Category Archives: Selling

What Is My Roleystone Property Worth in 2026?

Selling, Uncategorized

If you have typed your address into one of those free online valuation tools, you have probably already noticed the problem. The number it gave you for your Roleystone home either felt far too low, or suspiciously high, and either way it did not feel right.

There is a reason for that. Roleystone is one of the worst places in Perth to trust an automated valuation, and I can prove it with a home I sold here.

After more than two decades selling across the Hills, and more than 1,500 sales since 2002, I have watched these online estimates get Roleystone wrong over and over again. Not by a little. Sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here is why, and here is how you actually find out what your home is worth.

Why the online number is almost always wrong in Roleystone

An automated valuation works by looking at recent sales of similar homes nearby and doing the maths. In a suburb full of near identical brick and tile houses on near identical blocks, that can get reasonably close, because there are plenty of genuine comparable sales to work from.

Roleystone is the complete opposite of that.

Almost no two properties here are the same. One block is steep and treed, the next is flatand cleared. One home is on scheme water, the next runs off a bore and rainwater tanks. One has a valley view that buyers will pay a fortune for, the one next door looks straight into the hill behind it. There are sheds with three phase power, workshops, studios, and homes built in ways you simply do not see down on the flats.

An algorithm cannot see any of that. It does not know the land is useable rather than a cliff. It does not know there is a forty foot shed with power. It cannot stand on the veranda and see the sunset. So in a suburb like ours, where the value lives almost entirely in the things a computer cannot measure, the online number is little more than a guess dressed up as a figure.

A real Roleystone example

Here is the one that shows it best.

I sold a home here in Roleystone, just off the Brookton Highway. The automated valuation system put it at $380,000.

It was nothing like a standard home. It was a pole log build, sitting in amongst the trees, with wonderful views and a beautiful veranda you could sit out on and watch the sunsets. The closest thing I can compare it to is something out of Margaret River. It was absolutely
stunning, and it was completely unlike the brick and tile homes the computer was comparing it against.

We put it on the market from $550,000. The marketing campaign pulled so much inquiry in the first 24 hours that we lifted the starting figure to $600,000. It sold for $670,000.

That is $290,000 above what the automated system said the home was worth. Not because anyone got lucky, but because the value of that property lived entirely in the things no database will ever hold: the build, the setting, the trees, the views, the feel of the place when a buyer walked in. A computer was never going to get within a bull’s roar of it.

What an algorithm cannot see, and what Roleystone buyers actually pay for

The cruel irony is that the things online tools miss are the exact things Roleystone buyers care most about. When I appraise a home here, these are the value drivers I am weighing up, and not one of them is in any automated model:

  • The land itself: how big it is, how much of it is genuinely useable, steep against flat,
    cleared against treed.
  • Water: scheme water, a bore, rainwater tanks, or some combination.
  • Views and aspect, and what the home does with them.
  • Sheds, workshops, studios and outbuildings, and crucially whether they have power and what they are actually good for.
  • Access: sealed or unsealed, the driveway, how far the home sits back.
  • The build itself. Non standard homes like pole, log, mud brick or rammed earth confuse an algorithm completely, because it has nothing to compare them to.
  • The bushfire rating, the privacy, and the simple feel of standing on the block.

Two homes on the same street, on paper almost identical, can sell hundreds of thousands of dollars apart because of these things. That is the Roleystone market. It rewards properties that are special, and it punishes any attempt to value them off a spreadsheet.

Why getting the number wrong costs you either way

Trusting the online figure is not a harmless shortcut. It costs you in both directions.

Price off a low estimate, and you can hand away tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, the way that pole log home would have if the owner had believed the $380,000. Price off an inflated one, and your home sits on the market, goes stale, and buyers start to wonder what is wrong with it. By the time you correct it, you often end up taking less than you would have if you had priced it properly from day one.

Either way, the cause is the same: someone was not honest about the number. A real valuation is not the highest figure you can be told to win your business. It is the right one, from someone who has actually stood on blocks like yours and sold them.

So how do you actually find out what your Roleystone home is worth?

You get someone to come and stand on it.

A proper appraisal means walking the land, looking at the shed, checking the water, seeing the views, understanding the access and the build, and knowing from real experience what Roleystone buyers will pay for all of it. That is not something that can be done from a desk,
and it certainly cannot be done by a website.

It is also where the right strategy earns its money. That pole log home did not reach $670,000 by accident. You get your best price by creating genuine competition between buyers who want the property, which is exactly what our Select Date Sale® method is built to do. The starting figure is not the finishing figure when the campaign is run properly.

We have sold across Roleystone and the wider Hills for more than two decades, we hold a 4.9 star rating on Google across more than 160 reviews and 4.9 on RateMyAgent, and we will give you an honest figure rather than the one that sounds nicest.

Find out what your home is really worth

If you want to know what your Roleystone property is genuinely worth in today’s market, not what a website guessed, get a proper appraisal before you make any decisions.

It is free, there is no pressure, and you can cancel at any time and only pay for the marketing actually spent if you ever do list with us. Just a straight, experienced opinion on what your home is worth and what it would take to get you there.

Call the office on 08 6254 6333, or get in touch with me directly.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

Book your free appraisal today.

This article is general information based on more than two decades of selling property in the Perth Hills. It is not formal valuation or financial advice. Every property is different, and the figures in the example above relate to one specific sale. For a figure you can rely on, get an appraisal of your own home.

Are Real Estate Agent Commissions Negotiable in WA?

Selling, Uncategorized

The honest answer: Yes. They’re negotiable. There’s no law in Western Australia that sets what an agent can charge — commissions here have been deregulated for years, and across the state they generally run somewhere between 2% and 3.5%.

So if you want the short answer: yes, you can negotiate.

But after more than two decades selling homes in the Perth Hills, I’ll tell you the truth most agents won’t. The commission rate is the wrong thing to be focused on. The question that actually matters — the only one that ends up in your bank account — is this:

What do I walk away with?

That’s it. That’s the whole game.

Is the cheapest commission actually the cheapest?

No. The cheapest commission is rarely the cheapest outcome. What lands in your pocket is the sale price minus the fees, not the fee on its own. A slightly higher fee that delivers a much higher sale price leaves you better off. Focus on what you walk away with, not the percentage.

Let me show you why the percentage is a trap.

Say Agent A quotes you a cheaper rate and Agent B costs you $10,000 more in fees. Most people stop right there and pick Agent A. Feels like a $10,000 win.

But if Agent B sells your home for $40,000 more than Agent A would have — and that happens more often than you’d think — then the “expensive” agent just put $30,000 more in your pocket. The cheap one cost you money.

$10,000 cheaper but $40,000 less in the sale price is not the cheapest option. It’s the most expensive mistake you can make.

I’m not a discount agent and I’ve never pretended to be. We charge 2.5% including GST, plus marketing. I’ll explain both. But I’d rather be the agent who gets you the highest number than the agent who shaved a few thousand off the fee and left tens of thousands on the table.

How much commission do you charge, and why is marketing separate?

We charge 2.5% including GST — in the normal WA range — plus marketing, paid separately by the seller at cost (around $2,600 on average). We keep the marketing separate on purpose: it removes a conflict of interest that would otherwise push an agent to sell fast rather than for your best price.

Two parts: the commission, and the marketing.

The commission is 2.5% including GST. That sits in the normal range for WA and, in my view, it’s what it costs to run a system that actually creates competition between buyers which is what drives your price up.

The marketing is paid separately, by you, up front. You can put it on a credit card, pay by EFT, or use one of the marketing finance companies that lets you settle it later. On average it works out to around $2,600 a property, and every cent of it is passed through at cost. There’s no markup on it. A REA (realestate.com.au) listing is around $1,500; professional photography and video is around $700; then there’s floor plans, the REIWA and Domain listings, and our in-house printed brochures.

Now — here’s the part most sellers never get told, and it’s the most important thing in this whole article.

We charge marketing separately on purpose. It removes a conflict of interest that
works against you.

Think it through. If the agency paid for all the marketing itself, and the agency is carrying ten properties at $2,600 each, that’s $26,000 a month tied up — and a lot more than that when the market slows and homes take longer to sell. When an agency is that far out of pocket, there is enormous pressure on the agent to get those properties sold fast — not for the best price, just sold — so the business can recover its money.

That pressure doesn’t land on the agency. It lands on you. It shows up as your agent quietly leaning on you to “just take the offer.”

When you pay the marketing yourself, that pressure disappears. The only thing left for me to chase is the best possible price for you, because that’s the only thing I get paid on. Our interests point in exactly the same direction. That’s the way it should be.

Real estate is brutal — and that’s exactly why your agent matters

Here’s something most people never think about. Real estate is almost unlike any other sales job, because you don’t start with a product to sell.

Sell cars, boats, furniture, anything — the product is already sitting there. Your job is just to find the buyer and present it to them. In real estate, you’ve got nothing to sell until you’ve won the listing in the first place. No listing, no income. Put plainly: if you don’t get the listing, you don’t eat.

That makes it one of the hardest businesses in the world to make a living in. The only way you survive long-term is by getting genuine results for your clients and building a reputation over years — and most people who start in this industry can’t do it. In my time I’ve watched the large majority of agents who come into the business come and go again inside a year or two.

So when you’re choosing who to trust with your biggest asset, what you’re really looking for is someone genuinely dedicated to the craft. And that is not about age or how long they’ve held a licence. A newer agent can be outstanding — as long as they’re training and getting sharper every single day. The rule I hold myself to is simple: be one per cent better than I was the day before, every day. The agent you want to avoid isn’t the young one — it’s the one who got their licence, learned the basics once, and stopped.

Are discount real estate agents worth it?

Usually not. An agent who slashes their own fee in seconds is showing you how they’ll cave when a buyer pushes back on your price — and most deep-discount agents survive on volume, not results. A weak negotiator who saves you a few thousand in fees can cost you tens of thousands on the sale price.

Here’s something to test any agent with. Ask them to drop their fee, and watch how fast they fold.

If an agent caves on their own commission in thirty seconds flat, ask yourself one thing: if they can’t hold their ground on their own fee, how hard do you think they’ll fight for yours? A negotiator who panics and discounts the moment they feel like they might lose the listing is showing you exactly how they’ll perform when a buyer pushes back on your price. They’ll fold there too.

The deep-discount agents tend to be the ones selling around ten homes a year. They’re often working on commission only, which means they’re frequently desperate for the next deal — and a desperate negotiator is a weak negotiator. I once overheard one say, out loud, “I’ll get it sold, I don’t care what the deal is, I discounted my commission to win it.” That’s not a strategy. That’s a fire sale, and your home is the fuel.

There’s a reason cut-price models keep failing here. A rate below what it costs to do the job properly can look fine while prices are climbing — anyone can look good in a rising tide. It’s the falling market that exposes the model. By the time you account for GST, company tax and the real cost of employing and training good people — wages and rent have both climbed sharply in recent years — the maths on a bargain-basement fee simply doesn’t hold up through a downturn. Around our corridor, the flat-fee and discount agencies that came through over the years have one thing in common: they’re gone.

The clearest example isn’t local. Purplebricks launched in Australia in 2016 promising to disrupt the industry with a cheap fixed fee. They spent a fortune on advertising and pulled out of the country in 2019 — less than three years later — after heavy losses (their final-year Australian operating loss was around A$34 million). One of the model’s fatal flaws: agents were paid an upfront fee whether the home sold well or not, so there was no real incentive tied to your result. They also picked up a fine from Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading for misleading claims about that fixed fee, and were widely criticised for pressuring sellers to drop their asking prices. Cheap to list. Expensive to sell. Sound familiar?

Proof, not promises

I don’t expect you to take any of this on faith. Here are three real sales.

Roleystone — $53,000 more, in 7 days. A home that had sat on the market for 90 days with a previous agent. Phone photos. A briefcase left sitting on the kitchen bench in the listing pictures. No video. Priced at $750,000 and going nowhere. We relisted it properly using a Select Date Sale, created real competition, and sold it in 7 days — four buyers through, two written offers — for $803,000. Same house. Same market. $53,000 difference.

Seville Grove — $81,000 above the offer the owner was ready to accept. The owner would have been happy anywhere in the $750,000–$800,000 range. Through the campaign we drew offers of $792,000, then $805,000, then $826,000. The owner was ready to sign at $826,000 — and most agents would have closed it right there and banked the commission. I held off for one more buyer who was waiting on his bank. Forty-eight hours later that buyer came in at $907,000. That’s $81,000 more than the seller was about to accept. The fee was irrelevant next to that number.

The $2.6 million sale that nearly fell over — and why it didn’t. During Covid I sold a home for $2.6 million in an area where the median was around $780,000. The buyer’s purchase depended on a chain — they had to sell their own $1.2 million property first, and their buyer was a self-employed truck driver waiting on a tax return to get finance across the line. Then the $2.6 million buyer hit family problems and tried to pull out entirely.

That deal didn’t collapse for one reason: the contract was watertight before any of it happened. I’d already had a finance variation pre-signed, and the conditions were written so the buyer would have forfeited a substantial deposit if they walked. I worked it through Christmas and New Year, kept the buyer calm, and got it to settlement — and my seller barely felt the stress, because that’s my job to absorb, not theirs.

Which brings me to the biggest myth in this business.

Does a fast house sale mean the agent did less work?

No — usually the opposite. In my experience, around 60% of the real work in a sale starts after the contract is signed, in the stretch between acceptance and settlement. That’s where dozens of small things can quietly go wrong and sink the deal. A fast sale doesn’t mean the job’s done — it means the hard part is just beginning.

If your home sells in a few days, plenty of people assume the agent got lucky and didn’t earn the commission. Handle that stretch between acceptance and settlement wrong, though, and the deal dies — and you’re back on the market with a “sold and fell over” stamp on your listing.

This is where experience earns its keep, and it’s the part most agents never properly train on.

Every sale in WA runs on the Joint Form of General Conditions for the Sale of Land — the standard contract published jointly by REIWA and the Law Society of Western Australia —together with the Offer and Acceptance. Inside that, it’s the special conditions and the actions attached to an offer that make or break a settlement. We spend serious time staying current on this, including recent court outcomes that change how things should be written, because the rules genuinely move. WA changed its plumbing regulations in February 2024, for instance — what counts as a “fixture,” and who’s even allowed to touch certain work, isn’t fixed in stone.

