Why Perth agencies need to pay attention
Two patterns matter in Perth that are less common east. First, FIFO and mining-sector buyers with non-standard income documentation and sometimes offshore residency. Second, developer-vendor activity on greenfield projects in the northern (Yanchep, Alkimos) and southern (Mandurah, Baldivis) corridors with corporate-trustee vendor structures.
Both patterns are accommodated by ordinary CDD and beneficial-owner capture, but they need to be handled deliberately rather than by treating every buyer or vendor as a standard individual. Caltury's customer form branches by entity type and surfaces enhanced due diligence prompts where the risk profile requires it.
What an enrolled Perth agency needs
Eleven obligations: enrolment with AUSTRAC, ML/TF risk assessment, an AML/CTF Program (Part A and Part B), CDD on every buyer and vendor, ongoing CDD, sanctions and PEP screening, SMR workflow, TTR workflow (rare in residential), IFTI workflow (rare but present for cross-border deposits), 7-year retention, and staff training.
Caltury covers all eleven on every tier. The Program template is real-estate-specific and references the REIWA market context, not a generic financial-services template. The training module is designed to be completed by a sales agent in under an hour and the certificate is retained for the 7-year retention window.
Perth time zone and support
Caltury support is async written. Replies come from Ben Horne, the founder, usually within a few business days. The 2 to 3 hour gap between AWST and AEST shows up in support as a single-day delay at most rather than a 2-hour delay.
The application itself is hosted in Sydney with Cloudflare edge delivery, so Perth users see latency comparable to eastern-states users for ordinary app traffic. Sanctions screening and identity verification both run server-side and are unaffected by client time zone.
Common questions
We do mostly off-the-plan apartment sales for one developer. Are we in scope?
Yes. Off-the-plan sales are still sales of real estate, and the agency providing the service is the reporting entity. The developer is your customer in the sense that they are the vendor; each off-plan buyer is also a customer. CDD applies to both sides.
Does REIWA accreditation reduce our obligations?
No. Industry-body accreditation has no effect on AUSTRAC obligations. REIWA continues to set its training and conduct standards independently of the AML/CTF Act.
What if our buyer is an Australian citizen on a FIFO roster working overseas?
An AU citizen working overseas remains AU-resident for CDD purposes provided the documentary evidence supports that. Source-of-funds documentation may need a bit more depth because employer accounts may be offshore. Caltury's customer form supports this scenario with the enhanced-due-diligence fields appearing where required.
Can multiple offices share one Caltury account?
Yes if they operate under one ABN. The Practice and Firm tiers support multiple named users across multiple physical offices. Customers and reports are unified. The audit log records actions per user.
This page is general information about Australian AML/CTF obligations. It is not legal advice. AUSTRAC has not reviewed this content. For situations specific to your practice consult an Australian-qualified lawyer or AML/CTF adviser.