Licensing, registers and official sources

The Queensland Office of Fair Trading’s public register of licensed property agents, salespeople and corporations, at ftlr.fairtrading.qld.gov.au. A free search returns the licence number, the holder’s name, the licence type and a ‘details current at’ date. The Office of Fair Trading states it cannot be used as evidence in legal proceedings.

The Office of Fair Trading’s paid product. It returns “the name of the person who holds the licence”, “their registered business name (if any) and place of business”, “the status of the licence, current, expired, refused, cancelled or suspended”, and “their licence number and class”. The current fee is published on the Office of Fair Trading fair trading fees page, which was last updated on 1 July 2026.

“A property agent is an auctioneer or a real estate agent.” Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld) section 15. Section 16 defines a real estate agent as a person holding a licence authorising the activities in section 26, and section 26 includes buying, selling, exchanging or letting “businesses or interests in businesses”.

The field on the free Queensland licensee search that tells you when the data was last updated. It is the reason a free search is a starting point rather than a final answer. If the status of a licence matters to a decision you are about to make, the paid extract is the product that is meant to be relied on.

An interest in personal property registered on the Personal Property Securities Register at ppsr.gov.au. On a business sale that means the plant, equipment, vehicles, stock and intangibles. A search costs $2 online, and it can be run by organisation identifier, by individual name and date of birth, or by serial number for a motor vehicle, watercraft or aircraft.

What a Personal Property Securities Register search produces. In the register’s own words: “When you search, you’ll get a certificate you can keep as proof of whether or not a security interest was registered at that time.” Retrieving a copy of a search result is free. The certificate is dated, which is what makes it evidence rather than a screenshot.

The ASIC register of people and entities “disqualified or banned from roles in corporations, financial services or the credit industry”, drawn from six source registers. A free search returns the name, the type of ban or disqualification, the start date, whether it is permanent or temporary, and the end date if it is temporary.

The status required by section 24(1) of the Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld) before a person may engage in legal practice, maximum penalty 300 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment, which is $51,810 at the Queensland penalty unit value of $172.70 from 1 July 2026. Section 24(4) adds that a person who breaches it “is not entitled to recover any amount” for the work.

Per TPB(I) 39/2023 and section 90-5 of the Tax Agent Services Act 2009 (Cth), a service relating to ascertaining or advising on liabilities, obligations or entitlements under a taxation law, or representing a client before the Commissioner, provided “in a circumstance where the entity (or client) can reasonably be expected to rely on the service”. Registration is checkable free on the Tax Practitioners Board register.

Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) section 764A(1) opens “In this Division, each of the following is a financial product”, and the list captures a share in a body. A business sold by transferring the shares in the company that owns it is a transaction in financial products, rather than a transaction in plant, goodwill and a lease.

ASIC Regulatory Guide 36 at RG 36.42: bringing “into effect the issue, variation, disposal or acquisition of, or application for, a financial product”. RG 36.43 weighs whether the involvement was necessary to the transaction, whether it added value, and whether the benefit received depended on the outcome. RG 36.45: “whether a person’s activities constitute arranging is a question of degree.”

The unit of regulation under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth). A person is a reporting entity because of the service provided, not because of the profession practised. Tranche two obligations commenced on 1 July 2026, and an entity providing a designated service on that date had until 29 July 2026 to enrol with AUSTRAC.

One of the three lists AUSTRAC maintains, alongside the Remittance Services Register and the Digital Currency Exchange Register. AUSTRAC publishes public registers for the remittance and digital currency exchange sectors. No public search interface for the Reporting Entities Roll could be located on 14 August 2026, so it is not listed on this page as searchable.