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Property investment licensing, a guide by Dotto

A guide published by Dotto

Who may give advice about investing in property

Moneysmart counts direct investment in real estate among the investments ASIC does not regulate. Licences start with the loan, the cover, super and schemes, and this guide reads where, from ASIC and its Moneysmart website.

A core through one investment property, from the surface down
  1. The propertyBought directly, a house or land is outside what ASIC regulates as an investment.
  2. The loanIn the course of a business, suggesting a particular loan from a particular lender is credit assistance. Credit activities generally need a credit licence or an authorisation, unless an exemption applies.
  3. The landlord’s insuranceA managing agent with power to bind the owner who takes out cover in the owner’s name is dealing in a financial product.
  4. SuperSuper is a financial product; personal advice about it, and most general advice, needs an AFS licence or an authorisation.
  5. Schemes and fundsInterests in a managed investment scheme are financial products, and Moneysmart says investors in one must be given a disclosure statement.

This is a guide to who may give advice about investing in property, according to ASIC and its Moneysmart website, written and published by Dotto. In short: Moneysmart lists “direct investment in real estate” among the investments ASIC does not regulate, and a house or a block of land is not among the financial products ASIC’s licensing page names. The licences come in with what surrounds a purchase: a particular loan, insurance taken out in the owner’s name, advice about super, or a stake in a scheme or fund.

General informationAbout the licensing rules, not financial, credit or legal advice about any property, loan or investment. Moneysmart, ASIC’s consumer website, is the place to check, and ASIC’s professional registers show who holds a licence.

Reading the core

The drawing at the top of this page is a borehole log: a core cut from the ground, with each band described beside it. The surface is what a sales pitch talks about. The bands below are where ASIC’s rules sit.

Two licences do most of the work. An Australian financial services (AFS) licence covers financial services such as advice about, or dealing in, financial products, and ASIC’s examples of those products include superannuation, insurance and interests in managed investment schemes. An Australian credit licence covers credit activities; ASIC’s guide says anyone who engages in them generally needs a credit licence, or an authorisation from someone who holds one, before starting business.

Facts are a different matter. Moneysmart says no licence is needed to give factual information, and describes general advice as a recommendation or opinion about a financial product that leaves your own circumstances out. Personal advice, and most general advice, still needs an AFS licence or an authorisation from a licence holder.

A weathered rock face in horizontal layers of grey, cream and rust-coloured stone.
Rock laid down in layers, each band with its own make-up. Photo by MemoryCatcher on Pixabay

The five guides

Each guide reads one or more bands of the core, from ASIC’s regulatory guides, its media releases and Moneysmart’s pages.

  1. Where a licence starts around an investment propertyThe house, the loan, the landlord’s insurance and super, read against ASIC’s own examples of where each one meets a licence.
  2. Land banking and option agreementsHow a scheme on undeveloped land is put together, the four ways Moneysmart says it can fail, and the checks it lists.
  3. Property funds, listed and unlistedUnits in a pooled fund rather than a title in your name: the disclosure document, ASIC’s benchmarks and Moneysmart’s ten checks.
  4. Calls after a click: lead generation and the licenceHow an advertisement or an online quiz becomes a sales call, and what ASIC’s 2026 review says to watch for.
  5. Referral fees and commissions: ASIC on what agents discloseThe rules an estate agent meets when passing a buyer to a broker, and Moneysmart on paid promotion and circles of referrers.

What stays outside this guide

Tax on a rental property is left out, and so is buying property through a self-managed super fund. On the second, Moneysmart says an SMSF can invest in property under strict legal and tax rules, and that doing so can be complex and bring extra costs, risks and responsibilities; its property investment pages are the place to start.

This guide names no adviser, firm, fund, seminar or promoter, and ranks none. Where ASIC has published names, as it did in its 2026 review of lead generation, the guide describes what ASIC said and leaves the names on ASIC’s own page.