AML and due diligence: what your property agent must ask you, and why

The request is not agency policy and it is not negotiable. It is a statutory duty, and an agent who skips it can be sanctioned by the Council for Estate Agencies.

Section 44B of the Estate Agents Act 2010 requires a licensed estate agent and a registered salesperson to perform prescribed customer due diligence, and section 44C imposes record-keeping duties. What is prescribed is set out in the Estate Agents (Prevention of Money Laundering, Proliferation Financing and Terrorism Financing) Regulations 2021, made by the Council for Estate Agencies under section 72 of the Act with the approval of the Minister for National Development. They came into operation on 30 July 2021.

The consequences are not nominal. Under section 52 of the Estate Agents Act 2010, where a Disciplinary Committee finds a contravention of Part 4A, of a regulation made under section 72, or of a code provision on money laundering detection or suspicious transaction reporting, the maximum financial penalty is $200,000 for each contravention for a licensed estate agent and $100,000 for each contravention for a registered salesperson.

Three things changed on one day. The Estate Agents (Amendment) Act 2025 (Act 15 of 2025) and the Estate Agents (PMLPFTF) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (S 461/2025) both took effect on 1 July 2025.

1. 01Proliferation financing was added. S 461/2025 renamed the Regulations to include it, and the risk assessment your agent documents now covers money laundering, proliferation financing and terrorism financing.
2. 02Due diligence on unrepresented counterparties became mandatory. The Council for Estate Agencies states that agents and salespersons must now conduct it on unrepresented counterparties in a property transaction. The statutory hook is the new section 44BA.
3. 03Financial penalties moved from a per-case to a per-breach basis. Three failures in one file are now three contraventions, not one.

The context is public. In July 2025 the Council for Estate Agencies published enforcement outcomes from investigations that began in August 2023, following the money laundering case of that year. One salesperson received a Letter of Censure and a $5,000 penalty for failing to screen a client against designated-persons and United Nations sanctions lists, and for failing to assess and document risk on a rental transaction — breaches of section 44B(2)(a) and of regulations 4(1)(b) and 11(1). Another received a Letter of Censure and a $2,000 penalty for failing to obtain the required written acknowledgement from an authorised signatory and then recording inaccurately on the checklist that he had obtained it, in breach of paragraph 5(1) of the Code of Ethics and Professional Client Care.

The list is fixed by regulation, which is why every agency asks for the same things. Regulation 2(1) defines "identifying information" as all of the following, not a selection.

Regulation 4(2) then sets out what must happen before you enter into any agreement.

1. 01Obtain your identifying information, document it, and obtain your written acknowledgment that the information obtained is accurate.
2. 02Verify your identity using reliable and independent sources.
3. 03Ascertain whether you are acting on behalf of another person, and if so, obtain an authorisation letter or power of attorney and identify that other person.
4. 04Perform the regulation 5 measures where the client is an entity or a legal arrangement.
5. 05Take reasonable measures to determine whether you, or the person on whose behalf you act, is a politically exposed person, or a family member or close associate of one.

The written acknowledgment is why you sign a form rather than simply hand over a photocopy. It is also the requirement one salesperson was penalised for skipping in 2025.

Regulation 4(1) separately requires the agent, before carrying out any estate agency work, to enter into a written agreement setting out the terms of the business relationship and, for each property, to determine and document the money laundering, proliferation financing and terrorism financing risk and the conclusions reached.

Sanctions screening

Regulation 11(1) requires the agent, before you enter into any agreement, to take reasonable measures to assess whether you, a beneficial owner, or a person on whose behalf you act is a terrorist or terrorist entity under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act 2002, a designated person under regulations made under the United Nations Act 2001, or a person specified by the Council in a written notice. The Council also requires screening against the Financial Action Task Force lists of high-risk and monitored jurisdictions.

If you are buying through a company or a trust, expect questions about who is behind the structure, not just who signed the form.

Regulation 5 requires the agent to obtain the name, legal form and proof of existence of the entity, its constitutive instrument, the identity of each director or, failing that, the most senior executive or managing officer, and the registered office and principal place of business. The agent must also understand the nature of the business and the ownership and control structure.

Regulation 5(4) then requires the agent to identify each beneficial owner and take reasonable measures to verify identity, in a cascade: each individual with an ultimate controlling ownership interest; if that is doubtful or nobody controls through ownership, each individual exercising control through other means; failing that, each individual in senior management.

For a trust it requires the agent to identify the settlor, each trustee, the protector if there is one, each beneficiary or class of beneficiaries, and any other individual exercising ultimate effective control.

Enhanced due diligence is triggered by circumstance, not by suspicion of you personally. Regulation 6(2) lists the triggers; regulation 6(3) lists what follows.

