By now you have probably seen the ads. Sometime around March a whole category of software appeared, all of it promising to make you AUSTRAC ready before 1 July 2026, most of it built or rebranded in the last 12 months. If you run a small agency you are not really asking what Tranche 2 is anymore. You have read that. You are asking which one of these you actually buy.
I should say up front that we make one of them. Homepedia builds HP-KYC, so I am not a neutral reviewer and I am not going to pretend to be. What I can give you is how I would compare these tools if I were sitting where you are sitting, because I have had to. Homepedia is itself an enrolled reporting entity and I am its AML/CTF Compliance Officer. I have run our own program, our own customer due diligence, our own record-keeping, on the same deadline you are on. That is the lens here, and you should read everything below knowing it.
What “best” actually means here
Most of these products lead with features. I think that is the wrong place to start, because the law does not care about features. It cares about obligations.
A real estate agency caught by Tranche 2 has the same core set of duties whether it runs expensive software or a spreadsheet and a very patient compliance officer. You enrol with AUSTRAC. You appoint a compliance officer. You run an ML/TF risk assessment and you write and maintain an AML/CTF program. You do customer due diligence before you provide a designated service, with enhanced checks where the risk is higher, and you keep doing it on an ongoing basis. You screen for sanctions and politically exposed persons. You report suspicious matters. You keep records for 7 years. You train your staff.
So the only question that matters when you compare tools is simple. How much of that list does this thing actually carry, and how much does it quietly leave on your desk.
Everything else is packaging.
The 5 things I check
Obligation coverage first. A lot of what gets sold as AML software is really just an identity verification widget with a nice interface. ID checking is one obligation out of roughly ten. If the tool does not also help you build the program, run the risk assessment, monitor on an ongoing basis and produce reports you can file, you have bought a piece of the job and you still own the rest.
Whether it was built for real estate or adapted from banking. This matters more than it sounds. A risk assessment written for a bank assumes products a bank has. Your risks are different: cash buyers, overseas money, structures put between the buyer and the property to make ownership hard to read. The good real estate tools build the risk assessment and the program around property, not around a banking template with the word property pasted in.
How identity verification works, and who pays for it. Some platforms charge you per check. Some let you pass the cost to the customer. For a small agency doing a handful of sales a month that difference is real money, and it is worth asking before you sign.
Ongoing, not just onboarding. The obligation does not end when you verify someone at the start. You have to monitor the relationship and reassess risk while it lasts. Tools that stop at the onboarding check leave the ongoing piece to you, which is exactly the part people forget until a review finds it missing.
Price you can actually see, and fit for your size. Some vendors publish a calculator or tiered plans. Some make you book a demo to find out what it costs. Neither is wrong, but a solo principal and a 12 office franchise group have very different needs, and a tool priced for one is usually painful for the other.
The field, roughly
There are three kinds of thing being sold to you right now.
The first is purpose-built Australian real estate AML software. These are tools designed for this sector and this deadline. AMLTranche is built in Melbourne for real estate agents, conveyancers, developers, buyers agents and dealers in precious metals and stones. TrustSoft combines trust accounting and AML in one platform, which is interesting if you already need trust accounting, and it markets low-cost tiers for small offices with a handful of users. easyAML is real estate focused with biometric identity verification powered by Scantek, a program builder, ongoing monitoring and a published pricing calculator. AML Assured is real estate only, has tiered plans from boutique to franchise, builds the program around real estate rather than banking, and offers verification the customer can pay for directly. HP-KYC, ours, sits in this group too: built for real estate agencies and law firms, with the obligation set covered end to end and a heavy emphasis on the audit trail, because I wanted a record I could hand a regulator without apologising for it.
The second is the generic global identity platform. ComplyCube, Sardine and others like them do identity verification and screening very well, often better than the local tools, because that is their whole business. What they generally do not do is hand you a finished Australian real estate AML/CTF program, your risk assessment, or your AUSTRAC reporting. They give you a strong engine. You still have to build the car.
The third is not software at all. It is a consultant plus the AUSTRAC starter kit. You pay someone to write your program and you run it by hand. For a very small, very simple agency this can be enough, and I will not pretend otherwise. It gets slow and error prone the moment your volume or your risk goes up.
The table below is how I would line them up.