The skill is in how the conditions are written. A couple of examples from our own contracts:

  • Garden reticulation. We specifically exclude it. Here’s why: come the final inspection, I’d turn the reticulation on and one sprinkler head wouldn’t fire — a $3 part — and that tiny thing could hold up an entire settlement. So we take it off the table in writing from the start.
  • Alarm systems. Half the time people haven’t armed the alarm in years, can’t remember the code, or the backup battery is flat — a $50–$60 fix. The system might be perfectly fine, but nobody can prove it on the day. So we exclude it, plainly, in the contract.

None of that is about cutting corners. It’s the opposite. It’s spelling out exactly where everyone stands before anyone’s stressed, so there are no surprises and no arguments at final inspection. That’s what you’re actually paying a commission for — not the “for sale” sign, the settlement.

What questions should you ask before hiring an agent?

Before you sign with anyone, ask these five questions — the answers tell you far more about an agent than their fee does:

1. How many homes did you personally sell last year? Volume tells you whether they’re experienced or desperate.
2. What’s your average sale price compared to the asking price? Ask for the actual numbers.
3. What’s your strategy to create competition between buyers? “We’ll put it online” is not a strategy.
4. Is the marketing marked up, and who carries the cost? You want it passed through at cost, paid by you — for the conflict-of-interest reason above.
5. What happens between contract and settlement if something goes wrong? Listen for whether they actually understand the General Conditions, or just hand you a form.

My guarantee

When a seller comes to me with a cheaper quote from another agent, I don’t argue about the fee. I put it in writing: if I don’t achieve a price you’re genuinely happy with, I’ll do the job at the cheaper fee.

I can say that because I back myself. An agent who’s confident in the result doesn’t need to win you on price.

The bottom line

I’m a bit of a Formula One buff. There are twenty drivers on the grid and every one of them is good — you don’t get there otherwise. But only two or three are great, and those are the ones who keep winning the championship, year after year.

Real estate works exactly the same way. There are plenty of good and average agents. The thing to be sure of, before you sign anything, is that you’ve got a great one — because over the life of a sale, that’s the difference measured in tens of thousands of dollars, not a fraction of a percent on the fee.

Don’t shop for the cheapest car. Back the driver who wins.

If you’d like an honest appraisal and a straight conversation about what your home is really worth — and exactly what you’d walk away with — call the office or get in touch directly. No pressure, no padding.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

Anti-Money Laundering Laws for Real Estate: What Sellers and Buyers Need to Know Before 1 July 2026

Buying, Selling, Uncategorized

Important Disclaimer
Brendan Leahy and Naked Real Estate are not lawyers, accountants, or financial advisors. This article is general information based on industry training and publicly available guidance from AUSTRAC and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing
Amendment Act 2024. It is not legal, financial, or compliance advice. If you have specific questions about how the new laws apply to your circumstances, please speak to a qualified lawyer, accountant, conveyancer, or licensed AML/CTF specialist.

What’s actually happening on 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations will apply to real estate agents, buyer’s agents, property developers and several other professional service providers across Australia. These are commonly known as the Tranche 2 reforms.

Until now, banks, casinos and other financial institutions have been operating under these laws since 2006. Real estate sat outside the system. From 1 July 2026, that changes. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 was passed by Parliament in November 2024 and received Royal Assent on 10 December 2024.It brings around 70,000 to 100,000 newly regulated Australian businesses under AUSTRAC’s oversight, including every real estate agency in the country.

This article explains what that means in plain English for you as a seller or buyer — and what Naked Real Estate has done to be ready.

What Naked Real Estate has already done

I’ll get to what the law requires shortly. But because this is an article about trust, transparency, and being prepared, you should know what we’ve already done at Naked Real Estate:

  • All agents and staff have completed the mandatory three-hour training course
    covering all aspects of the new legislation
  • We have already enrolled with AUSTRAC

Enrolment for new Tranche 2 entities opened on 31 March 2026, with a deadline of 29 July
2026. We didn’t wait until the last minute. We’re ready now.

If you’re working with another agency, it’s worth asking them the same two questions: have your team completed AML/CTF training, and are you enrolled with AUSTRAC? If they can’t answer cleanly, that tells you something about how seriously they’re taking your transaction.

Why is this happening at all?

For years, Australian banks, casinos, and remittance providers have had to verify customer identities, track suspicious transactions, and report concerns to AUSTRAC. Real estate did not.

The reason is straightforward: property is one of the most attractive vehicles for laundering money anywhere in the world. Large transaction values. Capital growth. The ability to use companies and trusts. The ability to disguise who really owns what. The ability to transform illicit cash into a legitimate asset.

The Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC have been saying this for years. Until now, a criminal could potentially move millions of dollars through Australian property without the same level of scrutiny applied by the professionals facilitating the transaction. The Financial Action Task Force — the international body that sets global standards for AML/CTF — had been recommending for years that Australia bring real estate, legal practitioners, accountants and certain other professions under its regime. Australia was genuinely an outlier internationally. From 1 July 2026, that gap closes.

