Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Real estate agents: insurance and scheme requirements

Licensed sale and leasing of property on behalf of owners.

Data as at

Required by law or licence

  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and in the strongest possible terms. Section 22 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 (NSW) provides that "it is a condition of every licence that the holder be insured under a policy of professional indemnity insurance". Every licence, not some. The minimum cover levels and policy terms are set by regulation and an information sheet published by NSW Fair Trading; those figures are not reproduced here because they were not verified against the primary document, and a wrong minimum is worse than no figure. NSW · effective 2003-09-01 NSW Fair Trading · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: At licence application and at renewal, as a certificate of currency in the licence holder's name or in their employer's name. Because the cover is a condition of the licence rather than a one-off application document, a lapse during the licence period is a compliance problem and not merely an administrative one. NSW · effective 2003-09-01 NSW Fair Trading · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: NSW Fair Trading, under the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 (NSW). Real estate agent licences are issued in two classes, class 1 and class 2, and the same Act covers stock and station agents and strata managing agents. NSW · effective 2003-09-01 NSW Fair Trading · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No professional indemnity requirement — none at all. A full-text reading of the authorised Act returned ZERO occurrences of "professional indemnity" or "public liability insurance". Victoria protects clients through the VICTORIAN PROPERTY FUND instead, a trust account holding interest received on agents' trust money, which compensates people when an estate agent, conveyancer or their representative has misused or misappropriated trust money or property. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. VIC · effective 2026-08-24 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance requirement to evidence. VIC · effective 2026-08-24 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Consumer Affairs Victoria, under the Estate Agents Act 1980 (Vic). VIC · effective 2026-08-24 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Not in practice, though the Act leaves the door open. Section 54(2)(b) provides that "A condition may require a licensee to hold insurance of a kind and in an amount prescribed under a regulation" — an enabling power, not a requirement. A full-text reading of the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 found ZERO occurrences of "insurance", so nothing has been prescribed and no condition currently applies. Queensland therefore runs on its statutory CLAIM FUND, established under the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld). Watch the regulation rather than the Act: a future amendment could switch this on without Parliament sitting. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. QLD · effective 2026-08-24 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None currently prescribed. QLD · effective 2026-08-24 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Office of Fair Trading, under the Property Occupations Act 2014 (Qld). QLD · effective 2026-08-24 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No professional indemnity requirement for real estate agents. A full-text reading of the Act found no substantive PI obligation. Protection runs through the REAL ESTATE AND BUSINESS AGENTS FIDELITY GUARANTEE FUND, which reimburses people who suffer loss of trust money or trust property through the criminal or fraudulent actions of a licensed agent. AND NOTE A TRAP: Western Australia DOES require professional indemnity insurance — but of SETTLEMENT AGENTS, the conveyancers, under the separate Settlement Agents Act 1981 (WA), where a triennial certificate holder must at all times be insured under the Commissioner's Master Policy Agreement. Two property professions, one state, opposite answers. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None for a real estate agent. A settlement agent must hold a current certificate of insurance under the Commissioner's Master Policy at all times. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Consumer Protection division of the WA department, under the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 (WA). WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No professional indemnity requirement — the phrase does not appear anywhere in the Act. South Australia runs a statutory INDEMNITY FUND maintained by the Commissioner, comprising interest paid by banks on trust accounts and money recovered in relation to a fiduciary default. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Consumer and Business Services, under the Land Agents Act 1994 (SA). SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: YES — and Tasmania is one of only three jurisdictions that requires it. Section 131(2): a property agent "must maintain insurance cover that indemnifies the property agent against any liability that the property agent may incur in respect of any loss or damage suffered by other people occasioned by any act, default, omission, neglect or defalcation by the property agent in the course of his or her business". The penalty runs to 500 penalty units. Tasmania is BELT AND BRACES: it requires the insurance AND maintains a separate Property Agents Guarantee Fund, where Victoria, WA, SA and the ACT rely on the fund alone. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: Evidence on every renewal of the policy, in a form the Board specifies. And the consequence of a gap is automatic: section 132(1) provides that the licence "is to be taken to have been suspended during any period when the property agent does not have the insurance cover required". No decision, no notice — the same automatic-suspension mechanism Tasmania uses for conveyancers. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Consumer, Building and Occupational Services, under the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 (Tas). TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance requirement — a full-text reading of the whole Act returned ZERO occurrences of the word "insurance". The ACT runs a CONSUMER COMPENSATION FUND kept and administered by the director-general, made up of interest paid on trust accounts. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Access Canberra, under the Agents Act 2003 (ACT). ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: YES. Section 108B(1) is blunt: "An agent must not carry on business as an agent unless the agent is insured under an approved indemnity insurance policy", with a maximum penalty of 500 penalty units for an individual and 2,500 for a body corporate. Like Tasmania, the Territory runs this ALONGSIDE its older Agents Licensing Fidelity Guarantee Fund rather than instead of it — section 108E expressly says the insurance Part does not derogate from the Fund. THE THING NOBODY EXPLAINS: Australia protects the clients of real estate agents in TWO fundamentally different ways, and which one you live under decides whether you need professional indemnity insurance at all. Some jurisdictions require the AGENT to carry PI. Others require no insurance whatsoever and instead run a STATUTORY FUND — financed by the interest earned on agents' trust accounts — that compensates clients directly when an agent misuses trust money. New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory take the insurance route. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT take the fund route. Queensland sits between them. An agent moving state does not merely face a different limit; they face a different mechanism. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: The policy must be one the Board has approved — not merely any professional indemnity policy the agent can buy. An exemption is available by regulation. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: The Agents Licensing Board, under the Agents Licensing Act 1979 (NT). NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

Cover commonly held

Ordered by how central each cover is to this occupation. This is what businesses in the trade commonly hold and what contracts commonly ask for — it is not a statement that any of it is legally required, and it is not a recommendation.

  • Professional indemnity insurance — Cover for legal liability arising from professional advice or services, written on a claims-made basis.
  • Public liability insurance — Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.
  • Workers compensation insurance — Statutory cover for injury to workers, arranged through each state or territory scheme rather than on the open market.
  • Cyber liability insurance — Cover for the costs of a data breach or cyber incident, including response, restoration and third-party liability.
  • Management liability insurance — Cover for company and director exposures such as employment practices, statutory liability and defence costs.
  • Business pack insurance — A packaged policy combining property, liability and interruption sections for small business.
  • Employment practices liability — Cover for claims by employees over matters such as unfair dismissal, discrimination and bullying allegations.

Statutory schemes that can apply

Checking what you hold

The document a principal, a landlord or a licensing team will ask for is a certificate of currency. The checker reads one and lists what it does and does not show.

Sources