or rent properties and to negotiate "on behalf of buyers, sellers or landlords". The same wording, with buyers listed first, appears on the page for registered salespeople.
Related readBuyer's agent, property adviser or promoter: telling the roles apartThe practical consequence is that a buyer's agent in Queensland holds, or works under, the same class of licence as the agency with the sign on the lawn. The Government's page on appointing a buyer's agent puts the requirement in one sentence: real estate agents must have a licence to work in Queensland. It then points buyers to the public register where a licence can be checked.
Buying property for someone else, for a fee, is licensed work
The Property Occupations Act treats purchasing for others for reward as real estate agency work. A person who does it needs a real estate agent licence, or a salesperson's registration under a licensed agent. The Office of Fair Trading lists unlicensed work among the breaches that can lead to a fine or imprisonment.
Licence or registration: the two levels
There are two ways to be authorised, and the difference matters to a client because it says something about who is responsible for the business.
The first is the full real estate agent licence. According to the Office of Fair Trading, it allows the holder to own or manage a real estate agency, to buy, sell, exchange or rent property, to negotiate for clients, to inspect and assess properties, and to operate a trust account. An applicant must be at least 18 and must have completed the required training, unless they held an equivalent licence within the past two years. Certain people cannot hold one: the regulator lists, among others, a person who is insolvent under administration, a person with a serious conviction in the past five years, and a person whose licence has been cancelled or suspended.
The second is registration as a real estate salesperson. A registered salesperson can also buy, sell, exchange or rent property and negotiate on behalf of a buyer, seller or landlord, but only as an employee. The Office of Fair Trading is direct about it: real estate salespeople can only work as employees, and contractors must have a full real estate agent licence. A salesperson cannot operate a trust account.
Related readBuyer's agents' national association elects a Brisbane-based president| Point | Real estate agent licence | Salesperson registration |
|---|---|---|
| Can negotiate for a buyer | Yes | Yes |
| Can own or manage the business | Yes | No, employees only |
| Can operate a trust account | Yes | No |
| Training required | 19 units | 12 units |
| Can conduct an auction | No | No |
Office of Fair Trading licensing pages for real estate agents and salespeople.
For a client, the table translates into two questions. Is the person in front of me licensed or registered? And if registered, which licensed agent employs them? A sole operator who runs their own buyer's agency needs the full licence, because a registration alone does not allow a person to run the business or to work as a contractor.
What the training covers
The Office of Fair Trading sets the training behind each level. For a full licence it is 19 units of competency drawn from two national qualifications, the Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice and the Diploma of Property (Agency Management). For registration as a salesperson it is 12 units from the Certificate IV.
These are general real estate units. They cover the legal and ethical framework an agent works in, the handling of clients, contracts, and the practice of an agency. They are the same units whether the student intends to list homes, manage rentals or buy for clients. There is no additional Queensland unit, examination or endorsement for a person who intends to act only for buyers.
That gap has been a subject of debate inside the profession. In June 2025 REBAA issued a statement, reported by the trade press at the time, arguing that generic real estate licensing prepares people to be sales agents and does not teach the property assessment, due diligence and negotiation that buyer representation involves. Its president, Melinda Jennison, said many newcomers were being drawn in by online courses that did not prepare them for the real work. The association called on regulators to add specialised education requirements. Queensland's licensing pages continue to describe a single pathway for every kind of real estate agent.
Related readHow buyer's agents are paid: fixed fees, percentages and disclosureThe fair reading for a consumer is that the licence establishes a legal minimum. It confirms that the holder has studied the framework, has passed the suitability checks and is answerable to the regulator. It was not designed to certify skill at choosing or pricing a home.
Companies and agents from other states
Many buyer's agencies trade as companies. The Office of Fair Trading issues a corporate real estate agent licence for that purpose, separate from the individual licence, and its licensing pages list it among the categories available. A buyer dealing with a company can therefore look for two things on the register: the company's licence and the licence or registration of the individual doing the work.
Agents based in other states are a feature of the Queensland market, because investors in Sydney and Melbourne often engage an agent they know to buy in Brisbane or the regions. Licensing in Australia is state by state. REBAA's guidance for people entering the profession says plainly that a buyer's agent must hold a licence in the specific state where they are making purchases, and its membership rules require a member agency to be licensed in every state and territory in which it operates. The association has also named this as a recurring compliance problem, describing interstate agents working in a jurisdiction where they are not licensed and using Queensland as its example.
The Office of Fair Trading provides a route for agents who are licensed elsewhere. Its page on the real estate agent licence says holders of an interstate or New Zealand licence can transfer to the Queensland equivalent under mutual recognition. Being licensed in another state is therefore the start of a process, and the Queensland register is the place where the result of that process appears.
Related readOff-market properties: what the term means and how they are foundWhat a buyer's agent cannot do
Three limits are worth knowing.
