Buyer's agents in NSW and Victoria: licences, agreements and duties

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Kooky

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A buyer who pays someone to find, assess and negotiate a home is hiring a regulated professional, not an informal adviser. In Australia's two most populous states the person on the buyer's side of the table sits under the same licensing law as the agent on the vendor's side, and the regulators of both states have published what that means in practice. The detail matters because the buyer's agent is paid by the buyer, speaks for the buyer in a negotiation and may bid with the buyer's money at an auction.

This guide sets out who may act as a buyer's agent in New South Wales and in Victoria, the licence each state requires, what the written agreement has to contain, how fees and third-party benefits are treated, and the conduct rules that apply once the search has begun. It draws on the pages of NSW Fair Trading and Consumer Affairs Victoria, and it marks the points those pages leave open. The rules of one state are not the rules of the other, so each section names its jurisdiction. It describes the general position only: how a rule applies to one purchase depends on the agreement signed and on the facts of the case.

NSW Fair Trading pages on agency agreements, rules of conduct and continuing professional development, last updated between September 2025 and July 2026.

One licence, two vocabularies

Neither state has created a separate profession for people who act for buyers. NSW Fair Trading says that real estate agents who act for buyers are called buyer's agents. Consumer Affairs Victoria uses two names for the same role: a buyer's agent, also known as a buyer's advocate, is a licensed estate agent who charges a fee to act for the buyer instead of the seller.

The words differ in one more place. In New South Wales the licence is a real estate agent's licence and the document the client signs is a buyers' agency agreement. In Victoria the licence is an estate agent's licence and the document is a buyers' agency authority. Both regulators describe the same broad range of work: finding, assessing and shortlisting properties, researching a fair price, inspecting, dealing with selling agents, negotiating or bidding at auction, and following the purchase through to its end. Both mention access to market information that is not readily available to the public and to properties sold off market, and both say that a buyer's agent may help a client select a property manager.

Both also make the same practical point at the outset: the buyer decides the level of service. Consumer Affairs Victoria gives the two ends of the range, from negotiation or auction bidding alone to help with the whole purchase. The scope chosen is what the written document then records, which is why the document sits at the centre of both sets of rules.

Who may act for a buyer in New South Wales

NSW Fair Trading gives two routes. A buyer's agent must either hold a real estate agent's licence, or hold a certificate of registration and work under the direction of a licensed agent. The regulator's licensing page confirms that there is no stand-alone credential: a real estate agent licence is what a person needs to act for a buyer, a seller, a landlord or a tenant, and to negotiate the buying, selling, exchanging or leasing of property. That page lists no separate buyer's agent licence.

The licence itself comes in two classes, and Fair Trading sets a ladder between them. A class 2 licence requires at least 12 months as an assistant agent, which is the role held under a certificate of registration, together with the Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice, course code CPP41419. A class 1 licence requires two years as a class 2 licence holder and a diploma; the regulator names three accepted diplomas by their codes, CPP51119, CPP50307 and CPP51122.

The difference between a licence and a certificate has a direct consequence for the client. According to Fair Trading's page on agency agreements, the holder of a certificate of registration cannot enter into an agency agreement. Only a class 1 or class 2 licence holder can, and the agreement must be signed by one of them to be binding. An assistant agent may still prospect for clients and contribute to preparing the agreement. In practice, then, the person a buyer first deals with may be an assistant, but the signature on the agreement belongs to a licence holder.

Fair Trading tells buyers that a licence can be checked through its online licence check or by calling 13 32 20. Its list of questions for anyone choosing a buyer's agent starts with that check: whether the agent is licensed, and for how long.

Who may act for a buyer in Victoria

Consumer Affairs Victoria's wording is shorter. A buyer's agent is a licensed estate agent, and the regulator recommends checking the licence on its public register of licensed estate agents before engaging one. Its consumer page was last updated on 3 May 2021 and does not describe, for buyers, a role equivalent to working under another agent's direction; the Estate Agents Act 1980 itself was not read for this guide, so the position of employees who assist a licensed buyer's agent is left open here.

What Consumer Affairs Victoria does set out in detail, on a page last updated on 30 September 2026, is how an individual obtains the licence. There is an experience requirement and an education requirement, and both must be met. The experience is at least one year, full time, as an agent's representative in Victoria, gained within the three years before the application. The education, for a course completed within the last five years, is 18 units of the Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice, CPP41419, made up of 15 specified units and three electives, and 12 units of the Diploma of Property (Agency Management), made up of seven specified units and five electives. The requirements are prescribed in the Estate Agents (Education) Regulations 2020, the regulator says, and the course must be delivered by a registered training organisation.

Other routes exist. A person who held a Victorian estate agent's licence within the last five years is eligible, a holder of a current equivalent licence from another state or from New Zealand can apply through mutual recognition, and an equivalent overseas licence may also count. Some applicants are ruled out automatically: anyone under 18, a represented person under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1986, and anyone disqualified from holding an estate agent's licence or its equivalent.

Applications are lodged online through the regulator's myCAV account system and decided by the Business Licensing Authority. The application fee for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 is A$450.90, payable at lodgement and non-refundable, including when an application is withdrawn. The applicant must not conduct business as an estate agent until the licence is granted, must notify the authority in writing within 14 days of any change to the information supplied, and may appeal a refusal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal within 28 days of the decision. A licence, once granted, is ongoing unless it is surrendered, suspended or cancelled.

Two further points concern anyone setting up as a buyer's advocate. A person who intends to trade through a company needs the company to hold a licence as well, through a separate application. And Consumer Affairs Victoria states that unlicensed estate agents face significant fines, without giving an amount on that page.

The NSW buyers' agency agreement

In New South Wales the engagement starts with paper. Fair Trading says the buyer must sign a buyers' agency agreement, which sets out the services and the terms. The rule behind it is in section 55 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, as the regulator describes it: an agent is not entitled to any commission or expenses unless a written agency agreement covers the services. The licence holder and the client both sign, the agreement must comply with the regulations, and a copy signed by the licensee must be served on the client within 48 hours after the client signs.

The 48 hours run from the client's signature, not from the first meeting. As a worked example, with an invented time: a client who signs at 10am on a Tuesday should be served with the signed copy by 10am on the Thursday. Fair Trading notes that service can be made electronically, personally or by post. Where the copy is not served in time, the regulator says the agent can ask a court or tribunal to allow recovery of commission or expenses, but only in the limited circumstances set by section 55A.

On content, Fair Trading says the required terms of agency agreements are prescribed in Schedules 5 to 12 of the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022, one set for each type of agreement. Neither of the regulator's pages says which of those schedules applies to a buyers' agency agreement, and the Regulation was not opened for this guide, so the schedule is not named here. Extra terms may be added as long as they do not conflict with the Act, the Regulation or the prescribed terms.

The consumer page does name two things the agreement must specify: the details of the type of property the buyer wants, as known to the agent, and any special instructions, with a requirement for vacant possession given as the example. A third document accompanies it. When the agreement is signed, the agent must prepare and give the buyer a statement of property details, signed by the agent.

Fair Trading's advice to buyers on this stage is plain: not to sign until the costs and the agent's commitments are understood, and to raise anything unclear with the regulator or with a solicitor.

The Victorian buyers' agency authority

Consumer Affairs Victoria describes the buyers' agency authority as the legal document that gives the agent authority to act for the buyer and sets out the agent's fees. Its advice is to read the authority carefully before signing and to seek legal advice if anything is unclear.

The regulator's consumer page does not list prescribed terms for the authority, and the provisions of the Estate Agents Act 1980 on buyers' authorities were not read for this guide. What the page offers instead is a set of seven matters a buyer should have settled before signing, and they amount to a description of what a complete authority covers:

• the time period the authority runs for;
• the services that are included, and those that are excluded;
• the fees or commissions, as a fixed fee or as a percentage of the purchase price;
• what is charged if the agent does not find a property the buyer likes;
• whether the authority can be terminated, and whether ending it costs anything;
• whether the agent holds professional indemnity insurance;
• whether the agent receives rebates, discounts, commissions or other benefits from third parties or from providers the buyer is referred to.