So the laws aren’t government overreach for the sake of it. There was a real problem. The question is whether the solution is well-designed — and that’s where it gets more interesting, but I’ll come back to my honest opinion on that at the end of this article.

When does the AML obligation actually start?

This is the question that confuses most people, because the legislation is dense.

In plain English: at Naked Real Estate, the obligation begins when a client formally engages our services — typically at the appraisal-to-list stage or when a listing agreement is being signed.

We’re not running AML checks on someone who rings the office to ask a general question about market conditions. We’re not checking ID on someone browsing a home open. The obligation kicks in when a client genuinely engages our services for a property transaction.

For sellers: at the point you’re moving from “thinking about it” to “let’s list.”

For buyers: when an offer is being put together and accepted on a property.

Once that point is reached, the identity check process begins.

What the new process will look like for you

The law tells agents what outcome is required — identify and verify the customer, understand the risk, report suspicious matters — but it does not force every agency to use exactly the same process or technology. What I’m describing below is what a typical Naked Real Estate transaction will look like in practice, based on AUSTRAC’s requirements and the systems being adopted across the industry.

For sellers — what to expect

When you sit down for your listing appointment, we’ll collect the things we’ve always collected — authority to sell, property information, marketing approvals. From 1 July 2026, we’ll also need to verify your identity.

You’ll likely hear me say something close to this:

“Before we can act for you, we’re required under federal AML laws to verify your identity. You’ll receive a text in a moment. It takes about two minutes.”

The reality is that for the vast majority of sellers, this will be a smartphone-based process. We’ll send a secure link to your phone. You’ll:

  • Photograph your driver’s licence or passport
  • Take a quick selfie (called a “liveness check”)
  • Submit it

The system verifies your identity in real time. The whole thing typically takes two to five minutes. No office visit required. No paper forms. No photocopying licences. You can do it while we’re still sitting at your kitchen table talking about marketing.

For most owner-occupier sellers, that’s the entire AML process. Done. Move on with selling the home.

For buyers — yes, you get checked too

A lot of people assume only sellers will be checked. That’s not how the reforms work.

From 1 July 2026, agencies are expected to conduct customer due diligence on both sellers and buyers. So when an offer is accepted, you (the buyer) will receive a similar secure link. Same process — driver’s licence or passport, selfie, two to five minutes.

This is usually completed before the contract progresses further.

What about companies, trusts, and more complex situations?

This is where it gets more involved.

If you’re buying or selling as an individual, the process is simple — verify identity, done.

If a company is buying — say “Smith Holdings Pty Ltd” — we’ll need to identify the company itself, the directors, and what AUSTRAC calls the ultimate beneficial owners (the real people who control the company). This may involve providing an ASIC extract and verifying the identities of those individuals.

Trusts add another layer — we may need to see the trust deed, identify the trustees, and understand the beneficiaries depending on the structure.

This part of the law is targeted at one of the most exploited vulnerabilities in property — criminals hiding behind complex layered ownership structures to obscure who really owns an asset. If you’re a legitimate company or trust, the documentation will be straightforward. If you’re not, it won’t be.

Source of funds and source of wealth

For higher-risk transactions, agents may also need to ask about where the money is coming from. This isn’t to be nosy. It’s because the law requires us to understand the transaction enough to spot something that doesn’t add up.

For most buyers — finance approved through a bank, deposit from a savings account, normal Australian transaction — this won’t involve much beyond what your bank or broker has already documented.

For more unusual situations — overseas transfers, third-party funding, large cash components — more questions may be asked.

What about privacy and your data?

This is one of the most important parts of the new system, and one most articles on this topic don’t talk about honestly.

Every time identity is verified, data is collected. Photo IDs. Selfies. Personal information. Records of who bought what, when, from whom. Under AML/CTF obligations, this data must be retained for record-keeping purposes — many industry guides reference a seven-year retention framework.

That data has to live somewhere. The risk isn’t the law itself. The risk is poor implementation. A large franchise with enterprise-grade cybersecurity is one thing. A small agency with weak security is another.

In my view, data security is going to become a much bigger conversation over the next five years than AML/CTF itself. Every agency now holds significantly more sensitive personal data than they did before — and that data becomes a potential target.

When choosing an agent, it’s worth asking them how they store and protect the data they collect. Not as a hostile question, but as a reasonable one. A well-prepared agent will have a clear answer.

What if something doesn’t look right?

This is where the law becomes very different from how most real estate agents think.

We are not detectives. We are not required to prove a crime has occurred. The legal test under AUSTRAC’s guidance is something close to:

Would a reasonable person with my training and knowledge think this transaction may involve money laundering, proceeds of crime, identity fraud, tax evasion, terrorism financing, or another serious offence?

If the answer is yes, an obligation to consider what’s called a Suspicious Matter Report (SMR) is triggered. So what kinds of things might trigger that obligation? Here are some general examples — not based on any specific Naked Real Estate client.

