The AML penalty figure the real estate media got wrong.

The Commonwealth penalty unit was indexed on 1 July, the same day real estate came under the anti money laundering regime. Real estate trade coverage published in the past week, AUSTRAC's own worked examples and compliance material circulating to agencies all still convert at the old value, understating the exposure by about ten per cent.

Real estate agencies assessing what non compliance with the anti money laundering regime could cost them are working from figures that are roughly ten per cent too low.

The maximum civil penalty for a body corporate under the AML/CTF Act is $36.4 million, not the $33 million widely quoted. For an individual it is $7.28 million, not $6.6 million. Failing to enrol carries up to $21,840 a day for a body corporate and $4,368 a day for other entities, not $19,800 and $3,960.

The correct daily figure has been in published legal commentary since late July. Sydney firm Brown Wright Stein Lawyers, writing on 27 July as the enrolment deadline approached, put it plainly: civil penalties of up to 60 penalty units a day, which the firm calculated at $21,840, may apply while the contravention continues.

The lower numbers remain in general circulation because the conversion most people are copying was correct until 30 June.

The arithmetic, and why it changed

Penalties under the AML/CTF Act are expressed in penalty units rather than dollars. AUSTRAC publishes the unit counts. The dollar value of a unit is set by section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 and is indexed periodically.

AUSTRAC puts the maximum civil penalty at up to 100,000 penalty units for a body corporate and up to 20,000 penalty units for persons other than bodies corporate. Its guidance on enrolment sets the penalty for failing to enrol at up to 60 penalty units a day for a body corporate and up to 12 penalty units a day for other entities, accruing until the business enrols or stops providing designated services.

On 1 July 2026 the penalty unit rose from $330 to $364.

At $364, 100,000 units is $36.4 million and 20,000 units is $7.28 million. Sixty units a day is $21,840. Twelve units a day is $4,368.

The point that settles which value applies is AUSTRAC's own. The regulator states that the value of the penalty unit is set by the date the offence was committed or the civil penalty provision contravened.

Real estate agents became reporting entities on 1 July 2026. The indexation took effect on 1 July 2026. A real estate business could not have contravened this regime before it applied to them, so every contravention by an agency falls on the $364 side of the line. There is no version of these reforms under which an agency's exposure is calculated at $330.

Where the wrong figures are appearing

Real estate trade publications covering the AML reforms in the past week have put the daily penalty at $19,000 and the maximum corporate penalty at $33 million, with $6.6 million for individuals. In the coverage Real Estate Today has reviewed, those figures were attributed to compliance advisers quoted in the articles rather than calculated independently, which is how a single superseded conversion reaches an entire sector in a fortnight.

Compliance material circulating to agencies has used $19,800 and $3,960. Those are AUSTRAC's correct penalty unit counts multiplied by $330, the value that expired on 30 June.

The regulator's own pages are part of it. As at 29 August, AUSTRAC's guidance on the consequences of not complying states the penalty unit counts correctly and then converts them using $330, producing $33 million and $6.6 million. Older AUSTRAC guidance on enrolment penalties converts at $313, the value that applied between 1 July 2023 and 6 November 2024. The unit counts on those pages are right. The dollar illustrations beside them predate the indexation.

Published legal commentary has been split, which is the clearest sign of how easily this was missed. Brown Wright Stein's note of 27 July applied $364 and arrived at $21,840 a day. Other professional guidance prepared in the same period applied $330 and did not.

The timing made that close to unavoidable. Most of the sector's preparation was done in the weeks before 1 July, when $330 was the correct value. What has not happened since is anyone going back to check whether the number still held once the regime commenced.

Proportion matters

Two qualifications belong on any figure this large.

Maximum penalties are ceilings, not tariffs. The $36.4 million figure describes the outer limit of the Federal Court's power in the most serious case conceivable, not a likely outcome for an agency behind on its paperwork. What a court actually imposes turns on the conduct, and AUSTRAC has said publicly it will not penalise businesses making genuine efforts to meet their obligations.

The daily enrolment penalty is the number that matters more to most agencies, because it attaches to the most ordinary failure. It accrues for every day a business provides designated services without being enrolled, and it requires no finding about money laundering at all. At $21,840 a day, an unenrolled company three months past the line is into seven figures on the arithmetic alone.

Enrolment is also only the entry point. Agencies need an AML/CTF program, a designated compliance officer and a documented risk assessment. Annual staff training is mandatory and must be recorded, and it applies to customer facing staff generally rather than to sales agents alone.

The regime captures brokering the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate, and leasehold arrangements exceeding 30 years. Property management and most commercial leasing sit outside it.

The regulator has stopped explaining and started asking

Real Estate Business reported in late August that AUSTRAC had begun issuing investigative notices to unenrolled businesses, and quoted chief executive Brendan Thomas saying there was nothing ambiguous about the requirement for agents to enrol where they provide designated services.

Eight weeks into the regime, that is the position agencies are in. The regulator has moved from education to information gathering, and the daily accrual for anyone still outside the system is materially higher than the number in most of the material they have been given.

The unit counts are AUSTRAC's. The unit value is set by the Crimes Act and published by the Commonwealth. The multiplication is available to anyone, and until the worked examples are updated, the sector will keep being handed a figure that understates what it is exposed to.

Real Estate Today has published the arithmetic and its sources above so that any agency, adviser or publication can check it rather than take it on trust. That is the only reason this correction is worth making.

Agencies uncertain about whether they provide a designated service, or about where they sit on enrolment, should take their own advice rather than rely on any published summary, including this one.

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Sources: AUSTRAC guidance on the consequences of not complying and on enrolment penalties, as published at 29 August 2026; the Commonwealth penalty unit values published by ASIC; section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914; Brown Wright Stein Lawyers, 27 July 2026. Dollar figures are arrived at by applying AUSTRAC's published penalty unit counts to the penalty unit value in force from 1 July 2026. All figures stated are maximums, and the penalty imposed in any case is a matter for the court.