Before that stage, Consumer Affairs Victoria suggests speaking to several agents and gives nine questions for the conversation. They cover how long the person has been a licensed estate agent and how long a buyer's agent, how many buyers they have helped to a purchase, whether they act exclusively for buyers or also for sellers, their experience of research, negotiation and auction bidding, their market data, their network of selling agents and how often they will report. One question has no counterpart on the NSW list: the agent's policy on acting for other buyers with similar search criteria during the agency period. The page does not say what that policy must be; it treats it as something for the buyer to find out before signing.

Fees, expenses and third-party benefits

On price the two regulators say the same thing in nearly the same words. In New South Wales, a buyer's agent may charge a fixed fee or a percentage of the purchase price, and fees are not set by law, so they can be negotiated. In Victoria, commissions and fees are not set by law and can be negotiated, and may be fixed or a percentage of the purchase price. Neither regulator publishes figures on what buyer's agents charge, and no official fee levels were found for this guide.

The two structures behave differently as the price moves, which a worked example shows. The figures are invented for illustration and are not market data. Assume a purchase at A$1,000,000. Under an agreement at 2 per cent of the purchase price the fee is A$20,000. If the same property is bought for A$1,100,000, the fee at 2 per cent is A$22,000, which is A$2,000 more. Under an agreement with a fixed fee of A$20,000, the fee is the same at either price. Which structure suits a buyer depends on the brief and on what else the agreement says, including what is owed if nothing is bought. Both regulators put that last point on their lists: Fair Trading asks whether fees apply if the agent does not find a property the buyer likes, and Consumer Affairs Victoria asks what will be charged in that case.

New South Wales adds a statutory rule on money the agent receives from others. Under section 57 of the Act, as Fair Trading describes it, an agency agreement for residential property or rural land must state the source and the estimated amount of all rebates, discounts and commissions the licensee will receive on expenses the client pays. Where those disclosures are not made, the agent cannot recover the expenses from the client. Fair Trading's consumer page turns the same idea into a question for buyers: whether the agent receives rebates, discounts, commissions or other benefits from third parties or service providers the buyer is referred to. Victoria's page asks the identical question without citing a section.

One payment is ruled out altogether in New South Wales. A buyer's agent must not accept any payment for referring the buyer to a selling agent, Fair Trading says.

Duties once the search begins

Fair Trading places buyer's agents under the rules of conduct in the Property and Stock Agents Regulation 2022: Schedule 1, which applies to all licence and certificate holders, and Schedule 2, Part 1, Divisions 3 and 4, within the part that covers agents handling sales or purchases of land. The Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 applies as well. The regulator says there are 21 core rules for all licence and certificate holders. The ones its page spells out require agents to know the law relevant to their licence, to act with honesty, fairness and professionalism and not to mislead, to declare potential conflicts of interest, to act in the client's best interests, and to disclose any personal, family or commercial relationship with a service provider they refer a client to, a referral being allowed only where it is in the client's best interests.

For buyers in particular, Fair Trading lists the duties that shape a negotiation. The agent must keep the buyer informed at each stage of price negotiations. The agent must try to get the best possible purchase price. And the agent must not exceed the agreed price, in negotiations or at auction, without the buyer's express written authority.

That last rule is the buyer's main control over the money. A worked example, with an invented figure: a buyer and agent agree a limit of A$1,000,000. If the bidding or the vendor's counter-offer reaches A$1,010,000, the agent may not go there on a spoken instruction or a nod. Under the rule as Fair Trading states it, the authority to exceed the limit has to be express and in writing.

Victoria's regulator frames the duties more briefly. Buyer's agents are subject to the same general professional conduct rules as other estate agents. They must act in the client's best interests, unless doing so would be unlawful, unreasonable, improper or against the client's instructions. And buyer's agents and their representatives must keep the buyer informed at each stage of price negotiation, in line with the buyer's instructions. The Victorian page does not state a written-authority rule for going above an agreed price, so none is attributed to Victoria here.