The two questions are not the same question

Regulation 6(3)(b) requires both. Source of funds is where the money for this transaction comes from: which account it leaves, and how it arrived there. Source of wealth is how the overall pool was accumulated: a business sold, two decades of salary, an inheritance.

A bank statement answers the first and not the second. That is why an agent holding your statement may still ask what the business does, or how long you held the shares you sold.

Since 1 July 2025 your agent also owes duties in respect of the party on the other side of the deal, where that party has no agent.

A new Part 2A, regulations 12A to 12H, creates a parallel counterparty due diligence regime. Regulation 2(1) defines an "unrepresented counterparty" as one not represented by any licensed estate agent or registered salesperson in respect of that acquisition or disposition.

The practical effect for you: if you are selling to a direct buyer with no agent, your agent will ask that buyer for documents. That is a duty on the agent, not a courtesy the buyer can decline without consequence.

Regulation 8 allows an agent to rely on another licensed estate agent to perform due diligence, but not for ongoing monitoring (reg 8(3)). The relying agent must obtain all the documents without delay (reg 8(4)) and remains responsible for compliance (reg 8(5)). This is why documents given to one agency are often requested again by another.

Regulation 7 relaxes parts of the regime for rentals. The relaxation is conditional, and narrower than often described.

Two things survive in every case. The reporting duty under section 45 of the CDSA sits in a different statute and is not disapplied by regulation 7. And the first carve-out depends on a low-risk assessment the agent must make and document; where it is not low, the full measures apply. The salesperson censured in July 2025 was penalised on a rental transaction.

Your documents do not disappear at completion. Regulation 14 sets the retention period at five years. For documents under section 44C(1)(a), (b), (ba) or (c) of the Estate Agents Act it runs for at least five years after the relevant estate agency work is completed; for records under regulation 13, at least five years after the record is made. Regulation 15 permits copies, electronic or otherwise.

Since 1 July 2025, regulation 15A requires a registered salesperson to submit all customer and counterparty due diligence documents to their licensed estate agent. The file sits with the agency, not with an individual.

Suspicious transaction reports

The duty applies whether or not the transaction was completed. Contravention carries, for an individual, a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to 3 years or both, and for a non-individual a fine of up to $500,000 (s 45(2) and (3)). The Council for Estate Agencies states that reports go to the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office through the STRO Online Notices And Reporting platform, SONAR, and that salespersons file through their employing estate agent.

Where due diligence cannot be completed, regulation 12(2) and (3) require the salesperson not to transact with or for the client, to inform the licensed estate agent, and to determine whether to file a report. The agent must not transact, must not establish a business relationship, must terminate any existing one, and must determine whether to file. Where a sanctions suspicion arises, regulation 11(2) to (4) requires the same steps and requires a report.

Tipping off

Section 57 of the CDSA makes it an offence to disclose information likely to prejudice an investigation, where the person knows or has reasonable grounds to suspect that an investigation is being or is about to be conducted, or that a disclosure has been or is being made. The penalty is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to 3 years or both (s 57(1) and (2)). A defence exists where the person had no reasonable ground to suspect the disclosure was prejudicial (s 57(6)), and narrow carve-outs cover advocates and solicitors and legal counsel (s 57(3) and (4)), except where the disclosure furthers an illegal purpose (s 57(5)).

This is why an agent who has filed a report will not tell you. It is also why regulation 12(1) permits a responsible person to decline to perform a due diligence measure where there is reason to suspect the client may be engaged in money laundering, proliferation financing or terrorism financing and reason to believe the measure will tip off the client or anyone else. Section 47 of the CDSA protects the reporter: information disclosed by an informer is not admissible in any civil or criminal proceedings.

The regime is prescriptive, so you can check the request against it.

• It comes with a written agreement. Regulation 4(1) requires one setting out the terms of the business relationship before any estate agency work.
• It asks for the regulation 2(1) items and verifies them against a reliable and independent source.
• It asks you to sign an acknowledgment that the information is accurate, because regulation 4(2)(a) requires it.
• It escalates only for a reason: an entity or trust in the chain, a politically exposed person connection, a jurisdiction named by the Financial Action Task Force, or an unusually large transaction.
• The documents go to the licensed estate agent, as regulation 15A requires.

None of that involves routing money through an agent personally, disclosing banking passwords or one-time passcodes, or signing something you have not read. Due diligence establishes who you are and where the money came from. It is not a reason to hand control of anything to anyone.

To read the rules yourself, the Council for Estate Agencies publishes a Guide on the Estate Agents (PMLPFTF) Regulations 2021 with its forms, FAQs on Compliance updated on 29 December 2025, a Consumer’s Guide to Due Diligence Checks, and Industry Briefing Slides updated on 19 September 2025. Its page on preventing money laundering, proliferation financing and terrorism financing was last updated on 22 January 2026.