A real estate agent's licence does not allow the holder to conduct an auction. The Office of Fair Trading states that an agent may not auction property under this licence, and section 25 of the Act reserves selling by auction to licensed auctioneers. This is a limit on calling an auction, not on taking part in one. Bidding for a client is among the services the Government's own guidance lists for buyer's agents.
A buyer's agent is not the buyer's lawyer. Reading and advising on the contract, conducting the legal searches and managing settlement belong to a solicitor or conveyancer. The Government's page on appointing a buyer's agent itself recommends independent legal advice before the appointment form is signed.
A buyer's agent must not start work without a written appointment, which is the subject of the next section, and must not take on an appointment that creates a conflict. Section 18 of the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 says a property agent must not accept an appointment to act if doing so would place the agent's duty or interests in conflict with the client's interests.
The written appointment comes first
In Queensland a property agent cannot provide services to a client until appointed in writing. The Office of Fair Trading states this as a flat rule, and it applies to a buyer's agent as it does to a selling agent. The Government's guidance for buyers names the forms: the residential agent appointment or reappointment, known as Form 6, and the commercial equivalent, Form 6A.
Related readREBAA puts the usual engagement fee at $1,000 to $5,000The guidance lists what the form must state when a buyer's agent is appointed: the services the agent will provide and any limits or conditions on them, all commissions, fees and expenses for those services, and the due date for paying them. The agent should give the buyer a copy.
The same page explains how the arrangement ends. Either party may cancel with a minimum of 30 days' notice, or less if both agree. It adds a caution: a buyer who ends one appointment early and moves to another agent may be exposed to a second commission or to damages for breach, depending on what was signed.
- Check the licenceThe public register shows whether the person or company holds a current licence or registration.
- Agree the terms in writingForm 6 records the services, their limits, every fee and expense and when each is due.
- Then the work beginsSearching, inspecting and negotiating for the buyer start only after both have signed.
The standards of conduct
Once appointed, a buyer's agent is bound by the conduct standards that the Property Occupations Regulation sets for all property agents and salespeople. They are short and worth reading in a buyer's terms.
Section 22 requires an agent to act in accordance with the client's instructions, unless it would be unlawful to do so. For a buyer's agent the instructions are the brief and the price limit. An agent who bids or offers beyond the authority the client gave is outside that standard.
Section 20 requires an agent to take reasonable steps to find out the facts material to a transaction, so as to avoid error, omission, exaggeration or misrepresentation. Written for agents who market property, it applies with equal force to an agent who describes a property to the client who is about to buy it.
Section 18, mentioned above, deals with conflicts. The clearest example of a conflict in buyer representation is payment from the other side. An agent who accepts the buyer's fee while expecting a commission from the seller or the developer of the property being recommended has two interests pulling in different directions. The Office of Fair Trading's disclosure rules require a property agent to tell a prospective buyer about benefits connected with a sale, including the relationship with any third party to whom the buyer is referred and the benefit involved. REBAA goes further for its own members, who must act only for buyers and may not list property for sale.
Related readSuper fund home lending ends on 10 August: buyer's agents braceWhat the licence does not show
A licence search answers a narrow question, and it is useful to be clear about its limits.
It shows that a person is authorised today. It does not show how long they have worked as a buyer's agent, how many purchases they have handled, or which areas they know. It does not show whether they also sell property or receive payments from developers. Those are matters for the appointment form and for the questions a buyer asks before signing it.
Membership of an industry body is voluntary and says something different. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland represents agents of all kinds. REBAA, founded in 2000, admits only agencies that represent buyers. Its published membership criteria require an agency to be licensed in every state where it works, to refrain from listing or selling property, to hold professional indemnity insurance of at least $2 million and to follow the association's code of conduct. An association can set a higher bar than the law, and can remove a member, but it is not the regulator. The Office of Fair Trading is.
The licence tells a buyer that the law's minimum has been met. The appointment form tells them what they have actually agreed to.
If something goes wrong
The Government's guidance sets out an order for raising a problem with a buyer's agent. The first step is a written complaint to the agent. If the agent is a member of the REIQ, the institute is the second. The third is a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading, which can investigate breaches of the Act and take action against a licensee.
There is also a safety net for money. The Queensland Government operates a claim fund for people who have lost money because of the conduct of a real estate agent or certain other licensed occupations. Its guidance describes a claim process decided by the Office of Fair Trading or the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The fund exists for losses caused by particular kinds of wrongdoing, not for disappointment with a purchase, and whether a given loss qualifies depends on the facts.
For most clients none of this is ever needed. The system is built so that the important protections sit at the start: a licence that can be checked in a minute, and a written appointment that must exist before any work is done. A buyer who has seen both knows who they are dealing with and on what terms, which is what the law set out to guarantee.
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.