Expression of interest deposits and auctions in NSW

An expression of interest deposit, as Fair Trading describes it, is paid before contracts are exchanged to signal a serious offer. It binds neither side and it is refundable. Because a buyer's agent may handle such a payment for the client, New South Wales attaches a written warning to it.

Before an expression of interest deposit is paid for the buyer, the agent must tell the buyer in writing three things: that the vendor is not obliged to sell, that the buyer is not obliged to buy, and that the deposit is refundable if no contract for the property is entered into. According to the rules of conduct page, a buyer's agent must not pay the deposit on a person's behalf unless that information has been given, and the person must sign a written statement confirming that they received it and understand it. Fair Trading's page for buyers words the safeguard differently: there, the agent must not accept an expression of interest deposit unless the buyer has given that signed statement. The agent must also promptly tell the buyer if a later offer is made on the property.

The vendor's agent carries duties of its own on the same payment, which explains what the buyer's side can expect. Fair Trading says the vendor's agent must advise the person of their right to make further offers until exchange, must promptly inform the vendor that the deposit has been paid, and must refund it within 14 days after someone else enters a contract for the property.

At a NSW auction, a buyer's agent's licence changes the paperwork at registration. According to Fair Trading's page on auctions, a licensed buyer's agent registering to bid for a client may show their agency authority instead of a letter of authority, and the Bidders Record must include the licence number of a licensed agent who registers on behalf of a buyer. The price rule set out above still applies in the room: the agreed limit holds unless the buyer has given express written authority to pass it.

Conflicts of interest, gifts and penalties

Both states treat divided loyalty as the central risk of the role. In Victoria the rule is stated without qualification: an estate agent cannot act as a buyer's agent and as the seller's agent on the same property transaction. In New South Wales, Fair Trading says the agent must declare any conflict of interest in representing the buyer, and it advises buyers to ask whether the agent acts exclusively for the buyer in the transaction.

New South Wales also restricts gifts. Section 53F of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002, as the regulator describes it, generally prohibits agents from receiving or requesting gifts or benefits, for themselves or for another person, that could reasonably be seen to create a conflict of interest. Three things fall outside the prohibition: anything provided by the agent's employer, anything provided under an agency agreement, including a thank-you gift from a client for services under that agreement, and anything worth less than A$60. Principal licensees must keep a register of the gifts and benefits received by agents in their agency.

Fair Trading publishes the penalties for breaching the NSW rules of conduct. A court may impose up to A$110,000 on a corporation and up to A$22,000 in any other case. A penalty infringement notice, the on-the-spot fine, is A$1,100 for an individual and A$2,200 for a corporation. The corporate court maximum is five times the maximum for an individual. Consumer Affairs Victoria's pages read for this guide do not give penalty amounts for Victorian conduct breaches.

Insurance sits alongside these rules. Fair Trading tells buyers that professional indemnity insurance is required by law, and its conduct page says agents must hold cover that meets the regulations. Consumer Affairs Victoria lists insurance among the questions to ask before signing an authority, without stating on that page whether it is compulsory.

A buyer's agent's power to spend is fixed by the written agreement, and in New South Wales only writing can raise the limit.

Training and where disputes go

New South Wales treats buyer's agency as a distinct area of practice for continuing professional development, even though the licence is the general one. Fair Trading's page, last updated on 9 July 2026, sets the 2026-27 requirement at 7 hours covering four compulsory topics from an approved provider, in a year that runs from 1 July to 30 June. Class 1 licence holders working as buyers agents must also complete at least 5 hours at a forum accredited by Fair Trading, and the course on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing for real estate agents produced by AUSTRAC, the national financial intelligence agency. Victorian training rules for licensed agents were not verified for this guide.

When a dispute cannot be settled directly in New South Wales, Fair Trading describes two stages. The first is a complaint to Fair Trading itself, on 13 32 20. If that does not resolve it, the buyer may consider the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which hears consumer disputes and which Fair Trading describes as independent, low cost and accessible; its number is 1300 006 228. Consumer Affairs Victoria's page on buyer's agents does not set out a complaints route, so the Victorian path is not described here.

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 →