HR and payroll for property and real estate in Australia
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Property and real estate businesses in Australia face a distinct combination of commission-based pay, mixed employment arrangements, and award coverage that makes payroll more complex than in most sectors. Getting the structure right from the start avoids compliance gaps and prevents disputes down the line.
Employment arrangements in real estate
Real estate agencies commonly engage people in three different ways: employees on awards, contractors running their own businesses, and licensed agents operating under commission-only or hybrid arrangements. Each category carries different payroll and compliance obligations.
Employees — including property managers, reception and administration staff — are typically covered by the Real Estate Industry Award. This award sets minimum pay rates, overtime provisions, and conditions that override any individual agreement that offers less. Misclassifying an employee as a contractor to reduce cost is a serious risk; the Fair Work Act and recent contractor-related case law look at the real nature of the relationship, not just the label in an agreement.
Independent contractors who genuinely run their own business and carry their own risk sit outside the payroll obligation entirely, though you still need a valid contractor agreement and should periodically review that the arrangement remains genuinely independent.
Commission structures and payroll
Commission is one of the trickier elements in real estate payroll. For employees, commissions form part of gross wages and must be included in regular PAYG withholding calculations. Income tax is withheld progressively from each pay run, so a large commission payment in a single period will attract higher withholding than the equivalent amount spread across several pay runs — this surprises some employees and is worth explaining upfront.
Commission also counts as ordinary time earnings for the purposes of the Superannuation Guarantee. From the start of the 2026/27 tax year (currently underway), the Super Guarantee rate is 12% of ordinary time earnings. That applies to commissions paid to employees, not to contractors who hold an ABN and invoice independently. Confirm the status of each person before deciding whether super applies.
For property managers on base salary plus variable bonuses or commissions, each pay run must correctly identify the components. Blended pay structures are perfectly legal but require accurate categorisation in your payroll system so that super, leave accruals and reporting are all calculated on the right figures.
Leave and entitlements under the NES
The National Employment Standards apply to all national system employees regardless of what any contract says. Full-time employees are entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave per year. Property managers and sales support staff accrue this continuously, so a business that has grown quickly and not tracked leave balances carefully can find itself carrying a significant leave liability.
Personal and carer's leave, compassionate leave, and other NES entitlements also apply. Redundancy pay is calculated on a scale tied to years of service, so if a restructure ever becomes necessary — for example, if a principal consolidates two offices — the cost of genuine redundancies is determined by that statutory scale, not by negotiation.
Casual employees engaged for irregular or intermittent work receive a casual loading instead of paid leave entitlements, but recent amendments to the Fair Work Act mean that regular casuals have a pathway to request conversion to permanent employment after a defined period. This is relevant for agencies that run lean with long-term casuals in property management roles.
PAYG, STP and end-of-year obligations
Every pay event must be reported to the ATO in real time through Single Touch Payroll. This includes wage and salary payments, commissions to employees, and any allowances. STP reporting captures tax withheld, gross wages, and super liability at the point of payment rather than at year end.
If any of your staff hold a HECS or HELP study debt — not unusual for property managers with university backgrounds — you are required to withhold additional amounts on a banded scale alongside standard income tax. Employees declare this on their tax file number declaration; if they do not, you withhold at the top rate. Checking TFN declarations are current when someone starts is a simple step that prevents under-withholding issues later.
The Medicare levy of 2% is factored into the standard PAYG withholding tables, so it does not require a separate calculation. Payroll software handles this automatically, but understanding what sits inside the withholding figure matters when answering employee queries.
End-of-year STP finalisation must be completed by 14 July following the close of each financial year. For 2025/26 that deadline has now passed; for the current 2026/27 year, the deadline is 14 July 2027. Finalisation replaces the old payment summary process and allows employees to access their income statement directly through myGov.
Practical steps for agencies
Review employment classifications at least annually — the line between employee and contractor shifts with working arrangements, not just paperwork. Ensure your payroll system separates base pay, commissions, and allowances correctly so that super and leave accrue on the right figures. Keep leave balances visible to both management and staff to avoid a growing liability that is difficult to manage when someone resigns. And maintain current TFN declarations and withholding variation forms for every employee so STP data is accurate from day one.
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