NSW e-conveyancing competition report to be tabled
Last year’s state parliamentary inquiry that explored the controversy of competition, pricing, and service continuity in e-conveyancing is expected to table its report this week.
A LONG-AWAITED report into competition in NSW’s highly concentrated e-conveyancing system is set to be handed down this week, a state MP told Australian Conveyancer.
The report, the product of a 2025 state parliamentary inquiry that examined issues including outages, pricing, enforcement and interoperability in the market.
It followed regulator Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council (ARNECC) halting a proposed rollout of a nationwide interoperability regime. That decision was followed this year by ARNECC indefinitely shelving the planned regime.
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Mark Banasiak, deputy chair of the inquiry, said the upper house committee met on Monday to finalise the report.
“It will most likely (be) tabled by the end of this week,” Banasiak said, adding that the contents of the report would remain confidential until tabled in parliament.
One conclusion contained in the report, according to local media, is that property exchange network PEXA and the country’s major banks have worked against efforts to open the property title transfer system to competition.
Asked about the report, AIC NSW president Jennie Tonner said she hoped its recommendations would take onboard submissions made by the peak body last year.
In the submissions, AIC NSW said it supported competition in the market and urged legislators to ensure practitioners “be serviced at this important stage (i.e. the financial settlement and registration) of the conveyancing transaction, by technology that is simple to use, has a high degree of security and resilience and does not expose our members or their clients to additional risk”.
“Competition in the true sense can only be delivered when multiple ELNOs can operate so that transaction can be effectively completed and although we were told that multiple ELNOs was always the intention, the system has to be reconfigured to allow for Interoperability,” it added.
Submissions to the inquiry were also made by online property exchange network PEXA as well as industry players the Law Society of NSW and Dott and Crossitt Solicitors.
The inquiry, which held its final public hearing in February, examined a range of issues, including the impact of outages on property settlements, home buyers and small businesses, as well as pricing and opportunities to drive competition through pricing action.
Other issues examined were Registrar General enforcement powers in the e-Conveyancing market, and the relationship between the banks and the “monopoly network”.
Nearly all e-Conveyancing transactions in NSW use PEXA’s exchange process, giving the digital property platform an effective market monopoly.
In April, the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal said it wanted to rein in fees charged by PEXA in a proposal welcomed by conveyancers.
PEXA has previously said its focus is on delivering secure, reliable property settlements for Australian homeowners, while maintaining the integrity of the financial system.
