Short answer
Check the licence first — real estate agents must be licensed in every state. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 10,311 Australian real estate agents in this directory, only 19.4% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 9.7% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Real Estate Agents handle selling and leasing property, appraisals, auctions, buyer representation and property management. This is what to check before you hand someone the keys to sell or let your property, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Real Estate Agents must be licensed
Real estate agents are licensed in every state and territory, and the people who work under a licensee hold a certificate of registration or equivalent that is also on the register. Agents handle your deposit and rent through regulated trust accounts, and a written agency agreement with a cooling-off period is required before they can act for you.
Every state's fair trading or consumer affairs body publishes a public register of licensed agents and registered salespeople. Search the agency and the individual.
What 10,311 Australian real estate agents actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For real estate agents:
| What we checked | Real Estate Agents | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 19.4% | 21.2% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 61% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 9.7% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 80.4% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 84.5% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 56 | 39 |
What goes wrong with real estate agents
- An agent or salesperson not on the state register, which means no trust-account protection
- An agency agreement with a long exclusive period and a commission that is not explained
- An appraisal pitched high to win the listing, followed by pressure to drop the price
What to ask before the work starts
- What is your licence number, and is the person I am dealing with on the register too?
- What is the commission, the marketing budget, and the length of the exclusive period?
- What did the last five comparable properties you sold actually fetch against the appraisal?
A real estate agent who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median real estate agent in this directory has 56 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the real estate agents are
Sydney (1,047), Melbourne (791), Brisbane (585), Perth (358), Gold Coast (228), Adelaide (183). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best real estate agent in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do real estate agents need a licence in Australia?
- Yes. Real estate agents are licensed in every state and territory, and the people who work under a licensee hold a certificate of registration or equivalent that is also on the register. Agents handle your deposit and rent through regulated trust accounts, and a written agency agreement with a cooling-off period is required before they can act for you.
- How do I check a real estate agent's licence?
- Every state's fair trading or consumer affairs body publishes a public register of licensed agents and registered salespeople. Search the agency and the individual.
- What percentage of Australian real estate agents have a verifiable ABN?
- 19.4% of the 10,311 real estate agents in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.2% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a real estate agent have?
- The median real estate agent here has 56. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare real estate agents near you
10,311 real estate agents, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
Read next
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- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,057 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …