How to become an accredited auctioneer in New South Wales

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The person holding the gavel at a New South Wales auction is not simply a confident real estate agent. NSW Fair Trading, the state regulator, treats calling an auction as a separate permission that sits on top of an agent's licence, and it attaches a detailed set of duties to the role: who may bid, how each bidder is identified, how many bids the seller may have and what must be said aloud before the first offer is taken. An auctioneer who gets these wrong can face a fine, and in the most serious cases a court penalty.

This guide follows the regulator's own pages. It explains who needs accreditation and who cannot have it, the training routes, the application and what keeps the accreditation alive. It then moves to the auction itself: the conditions the law sets for residential and rural sales, the Bidders Record, proof of identity, the vendor bid, the offences of dummy bidding and collusion, and what happens once the hammer falls or the property is passed in. Everything here is the law of New South Wales only. Other Australian states and territories run auctions under their own rules.

NSW Fair Trading pages on auctioneer accreditation and on auctions, both last updated 22 September 2025.

Who needs accreditation to call an auction

According to NSW Fair Trading, auctioneer accreditation is needed to auction property, land (rural land included) or livestock in New South Wales as a real estate agent or a stock and station agent. The regulator gives horses, cattle and sheep as examples of livestock.

The point that surprises newcomers is that a licence alone is not enough. Fair Trading's page on the real estate agent licence says that a class 1 or class 2 licence does not by itself allow its holder to conduct auctions: anyone auctioning must be an accredited auctioneer. Class 1 is the higher of the two classes. Neither carries the right to call bids.

In practice this splits the work of an auction sale between two roles that may or may not be the same person. The selling agent is the agent engaged by the vendor to market the property, register the bidders and handle the contract. The auctioneer is the accredited person who takes the bids on the day. The auctioneer may belong to the selling agency or be engaged from outside it, and the regulator's paperwork allows for both: the record kept for each auction must show the names and licence numbers of both the selling agent and the auctioneer.

The legal framework is given by Fair Trading as the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 and the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022, which govern land and livestock auctions. The regulator adds that auctions may be held by any means, including in person or electronically. An online auction is therefore still an auction under these rules, and the person conducting it still needs to be accredited.

Who can apply, and who cannot

Accreditation is an addition to a licence, never a substitute for one. Fair Trading says an applicant must hold a class 1 or class 2 real estate agent licence, a stock and station agent licence, or both.

Three groups are shut out, according to the same page:

• Agents whose licence carries a business agent restriction.
• Agents whose licence carries an on-site residential property manager restriction.
• Assistant agents. An assistant real estate agent or assistant stock and station agent holds a certificate of registration rather than a licence, and cannot obtain accreditation.

There is one narrow exception for the saleyard. Fair Trading says an assistant stock and station agent may auction livestock, but only if employed and directly supervised by a licensed stock and station agent. The exception covers livestock alone. It does not let an assistant agent auction a house or a farm.

The four ways to qualify

Fair Trading sets out four routes. The first is the one open to anyone qualifying today. The second and third recognise older training units, on the condition that they were completed before 30 September 2021. The fourth is for someone whose accreditation ended within the past 12 months.

On the main pathway, the three units must include those that follow an auction from start to finish. Fair Trading names them as CPPREP4161, which covers the pre-auction process, CPPREP4162, on conducting and completing a sale by auction, and CPPREP4163, on the post-auction process and the execution of the contract. They are taken with a Registered Training Organisation, which issues a statement of attainment when the units are passed.

Behind the pathways sits a formal instrument. Fair Trading's page for agents says the Secretary may accredit a licensed agent who holds the qualifications set by the Minister's Qualifications Order. The training list can therefore change when the order changes, which is why the cut-off of 30 September 2021 matters for anyone relying on old units.

One assumption is expressly ruled out. The regulator states that accreditation is not automatic for someone who once held an auctioneer's licence or who attended auction training in the past. Experience does not replace the application.