Product | Built for | Identity verification | Obligation coverage | Pricing (June 2026) | Best fit |
AMLTranche | Real estate, conveyancers, developers, buyers agents, precious metals dealers. Melbourne built. | Yes, in platform. | Full obligation set marketed, enrol through to reporting. | Not publicly listed. Demo or quote. | Property firms wanting a sector specific build. |
TrustSoft | Real estate plus trust accounting. Conveyancers, dealers. | Yes. DVS based identity checks. | AML plus trust accounting combined. Program draft from AUSTRAC starter kit. | Low cost tiers advertised for small offices, to 5 users. | Firms that also need trust accounting in one place. |
easyAML | Real estate, conveyancers, lawyers, accountants. | Biometric, powered by Scantek. PEP and sanctions screening. Beneficial owner checks. | Program builder, risk assessment, ongoing monitoring, one click reports, training. | Public pricing calculator. Free until 1 July 2026. | Small to mid agencies wanting all in one with no compliance background. |
AML Assured | Australian real estate only. | Yes. Verification can be customer paid. | Program built for real estate not banking. Training, reporting, 7 year records. | Tiered plans, boutique to franchise. Free until July 2026. | Agencies of any size wanting verification inside existing workflow. |
HP-KYC (Homepedia) | Real estate agencies and law firms. | Yes. Screening and beneficial owner checks. | Full obligation set, emphasis on the audit trail. | Contact for current plans. | Firms wanting the whole obligation handled with a regulator ready record, including agent plus lawyer matters. |
Generic identity platforms (ComplyCube, Sardine and similar) | Any regulated sector, global. | Strong, often best in class. | Verification and screening only. Program, risk assessment and AUSTRAC reporting are on you. | Usage based. Varies. | Firms that already have a program and only need a verification engine. |
Consultant plus AUSTRAC starter kit | Manual route, not software. | Manual or third party. | Program written by a consultant. You run everything by hand. | One off or hourly consulting. | Very small, very low risk, low volume agencies. |
Drawn from each vendor’s own website as at June 2026. Vendors change their offerings often. Check the current site before you decide.
How I would actually choose
Start with your own shape, not the feature list.
If you are a solo principal or a boutique office, your enemy is time, not complexity. You want the tool that gives you a finished program and risk assessment, training your people can do at their own pace, and verification that does not need a compliance background to run. The real estate specific tools are built for exactly this, and most of them let you pass verification cost to the customer, which keeps it cheap.
If you are a multi office or franchise group, the deciding factor is oversight. You need group wide visibility with branch level consistency, so head office can see who has done what. That is a different question from does it verify ID, and it is worth pushing vendors hard on it.
If you already need trust accounting, a combined platform is worth a serious look, because running two systems that both touch client money is its own kind of risk.
And if you take overseas buyers, weight this heavily. Overseas money is where the real estate sector’s ML/TF risk concentrates, and it is where enhanced due diligence and source of funds and source of wealth checks actually bite. A tool that handles a domestic buyer cleanly can still leave you exposed on a foreign one. This is the part I would test hardest in any demo.
The thing I keep running into is agencies treating the software as the finish line. A principal asked me a while back whether signing up to one of these platforms made him compliant. It did not. He had a verification widget and nothing behind it: no risk assessment, no program a reviewer would recognise, nobody actually appointed to run it. The tool did everything it promised. It just was not the same thing as compliance, and he had read it as the same because the marketing let him. |
The other one I see is overseas buyers treated like any other client. I sat with an agency that had verified a foreign buyer’s passport, ticked the box and moved on. No source of funds, no source of wealth, no thought about who actually controlled the company buying the apartment. That is the exact transaction the rules are built around. If your tool makes the foreign buyer feel as easy as the local one, that is not the tool being good. That is the tool letting you skip the part that matters. |
Where HP-KYC fits, and where it does not
Since I have put our own product in the list, let me be straight about it.
HP-KYC is built for real estate agencies and law firms that want the whole obligation handled in one place, with an audit trail strong enough to survive a regulator’s review. The law firm side matters: we built it for a world where the same transaction can touch an agent and a lawyer, and both are now reporting entities. If that is your situation, I think we are a strong choice, and I would say that even if I did not work here.
Where we are not the answer: if all you actually need is a cheap identity check and you already have your program and officer sorted, a generic verification tool will probably do it for less. If your only pain is trust accounting with a bit of AML attached, a combined accounting platform may fit your workflow better than we will. And if you are a one person agency doing two low risk sales a year, honestly, a consultant and a careful spreadsheet might be all you need. Buying software to feel safe is not the same as needing it.
