Previously it was not legal to transfer .AU domains for a fee, the justification being that AuDA wanted to avoid the blatant cybersquatting and spiralling domain prices that have occurred in other unregulated markets.

Now, it is possible to trade .AU domains, albeit with some limitations – for example, you are not permitted to trade a domain until six months has lapsed from its time of registration.  The full guidelines can be found here:  http://www.auda.org.au/pdf/registrant-transfer.pdf

Over time I have accumulated a number of domain names that I had intended to develop, but have not got around to doing anything with.  Now that it is legal to sell them, I am going to consider putting them on http://www.netfleet.com.au/, a new trading platform which has been set up by Netregistry.

Whilst AuDA guidelines preclude the purchase of domain names purely for resale, I am sure that a small buy/sell industry will emerge, although not to the extent that we have seen with .COM domains, the trading of which is completely unregulated.

In the meantime, the loosening of the rules provides a good opportunity for netpreneurs to clean out their domain name portfolios.