Example 1: The buyer wanting to pay in cash

A buyer offers $1.8 million for a home. Nothing unusual there. Then during discussions they say: “I can pay the whole thing in cash. Actual cash. Can we split the payments into smaller amounts?”

Two separate issues arise. The cash itself is unusual in a modern property transaction. The attempt to split payments may indicate an effort to avoid reporting thresholds (sometimes called “structuring”). Either issue on its own warrants further questions. Both together would justify careful review.

Example 2: The mysterious third party

The contract is in John Smith’s name. Then John says: “My cousin in another country will send the money.” You ask why. The explanation is vague. Funds arrive from a different name, a different country, with no obvious connection.

This is a classic red flag because the person controlling the property and the person providing the funds are different people — and there’s no clear reason why.

Example 3: The company nobody can explain

A property is being purchased by “Blue Horizon Investments Pty Ltd.” You ask who owns the company. The representative cannot explain. ASIC records lead to another company. That company is owned by a trust. The trust has overseas beneficiaries. Nobody seems able to identify the ultimate controller.

Complex ownership structures are not illegal. Unnecessarily complex ownership structures are a recognised money-laundering risk indicator.

Example 4: The overseas buyer who never sees the property

Important caveat first: being overseas is not suspicious. Buying sight-unseen is not suspicious. Perth agents handle these transactions regularly with completely legitimate buyers — expats, FIFO workers, investors.

The concern arises when multiple unusual factors combine on the same transaction. Overseas buyer, never sees property, pays well above market, uses multiple intermediaries, refuses to explain source of funds, pushes for unusually fast completion. Individually those may all be explainable. Together they may justify a closer look.

Example 5: The seller who wants no questions asked

The agent asks for standard ID verification. The response is something like: “Why do you
need that? Just list it. I don’t want my information recorded. Can’t we skip that part?” Most genuine clients are mildly annoyed by extra paperwork but comply. Active resistance to basic identification can itself become a warning sign.

What does “reporting to AUSTRAC” actually involve?

For most agencies it isn’t a phone call. It’s an electronic Suspicious Matter Report (SMR) lodged through AUSTRAC’s reporting system.

The report generally covers:

  • Who’s involved
  • What’s being transacted
  • When it’s happening
  • Why the agent considers it unusual
  • How the behaviour is presenting

It’s closer to an intelligence report than a criminal complaint. AUSTRAC receives it and
decides whether further investigation is warranted.

Does the deal stop?

This surprises a lot of people. Usually, no.

Lodging an SMR does not automatically stop a transaction. AUSTRAC receives the intelligence and decides what to do with it. In many cases the property transaction continues to settlement. The AML obligation runs in parallel with the transaction, not on top of it.

Is the client told?

Generally, no — and this is critical.

It is an offence under AML laws for an agent to tell a client they’ve been reported to AUSTRAC. This is called “tipping off” and exists to prevent investigations being compromised. So an agent cannot say: “We’ve reported you to AUSTRAC” or “We’re delaying because AUSTRAC is looking at you.”

If you’re a genuine seller or buyer reading this, none of that is relevant to you. But it’s worth understanding why your agent might not be able to explain certain delays or process
changes in certain rare scenarios.

My honest opinion on the new laws

I’ll give you the politically careful answer and the honest one. The honest one is more useful.

The good

Australia was genuinely behind international standards. Property has long been a known vehicle for laundering money — large values, capital growth, ability to use companies and trusts, ability to disguise who really owns what. The Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC have been saying this for years. Bringing real estate, legal practitioners and accountants under the same framework as banks is a reasonable policy objective.

If someone tells you “there was no problem, this is just government overreach,” I don’t think that’s accurate. There was a problem.

The reality check

The people most affected day to day will not be organised crime groups. It will be ordinary
buyers, sellers, agents, lawyers and conveyancers.

That’s almost always how AML systems work. The sophisticated criminal rarely walks into a real estate office saying “I’d like to launder $5 million.” The sophisticated criminal hires lawyers, accountants, nominees, trust structures, intermediaries. The more sophisticated the criminal, the more likely they are to adapt around the rules.

Meanwhile, every legitimate seller and buyer now goes through more identity checks, more data collection, more compliance screening. The burden is spread across 100% of
transactions to catch a small percentage of bad actors.

Will it catch real money launderers?

Yes — but not all of them, and probably not the smartest ones.

I think these laws will reliably catch careless launderers — the ones who use obvious third-
party funds, can’t explain ownership structures, produce inconsistent ID. Those people become much easier to identify.

I think they’ll catch mid-level criminals — the ones who previously relied on weak verification and poor record keeping. Those people are now operating in a much less friendly environment.

I don’t think they’ll consistently catch sophisticated organised crime — people moving serious money already employ professionals and structures specifically designed to obscure ownership and funds. These laws make it harder, more expensive, and riskier. Sometimes that’s enough. Sometimes it isn’t.