How the application works

The application is made on a form that is lodged in person or by email. Fair Trading identifies it as form AP4506, the application for accreditation as an auctioneer.

The fee is payable with the application. Fair Trading's accreditation page does not state the amount: it refers applicants to the regulator's separate schedule of property and stock agents fees, and the figure should be read there at the time of applying.

When the application succeeds, the regulator says the applicant receives an email with a copy of the licence and the accreditation is added to the public register. That register is how a vendor, a buyer or an agency engaging an outside auctioneer can confirm that the person is accredited.

When it does not succeed, Fair Trading says the applicant receives written reasons and is told the options available. One of them is a review by a Fair Trading officer who was not involved in the original decision.

Keeping the accreditation alive

Accreditation has no life of its own. Fair Trading says it is valid only while the underlying agent licence is current. There is no separate renewal date to remember, but there is a real risk in letting the licence slip.

The regulator describes three situations:

• Licence renewed on or before its expiry date. The accreditation continues without a break.
• Licence restored within 3 months of expiry. The accreditation also continues. Fair Trading says a licence expired for less than 3 months can be restored online or at a Service NSW Centre, for a fee.
• Neither renewal nor restoration in time. The agent may need to apply again. Restorations sought more than 3 months after expiry are assessed case by case, and an agent whose licence has expired must apply again for accreditation.

The fourth pathway softens the last case: a person accredited within the 12 months before the new application qualifies on that ground, without retaking the units.

Continuing training is the other condition of staying in practice. Fair Trading's page on continuing professional development says the CPD year runs from 1 July to 30 June, so the 2026-27 year covers 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. For that year, "Auction laws and practice" is one of the compulsory topics for residential real estate salespeople, for buyers agents and for stock and station agents. Residential salespeople and buyers agents each have 7 hours to complete across 4 topics. The requirement attaches to the licence and the area of practice, not to the accreditation itself, but it means that most accredited auctioneers will revisit auction law during the year.

The same page says licence holders must keep their CPD records for 3 years and produce them to Fair Trading on request. Failure to complete CPD may lead to a penalty or to suspension or cancellation of the licence, and a court penalty of up to A$11,000 may be imposed. Fair Trading's summary of the law changes that began on 29 June 2026 describes that A$11,000 maximum as new.

The twelve conditions of a residential or rural auction

According to Fair Trading, the Regulation sets 12 conditions for an auction of residential property or rural land. They are the ground rules every such auction runs on, and the auctioneer is the person who applies them. They fall into four groups.

The reserve. The vendor's reserve price must be given to the auctioneer in writing before the auction starts. Fair Trading's guide for sellers defines the reserve as the lowest amount the vendor will accept, and says it is usually not disclosed to buyers. The highest bidder is the purchaser, subject to that reserve.

The auctioneer's authority. Where a bid is disputed, the auctioneer is the sole arbiter and the decision is final. The auctioneer may refuse any bid considered not to be in the vendor's best interests. No bid may be made or accepted after the fall of the hammer, and the purchaser must sign the agreement for sale, if there is one, as soon as practicable afterwards.

The bidders. All bidders must be entered in the Bidders Record and must display their identifying number when bidding. A bidder is treated as a principal, meaning as the buyer in their own right, unless they gave the auctioneer a copy of a written authority to bid for another person before bidding.

The vendor's side. A vendor bid can be made only if the auctioneer clearly announced, before the auction started, that one may be made. Only one vendor bid may be made, by the auctioneer, who must state that it is a vendor's bid when making it. Bidding by a co-owner or an executor must be identified in the auction conditions.

These conditions are not kept in a drawer. Fair Trading requires them to be written or printed clearly in English on a notice displayed in a conspicuous position where the auction takes place, so that they can be read before and during the auction. For an on-site auction, the regulator says a notice hung only inside the house is not enough, and there must be enough copies for those attending to read. Two further notices are required: one on the penalties for collusive practices and dummy bidding, and one on the requirements for successful bidders. Fair Trading inspectors may issue on-the-spot penalties when the notices are not displayed correctly.

