The research noted that during May and August this year, the height of the national outbreak, more than $230 billion[2] worth of property settlement value was processed on Property Exchange Australia (PEXA), the country’s leading electronic conveyancing platform.
While the pandemic disrupted many industries and the economy more broadly, this digitisation of Australia’s property industry has provided key resilience to the sector, ensuring that homebuyers and sellers retain access to the critical service offered by their lawyer or conveyancer.
A world first, PEXA provides a secure platform for Australian banks, credit unions and mutuals, as well as legal and conveyancing firms, to complete property transactions safely and efficiently. This provides a fast, secure, more efficient and more transparent process, delivering Australians a vastly superior property settlement experience to the old paper-based process.
PEXA recently celebrated 10 years in operation and was named as one of Australia’s most innovative technology companies.[3] Today, more than 75 per cent of all property transfer settlements in Australia are handled digitally – among the highest of any country in the world – and the figure continues to grow as the remaining States and Territories complete their transition.
The University of Melbourne study highlights that taxpayers have also been winners as a result of PEXA’s growth story– with the privatisation of PEXA delivering net benefits of approximately $400 million from gains on investment to state governments. The availability of electronic conveyancing had also contributed to the conditions for the privatisation of four land registries and the significant value generated. [4]
As identified in PEXA’s first Property and Mortgage Insights report, Australia’s residential property demonstrated resilience in 2020, with property settlements tracking ahead of 2019 levels.[5]
Glenn King, PEXA CEO said, “We are honoured to have played a part in the digital evolution of the industry, bringing a safe, efficient, reliable and more certain property settlement experience for our 9,000+ members and the 20,000 Australian homebuyers and sellers they represent, who settle their property each week on our platform. PEXA was born of innovation and we will continue to enhance our offering and service for the Australian property market for the next 10 years and beyond. Australia can proudly boast a world-leading property settlement process – and we’re extremely proud to be its custodians.”