The better question isn’t “will this stop money laundering?” It’s “will this reduce money laundering?” I think the answer is probably yes.

My biggest concern: data security

This is the thing I think most people are missing.

Every additional database storing passports, driver’s licences, selfies and personal financial information becomes a potential target for cybercriminals. The risk isn’t the law itself. It’s poor implementation by under-prepared agencies.

I suspect data security will become the bigger story over the next five years.

What was necessary, what may have gone too far

If I were rewriting the law, I’d absolutely keep:

  • Beneficial ownership transparency (knowing who really controls a property)
  • Sanctions screening
  • Basic identity verification

What I’d watch carefully is whether government has shifted too much investigative responsibility onto private businesses. There’s a real difference between “verify identity and report concerns” and “become a quasi-financial-crime investigator.” If compliance becomes so complex that small independent agencies need dedicated AML staff, then I think policymakers have probably overshot.

So if you’re a seller or buyer reading this — how should you feel?

In my view, mildly annoyed.

Not angry. Not grateful. Just mildly annoyed at the extra friction.

Here’s your licence. Here’s your passport. Three minutes later, get on with selling or buying the house.

Looking at the system as a whole, I’m cautiously supportive. Not because I think the laws will eliminate money laundering — they won’t. Not because I think criminals can’t adapt — they can. But because property was one of the last major gaps where Australia was behind comparable countries internationally. Closing that gap is defensible policy.

The one-sentence summary:

These laws are likely to catch some criminals, inconvenience almost everyone, stop very few sophisticated operators completely, but still leave Australia with a stronger property-
transactions framework than it had before.

What you should actually do as a seller or buyer

Practical, in priority order:
1. Have your ID ready.
A current Australian driver’s licence or passport will cover the vast majority of cases. If you’re selling or buying through a company or trust, have your ASIC extract, trust deed or relevant ownership documents ready as well.
2. Ask your agent two questions before you sign anything.
Have your team completed AML/CTF training? Are you enrolled with AUSTRAC? Any agent that can’t answer cleanly hasn’t taken this seriously.
3. Ask your conveyancer or lawyer the same questions.
The Tranche 2 reforms apply to them too. They have the same obligations to verify identity and report concerns. A coordinated, professional team across agent and conveyancer is what you want.
4. Push back if anything seems excessive.
The law requires identity verification, beneficial ownership transparency, and reporting of suspicious matters. It does NOT require agents to demand information that goes well beyond what’s necessary. If something feels disproportionate, ask why it’s being requested.
5. Take data security seriously.
Ask how your information is stored and protected. A reputable agent should have a clear answer about which compliance platform they use and how data is secured.
6. If anyone tells you there’s a way around the rules — be very worried.
There isn’t. The fines for non-compliance reach into the millions for businesses, and individuals can face significant penalties personally. Any agent suggesting shortcuts is putting both themselves and you at serious risk.

The bottom line

We’re here now. Most of the world has been doing this for years. We don’t have a choice in the matter — it’s federal legislation, and the penalties for getting it wrong are heavy. So have your ID ready. Be prepared for it. There’s no way around it. And if somebody tells you there is, be very worried.

At Naked Real Estate, we’ve completed the training. We’re enrolled with AUSTRAC. We’ve prepared properly so that for our clients, the new process will be as quick and as painless as the law allows.

If you have questions about how this affects your specific situation, give us a call. If we’re not the right people to answer it — and for some specific legal, accounting, or financial questions we won’t be — we’ll point you toward someone who is.

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

Final Disclaimer
Brendan Leahy and Naked Real Estate are not lawyers, accountants, or financial advisors. This article is general information based on industry training and publicly available guidance from AUSTRAC and the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024. The law in this area is new, complex, and subject to ongoing guidance updates from AUSTRAC. If you have specific questions about how the new laws apply to your circumstances — particularly involving companies, trusts, foreign ownership, complex funding arrangements, or any matter where compliance is unclear — please seek advice from a qualified lawyer, accountant, conveyancer or licensed AML/CTF specialist.

Brendan Leahy Director and Licensee, Naked Real Estate Selling in the Perth Hills since
2002
Office: Unit 1/198 Brookton Highway, Kelmscott WA 6111
Phone: 08 6254 6333
Mobile: 0439 998 867
Email: brendan@nakedrealestate.com.au
Truth. Strategy. Sold.

NAB Quarterly Property Survey – Commercial Report

Buying, Selling

The Commercial Property Report for December 2024 is here.

Key highlights:

  • The NAB Commercial Property Index moved back into positive territory in the December quarter amid improved expectations for future capital growth and rents.
  • Sentiment was higher in all sectors and turned positive for office property for the first time in almost 3 years.
  • Market sentiment improved in all states bar Victoria, which is now the only state in negative territory. It is also lagging the rest of the country in all sectors, particularly office and retail.