Pick the tool that carries the most of your obligations for what you can afford. If that is us, good. If it is not, the worst outcome here is not choosing the wrong vendor. It is choosing nothing and finding out in July that we meant to is not a defence.
The regulatory detail
What the law requires
The obligations come from the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), as amended by the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth), with operational detail in the AML/CTF Rules 2025 (Cth), Federal Register reference F2025L01026. The designated services that bring real estate businesses into the regime commence on 1 July 2026.
Core duties for a captured real estate reporting entity: enrol with AUSTRAC within 28 days of first providing a designated service (Act, Part 3A, s51B to s51G); appoint an AML/CTF compliance officer; carry out an ML/TF risk assessment and maintain an AML/CTF program (Part 2); conduct initial customer due diligence before providing a designated service (s28), with enhanced customer due diligence where required (s32 and Rules 6-20) and ongoing customer due diligence through the life of the relationship (s30); screen for sanctions and politically exposed persons within that framework; submit suspicious matter reports; and keep relevant records for 7 years (Part 10).
Key dates
Enrolment opened on 31 March 2026. Obligations commence on 1 July 2026. A Tranche 2 entity must enrol within 28 days of first providing a designated service. For an entity providing designated services from commencement, that deadline falls on 29 July 2026. Tranche 2 entities do not get the transitional arrangement that applies to existing Tranche 1 entities. They enter the reformed framework directly.
Penalties for not enrolling
Failure to enrol when required is a civil penalty. The daily penalty for continued non-enrolment is 60 penalty units per day for a body corporate and 12 penalty units per day for an individual. A penalty unit is currently $330, a value set under the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), s4AA. That value is scheduled for reindexation on 1 July 2026, so the dollar figure will rise while the unit count stays the same. Treat the unit counts as the fixed fact and the dollar conversion as a moving one.
Frequently asked questions
Do small real estate agencies actually need AML/CTF software?
No. Software is not legally required. You can meet every Tranche 2 obligation manually with a written program, careful records and a compliance officer who has the time. What software does is reduce the effort and the error rate, which for most agencies is the difference between compliance that holds up and compliance that exists only on paper.
What should AML/CTF software for a real estate agency actually do?
At a minimum it should help you build and maintain your AML/CTF program and risk assessment, verify customer identity and screen for sanctions and politically exposed persons, support ongoing monitoring rather than just onboarding, generate AUSTRAC reports, store records for 7 years, and train your staff. A tool that only does identity checks covers one obligation out of roughly ten.
How much does AML/CTF software cost?
It varies widely. As at June 2026 some vendors publish pricing calculators or tiered plans, while others quote only after a demo. Several offer free access until the 1 July 2026 commencement. Cost usually scales with the number of users and the volume of verification checks, and some platforms let you pass the verification cost to the customer.
Is real estate specific software better than a generic KYC platform?
It depends on what you still need to build yourself. Generic identity platforms often verify and screen better than the local tools, because that is their core business. What they usually do not give you is a finished Australian real estate AML/CTF program, your risk assessment or your AUSTRAC reporting, so you carry the rest. Real estate specific tools cover more of the obligation list out of the box.
Does using software make my agency compliant?
No, and this is the one I would underline. Software supports your obligations. It does not own them. You still appoint the compliance officer, approve the risk assessment, exercise the judgement on suspicious matters and stand behind the program. A verification widget with no program behind it is not compliance. It just looks like it.
When do I need this in place?
The obligations commence on 1 July 2026. If you provide a designated service from that date you must enrol with AUSTRAC by 29 July 2026, within the 28 day window. Having your program, officer and due diligence process working before 1 July is the practical target, not the enrolment date.
Sources
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth): legislation.gov.au/C2006A00169
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules 2025 (Cth), F2025L01026: legislation.gov.au/F2025L01026
AUSTRAC, Future law compilation of the AML/CTF Act: austrac.gov.au future law compilation
AUSTRAC, Overview of customer due diligence reform: austrac.gov.au CDD reform
AUSTRAC, Enhanced customer due diligence reform: austrac.gov.au EDD reform
Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), s4AA (penalty unit value and indexation).
Products referenced, as described on each vendor’s website at June 2026: easyAML, AML Assured, TrustSoft, AMLTranche.