Livestock auctions follow a slightly different set. Fair Trading says the auctioneer there announces the number of vendor bids permitted before the auction starts, and the purchaser must pay the full price by the close of the next business day after the hammer falls, unless a written agreement made beforehand sets another time. Where one auction mixes kinds of property, the conditions for each may be displayed, or the conditions that apply to most lots are displayed and the differences are announced before each lot concerned.

Registering bidders and the Bidders Record

Nobody bids at a New South Wales property auction without being registered first. Fair Trading requires a Bidders Record to be created for each auction, in English, listing everyone registered to bid, and each bidder must be given a number to display.

The work starts before registration. The selling agent must give every bidder a copy of Fair Trading's Bidder's guide before the auction. A buyer then gives the agent a name, an address and proof of identity. Registration gives the right to bid; the regulator's page for buyers is clear that it creates no obligation to do so.

Timing is flexible. Fair Trading says bidders may be registered before auction day, for instance at an inspection or at the agency's office, but identity is checked again on the day before the bidder number is handed over. A person who arrives late can still bid once registered and numbered. The regulator suggests signs, a registration table or staff with clipboards, and says a buyer arriving at a critical moment can raise a hand to signal a bid, which the auctioneer can accept once a number has been issued. Joint buyers such as spouses or partners need only one of them to register.

The record itself must hold, according to Fair Trading:

• the date and place of the auction, the address of the property and the name of its owner;
• the names and licence numbers of the selling agent and of the auctioneer;
• each bidder's name, address, proof-of-identity number and bidder number;
• the highest bid accepted, and any vendor bid.

Where several properties are sold at one event, the regulator allows one record for all of them or one per agent, with a single series of bidder numbers.

The record is confidential in a strict sense. Fair Trading says its details must not be shown to anyone, the vendor included, and may be viewed only by Fair Trading and its authorised investigators. It must not be used for any other purpose, and the regulator names one in particular: contacting bidders. An underbidder's details in the record are therefore not a prospecting list for the agency's next listing. The responsible agent must keep each record securely for at least 3 years, in a Register of Bidders Records. An electronic record is acceptable if a hard copy can be supplied to Fair Trading.

The date in that last sentence matters. Higher maximum court penalties for a range of offences began on 29 June 2026, and Fair Trading's summary of them does not mention the unregistered-bid fine either way. Whether the A$11,000 figure has changed is not confirmed on the pages read for this guide.

Proof of identity and bidding for someone else

The identity check is the part of registration that most often goes wrong on the footpath, so the regulator spells out what is accepted.

Fair Trading adds that a statutory declaration stating the address can serve where no address document is available. Certified copies are not accepted. Documents may be produced electronically, such as by an emailed photograph, only if the agent consents, and showing a document over an audio-visual link such as a video call is not permitted.

A person bidding for someone else, or for a company, needs a letter of authority, and this applies to telephone bidding on another's behalf as well. For an individual, the letter must include that person's name, address and proof-of-identity number, for example a driver's licence number. For a company, it must be on the company's letterhead, and the company's ABN is recorded as its proof of identity. Fair Trading's page for agents notes two variations: a licensed buyer's agent may show the agency authority in place of a letter, and the details of the person represented need not be recorded where the registrant holds a power of attorney.

The letter matters because of the principal rule in the conditions. Someone who bids without having handed the auctioneer a written authority is treated as buying personally, and is the one bound when the hammer falls.

One vendor bid, and it must be announced

A vendor bid is a bid made on the seller's behalf, usually to move bidding towards the reserve. New South Wales allows it at a residential or rural auction, within tight limits that the auctioneer personally carries.

According to Fair Trading, only one bid may be made on the vendor's behalf, and only by the auctioneer. Four things must be true for it to be lawful:

1. The right to make it is stated in the conditions of sale, which are displayed and available before the auction starts.
2. The auctioneer announces, before the auction, that one vendor bid is permitted.
3. The auctioneer announces the bid as a vendor bid immediately before or while making it.
4. The bid is recorded in the Bidders Record.

