A 10 year industry milestone

Property Exchange Australia, or PEXA, is one of the great Australian success stories. While it may not enjoy the global fame of wi-fi and the black box flight recorder, or the romance of the Hills Hoist and R M Williams boot, PEXA is a home-grown innovation that all Australians can be proud of.

PEXA was conceived 10 years ago as the outcome of a Council of Australian Governments meeting between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, who agreed to create a national electronic e-Conveyancing platform for the Australian property industry.

Just four years later, in 2014, the first full property settlement was executed over PEXA’s robust and reliable purpose-built platform – and the shift away from paper-based conveyancing had begun.

Today, more than 75 per cent of all property transfer settlements in Australia are handled digitally – among the highest of any nation in the world – and the figure continues to grow as more States and Territories transition to electronic conveyancing. In States that moved early, up to 98 per cent of settlements are now processed entirely electronically.

The benefits are clear. Electronic conveyancing is fast, safe, more efficient and more transparent. And there are meaningful cost savings for conveyancers, legal firms, and, most importantly, Australians buying and selling their homes.

Critically, we were able to provide enormous support to the $7 trillion property industry and subsequently our nation’s economy when it was needed most – during the COVID-19 lockdowns. While countries such as the US and the UK experienced significant declines in property settlements, Australia remained resilient, with $230 billion worth of settlements processed through the PEXA platform over the past six months alone.

PEXA is enormously proud of its 10 year journey from inception to the operator of a nationwide platform that underpins the entire property industry and helps 20,000 Australian families settle on their homes every single week.

We could never have reached this milestone without the support of the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, our committed shareholders, our dedicated and talented employees, industry bodies, regulators and our 9,000+ members – the law firms, conveyancers and banks who use the platform every single day.

Like all successful Australian companies, we won’t be resting on our laurels. We were born of innovation and continuous improvement is in our DNA.

Thanks to government foresight 10 years ago – and the subsequent years of development and delivery – Australians enjoy a truly world-leading property settlement system. It is PEXA’s mission to ensure that remains the case for the next 10 years and beyond.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we will be looking back on some of our members’ highlights and notable moments – and what better place to start than at the beginning with the first transfer transaction.

Pioneering digital settlements for our industry, Carolyn Booth, Smart Choice Conveyancing, and Paul Denny, Denny Conveyancing, completed the first electronic transfer transaction using PEXA in 2014. Here’s Paul and Carolyn as they reflect on their journey.

You can follow along as we celebrate this momentous occasion, showcasing some of the more unique member stories that have inspired us over the past decade via our social media and e-Conveyancing Community.