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Legal storm brews over trust accounts, buyer’s agents face shake-up: What PMs must know


By Robyn Tongol

25 August 2026 • 2 minute read


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A landmark court case has cracked open a legal grey area around outsourced trust accounting in property sales, while a wave of poor buyer’s agent deals is dumping problem properties straight into property managers’ laps. This week’s episode unpacks what this means for PMs across Australia.

The buyer’s agent sector is in the middle of a shake-up, and many PMs are copping the fallout. In this episode of The Property Management Excellence Podcast, REB’s Alex Whitlock, Liam Garman, and Emilie Lauer dig into why so many BA-sourced properties are landing on PMs’ desks with overvalued rental CMAs.

A last-minute rush to buy through SMSFs ahead of superannuation changes has also flooded the market with suboptimal purchases: properties bought in haste, now needing to be leased in a market that won’t necessarily deliver the returns investors were promised.

The trio then unpack a recent legal flashpoint: an NSW court case that has thrown outsourced trust accounting for sales into question, with particular reference to client disclosure.

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