E-conveyancing a ‘game changer’ for property

E-conveyancing a ‘game changer’ for property

14 July 2017

By the end of this year, all property settlements in Western Australia must be managed online, notes The Urban Developer. Meanwhile, NSW and Victoria will introduce compulsory e-conveyancing by June 2019, and Queensland is gearing up to follow suit.

E-Conveyancing enables financial institutions, lawyers, conveyancers, and others to transact together online. Property settlements can be completed electronically with pre-populated data, real-time lodgement, and streamlined processes, improving efficiency and transparency, says PEXA (Property Exchange Australia), the online authority overseeing the process.

Earlier this year the Australian Financial Review reported that PEXA conducted its first simultaneous settlement of two properties for one client.

In the transaction, Melbourne woman Regan Baines settled on the three-bedroom Greensborough house she had bought at auction as well as on the sale of her Box Hill South house. The paperless settlement enabled all parties involved to receive their payments immediately.

Currently, 115 financial institutions and 4,200 legal and conveyancing firms across Australia use the PEXA platform to process property transactions.

“Our decision to adapt early to e-Conveyancing has helped us gain our competitive advantage,” says Michael Pauling, Director of East Coast Conveyancing based in Newcastle.

“We’ve found that PEXA transactions have a much higher completion rate as opposed to manual settlements. The ‘get it right first time’ principle is what our clients expect and PEXA gives us a better chance of achieving this.”

“Furthermore, the PEXA workspace allows greater transparency if there is a problem. Sometimes settlements do go wrong but the ability to track each step of our workspaces allows us to isolate the problem,” said Mr Pauling.

Digital property settlements landed in South Australia in July 2016, and local enthusiasm for online transactions has grown rapidly.

“PEXA has been a game changer for our industry!”, says Penny Erskine, CEO of Property Matters Group. “With automatic online document checks, electronic settlement and direct payment to clients’ accounts, often 10 minutes after settlement—imagine what you could do for your business with all that extra time!”

Separate moves to privatise state land titles offices in SA and NSW could eventually lead to the creation of one national land registry.

Organizations wishing to join the PEXA network can do so here.