Real Estate Agent
Real estate agents help people buy, sell, and lease residential and commercial properties. The role combines sales, negotiation, and property knowledge with a strong focus on client relationships. It is a commission-heavy career that suits people who are comfortable with income variability and face-to-face work.
What this job is
A real estate agent acts as the go-between for property buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants. Core work includes appraising properties, listing them for sale or rent, conducting inspections, negotiating offers, and managing the paperwork that moves a deal to settlement. Agents may specialise in residential sales, commercial leasing, property management, or rural and rural-lifestyle properties. The role sits inside a licensed agency, and agents must hold their own state-issued licence or registration to operate legally.
Are employers advertising this role?
Steady, down 6.5% over 5 years
Counted across a group of similar roles. These are three-month rolling averages of online job advertisements, not filled positions.
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Internet Vacancy Index.
Day-to-day
A typical day might start with follow-up calls to buyers who attended an open home on the weekend. From there, an agent could head out to appraise a property for a prospective vendor, then return to the office to prepare a listing agreement and upload photos to a portal. Afternoons often involve private inspections, offer negotiations by phone, or attending an auction. Property managers in the same role handle tenant enquiries, maintenance requests, and routine inspections on a rolling schedule. Evening and weekend work is common, particularly around auction campaigns.
Who does this now
About 22,200 people worked in this occupation across Australia at the 2021 Census.
Is it steady
AI appraisal and listing tools are common now. Vendor relationships, auctions and negotiations tend to stay deeply human.
What this role asks for
Certificate IV or Certificate III with at least two years of on-the-job training (ABS skill level 3)
Registration or licensing is required.
Can employers fill these jobs
Employers hiring for this occupation were generally able to find suitable applicants in 2025. This measures how hard employers found it to fill jobs. It is not a count of jobs, and it does not say whether the occupation is growing.
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Jobs and Skills Australia defines an occupation-ready qualification as:
Completing this qualification will provide the skills and knowledge to undertake this occupation. Further training and experience may be required to meet specific industry requirements including licensing and registration.
Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Requirements
The standard entry pathway is a Certificate IV in Property Services, which covers property law, agency practice, sales, and property management (JSA Occupation Profile). After completing that qualification, you apply for a registration or licence through your state or territory property services regulator. Requirements vary by state: some jurisdictions require a full agent's licence from the start, while others allow you to work under a licensed agent with a lower-level registration. Check your state regulator's current requirements before enrolling. You can search for accredited courses at yourcareer.gov.au or check whether fee concessions apply through dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe.
The honest hard part
The income structure is the biggest adjustment for career changers. Many agencies offer a modest retainer or base salary, but the bulk of earnings depends on settled transactions. In a slow market, or during the first year when you are building a client base, income can be unpredictable. Weekend and evening work is a genuine expectation, not an occasional ask. Licensing requirements also mean you need to complete formal training and pass a state assessment before you can operate independently, which adds time and cost to the transition. People who move into this role from salaried backgrounds often find the shift to commission-based income the hardest part to manage.
Where the jobs are
In practice, real estate agencies operate in every suburb and regional town across Australia, so opportunities exist well beyond capital cities. Rural and coastal markets can be competitive in their own right, particularly during property booms.
Pay
Published for ANZSCO unit group 6121, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.
This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.
Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
Skills
- Appointment Schedulingcore
- Conflict Resolutioncore
- CRM System Operationcore
- Customer Needs Assessmentcore
- Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
- Negotiationcore
- Objection Handlingcore
- Onboarding New Clientscore
- Regulatory and Legislative Awarenesscore
- Service Agreement Administrationcore
- Stakeholder Communicationcore
- Time Management and Prioritisationcore
- Verbal Communicationcore
- Written Communicationcore
- Advise on property value
- Digital Literacy
- Electronic Document Management
- Goal Setting and Planning
- Invoicing and Accounts Receivable
- Outbound Customer Contact
- Record Management
- Research and Analysis
- Risk Identification
- Upselling and Cross-Selling
Which of these do you have?
Tick the ones you haveCommon questions
Sources
- ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
- ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
- ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.
Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.
Last updated: 10 October 2026
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