With value exceeding $6.7 trillion dollars, residential property remains Australia’s largest asset class, yet until recently, properties were required to be exchanged and settled manually.
In 2015, PEXA turned this on its head, introducing the world’s first electronic property exchange platform, with CLO Lawyers becoming the first Toowoomba-based firm to embrace this industry changing technology.
“By settling online through PEXA, we offer our clients real-time access to the proceeds of sale or their interest registered on title immediately – a process that can sometimes take upwards of a couple of weeks,” Jeanette Reimer, Senior Conveyancer at CLO Lawyers explains.
PEXA minimises the manual processes and paperwork associated with property settlements by enabling relevant parties to transact property together online. This includes instant lodgement with the relevant land registry and the simultaneous exchange of funds, providing real-time access of funds for the seller, ownership immediately registered on title for the purchaser and removal of the requirement for financial institutions and lawyers/conveyancers to physically attend settlement.
With more than 4000 legal and conveyancing firms and 115 financial institutions nationally now engaged with PEXA, CLO Lawyers are spearheading change within the local community.
“From our experience, clients are reassured by the ease and efficiency with which we’re able to handle their transaction,” Jeanette says. “For most Australians, the purchase of a house is the most significant investment they’ll make in their life so they want to know it’s being handled in the safest, and most efficient way possible. PEXA provides that certainty. As the first law firm in Toowoomba to partner with PEXA, we’ve been helping to drive innovation in conveyancing and property transaction services for many months to benefit our Toowoomba and Darling Downs clients”.
PEXA developed its customised settlement solution in consultation with all eight Australian Land Registries, the RBA, the four Major Banks and legal and conveyancing peak bodies; an unprecedented achievement in both intergovernmental cooperation, and public/private sector alignment.
To date, more than $50B in property has been transacted through the online network.