Once that bid is used, the vendor has no other. Any further bid on the seller's side is outside the rules.

Estates and shared ownership get a separate rule, because a co-owner may genuinely want to buy the others out. Fair Trading says a co-owner, an executor or an administrator, or a person bidding for one of them, may make more than one bid only if the auction conditions say so, the auctioneer announces this before bidding starts, and the auctioneer announces that person's bidder registration number. The rest of the crowd then knows which number belongs to someone connected with the seller.

Dummy bidding, invented bids and collusion

The single announced vendor bid is the legal form of bidding for the seller. Dummy bidding is everything else. Fair Trading's page for buyers does not give a formal definition; it describes dummy bids by contrast with the one vendor bid the auctioneer must announce, and says plainly that dummy bidding is illegal.

The offence reaches well beyond the person raising a hand. The regulator says a court penalty may apply to a person who makes dummy bids for the seller, a person who arranges them, a seller who asks for one, and an agent or auctioneer involved in such an arrangement. Separately, Fair Trading's page for agents states that it is an offence for an auctioneer to invent bids, the practice of calling offers that nobody made.

Collusion is the mirror image on the buyers' side. Fair Trading describes it as colluding with someone to interfere with free and open competition at an auction, and it is an offence too.

The dummy bidding figures are recent. Fair Trading says the Property and Stock Agents Amendment (Underquoting and Other Agent Conduct) Act 2026 began its first stage on 29 June 2026, and that the maximum court penalty for dummy bidding at auctions, along with acting as an agent without a licence and mishandling trust money, is now A$110,000 for a corporation and A$55,000 for an individual. The regulator's summary does not state the previous amounts.

When the hammer falls, or the property is passed in

The auctioneer's duties run past the last bid. Under the conditions, the purchaser signs the agreement for sale as soon as practicable after the fall of the hammer. Fair Trading's page for buyers says the successful bidder signs the contract and pays the deposit on the spot, usually 10 per cent of the price, and that there is no cooling-off period.

A worked example shows the scale, with illustrative figures. Assume a house is knocked down at A$1,200,000 and the contract provides for the usual 10 per cent deposit. The buyer pays A$120,000 that day (A$1,200,000 × 10%), and A$1,080,000 remains due at settlement. Fair Trading warns that a buyer who cannot complete loses the deposit and may be liable for the vendor's losses. The actual deposit is whatever the contract for that property says.

If bidding stops short of the reserve, the regulator says the auctioneer may ask the vendor privately whether a lower price would be accepted, or seek further bids. Failing that, the property may be passed in or withdrawn. The highest bidder generally has the first chance to negotiate with the seller. A point easily missed: the absence of a cooling-off period also applies where contracts are exchanged on the auction day after the property was passed in.

A pass-in brings its own record-keeping and marketing rules. Fair Trading says that if the property is not sold, the vendor bid and the highest bid accepted must be recorded in the Bidders Record. And if residential property or rural land is passed in when the last bid was a vendor bid, an agent must not state the amount of that bid in marketing unless the statement clearly identifies it as a vendor bid. Continue the example with a reserve that was not met and a last bid of A$1,150,000 made by the auctioneer for the vendor. An advertisement that mentions A$1,150,000 has to say that it was a vendor bid, because no buyer offered it.

A further rule on passed-in properties is scheduled. Fair Trading says the second stage of the 2026 Act is expected towards the end of 2026, on a date still to be announced, and depends on supporting regulations and forms. Among its changes, an agent will not be able to advertise or represent a selling price lower than the highest bid the agent knows, or ought reasonably to know, was made by a registered bidder at an auction where the property was passed in. Once it starts, the bidding history written into the Bidders Record will set a floor under what the property can be advertised for afterwards.

An auctioneer in New South Wales is accredited to do more than call numbers. The role is to keep every bid in the room attributable to a registered person or openly declared as the vendor's.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate 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 →