Australia’s property network – two million PEXA transactions
By PEXA - 14 December 2018
PEXA rounds up 2018 by announcing it has now completed over two million property transactions.
Melbourne, 13 December 2018 – Property Exchange Australia (PEXA), the country’s leading electronic property settlement provider, has rounded out 2018 by announcing it has now completed over two million property transactions1. This is a significant landmark, with the first PEXA transaction occurring back in 2013.
PEXA reached one million transactions in April this year. Since then, it has taken the company just eight months to double this figure – as the country’s legal and conveyancing practitioners and financial institutions increasingly choose to process their matters digitally.
Valued at $8.6 trillion2, property is Australia’s largest asset class and through the use of PEXA, industry members, and their homebuyer and seller clients are benefitting from a fast, secure settlement experience, moving away from the previous, cumbersome paper process.
The digital uptake is being driven by the burgeoning e-Conveyancing network, made up of more than 150 financial institutions and 7,500 practitioner firms. PEXA, established in 2010 to fulfil a Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) initiative, has partnered with these organisations, their representative bodies and the state governments to support the industry’s digital transition.
The digitisation of property transactions in Australia is ongoing, but this year has represented a major tipping point. Two states, Victoria and Western Australia, committed to processing all available property transactions3 digitally, in October and December respectively, while New South Wales is set to follow in July 2019.
According to PwC’s Digital Property report into the impact of e-Conveyancing using the traditional, paper-based method, conveyancing can take up to 30 days to complete with approximately one in four property settlements delayed, risking financial cost and stress for buyers and sellers. With the number of transactions conducted online rising exponentially, the value added by settling property digitally will continue to be delivered to further industry members and consumers alike.
Managing Director CS Legal in WA, Richard Wensley said, “We have seen only benefits from going online. In all of the transactions we have done, I have been unable to find one negative issue with the system.”
Peter Grotjan, Partner, Gadens added “Gadens is a long-time collaborator with PEXA and one of the early adopters in the market regarding front end banking and finance settlements. We have been a proactive member in PEXA’s community of practice and have provided practical feedback to assist PEXA in its endeavour to provide an efficient, fit for purpose and easy to use platform. Further to this, we have also collaborated with PEXA’s technology team to integrate our internal systems to improve efficiencies and maintain quality for both Gadens and PEXA. By using integration as a way to remove the need to input duplicate data and reduce the potential for error, we look forward to continuing our relationship with PEXA, focusing on system integration.”
PEXA CEO, Marcus Price said, “When you consider that it took us five years to reach our millionth transaction, and yet, just eight months to reach our second, it is evident that there is strong momentum and a positive shift in mindset around e-Conveyancing. The commitment to embrace change from industry members has been outstanding and this is a fitting way to cap a significant 2018 for the industry.”