For more detail, please see the attached report.
NABCommercialPropertySurvey(Q42024) (1)

Perth Property Market Stays Strong

Selling, Selling Tips

Over the last few weeks we have been inundated with information about property prices slowing due to interest rate hikes. While we can’t deny this is happening in a few states, we aren’t seeing this for the Perth property market. In fact, sixty five suburbs in Perth have had median sales prices increase over the month of July. 

REIWA President Damian Collins said “The Perth market typically slows in winter, so it’s pleasing that when we drill down to suburb level, a large number are still seeing growth – especially considering the three recent interest rate rises,”

 

We have found buyers are still out in force, and aren’t deterred by the wild weather Perth has been experiencing. One of the Naked Real Estate properties had a private viewing scheduled for 2pm Tuesday (2nd of August) which was one of the many days we have had strong storms this week, in the morning of that viewing the agent for this property decided to open it to the public. The home open was only advertised to the public for a few hours, and yet four parties came through plus the original interested viewer and an offer was made on the same day. 

 

After the interest rate rises were announced most capital cities experienced at least a slight decline in home values, but the Perth property market has still seen continued growth. Mr Collins has a few suggestions as to why we are seeing this trend in other capital cities but not our own, he states

“Western Australia’s strong economy, growing population and affordable housing mean we are in a much better position to manage the increased costs of servicing a loan than our east-coast counterparts. We’re also experiencing a housing and labor shortage simultaneously. We have low stock levels and properties are not being built quick enough. For as long as this remains an issue, competition amongst buyers will remain high and prices will continue to rise.”

 

Time on Market and Listing Numbers

Perth Properties are staying on the market for a day longer than June. The median time to sell a house is sitting at 17 days for July, but even with a slight decline this is still two days faster than July of last year. The amount of listings, which on REIWA is currently 8,592, is still at a similar level to the June numbers. These low listing numbers could be part of the reason the housing market remains so competitive in Perth compared to other states. 

 

The fastest selling suburbs for July were as follows:

  • East Cannington: Average of 4 days on market
  • Parmelia: Average of 5 days on market
  • Orelia: Average of 5 days on market
  • Erskine: Average of 6 days on market
  • Padbury: Average of 6 days on market.

 

 

 

Pre-Sale Inspection: The Most Crucial Step Whether You’re Buying Or Selling

Buying, Selling

For the majority of home owners and investors, buying and/or selling a property is one of the most significant financial transactions you’ll conduct in your life.

It is now extremely common for buyers to have an independent building inspection completed prior to finalising the purchase of their property. However, there is a misconception that Pre-Sale Inspections are only beneficial to the buyer.

But as a seller, getting your own independent Pre-Sale Building Inspection can be hugely beneficial, saving you both time and money.

Are Pre-Sale Building Inspections Essential For Buyers?

Absolutely. An independent building inspection is crucial when purchasing a property, to identify any problems and avoid costly expenses down the track. Property is one of the most significant investments you’ll ever make so it’s important that you know exactly what you’re getting into, so you can make an informed decision before you sign on the dotted line.

Knowing about any issues, gives you greater negotiating power, ensuring you pay a fair price for your future property. A Pre-Sale Building Inspection is a small investment for the peace of mind that you will not be required to spend thousands of dollars down the track on faults that were present prior to the purchase of your property.

Are Pre-Sale Building Inspections Beneficial To Sellers?

Yes, especially if it is organised before you list your home on the Perth market for sale. Why? Any significant issues detected during the Pre-Sale Building Inspection can slow down the buying process and potentially result in lengthy negotiations and a lower than expected settlement price. So organising your own Pre-Sale Building Inspection as the seller provides you with a complete understanding of your properties condition.

Then, if any issues or faults are detected with the property, you have the option to remedy the issues prior to going to market, or prepare for a negotiation on price reduction. Furthermore, producing this document up front not only gives greater confidence to the buyer, but also greater credibility to you as the seller when their own Pre-Sale Building Inspection matches up.

What To Expect From Your Pre-Sale Building Inspection?

Building Inspections should be an easy process for all parties involved. It’s crucial that you hire experienced, reputable and qualified inspectors to complete your pre-sale property inspection, ensuring that you receive excellent quality service.

Our independent building inspections are conducted by a registered builder who will visit and analyse your current property, or the property you are looking at purchasing. We will thoroughly check your property for any structural defects or loss of their intended structural integrity. This includes:

  • the building interior
  • exterior
  • sub floor space
  • roof space
  • and roof exterior.

For a premium inspection, you can also receive a more detailed inspection report which will include:

  • electrical fittings
  • plumbing
  • appliances
  • safety switches and alarms
  • cabinets
  • fencing
  • driveways
  • drainage etc.

If you would like any further information or have any questions regarding Independent Building Inspections, please feel free to contact Ben Black:

Ben Black – Total Home Inspections
M: 0431 330 358
E: admin@thinspect.com.au