Slowing market and added responsibility hits the Top End

A mixture of limited supply, higher build costs and greater compliance burden for the close-knit NT conveyancing community has been compounded by a small influx of interstate carpetbaggers looking to get into the Top End market.

As the housing market cools in the Northern Territory, a whole raft of issues are affecting the Top End’s conveyancers, according to the president of AIC NT Sue Carmody.

The low supply of housing compared to demand, land tenure and planning arrangements, flatlining incomes, high interest rates and housing prices, along with high crime rates and antisocial behaviour, are all impacting her 36 members.

“Affordability in the NT has declined,” says Carmody. “Construction of a house in the NT is expensive with high builders’ rates and charges for construction. Freight is also a large factor.”

With 38 conveyancers operating in the Northern Territory, Carmody says they form a “small village” of practitioners who are “focused, task motivated and always looking out for the best interest of their clients”.

“We all know each other and respect each other,” she reports. “There is a unity among the members which makes working in the industry a little more easier.”

Carmody says compliance with new legislation from both Federal and Local Government is causing considerable stress to a number of the AIC NT members, who are made responsible for that legislation rather than it being up to the federal or local government to uphold.

In the Northern Territory each conveyancing matter also has additional regulatory requirements beyond that of Verification of Identity (VOI), ATO, capital gains tax, withholding clearance, and FIRB which include swimming pool/spa fencing compliance, smoke alarm compliance and electrical outlet compliance.

“These matters would best be completed by the vendor or the selling agent prior to going to market,” says Carmody. “Unfortunately, these matters are often not attended to prior to the buyer signing the contract of sale resulting in the buyer’s conveyancer having to attend to these issues.”

Like Tasmania, the Northern Territory is yet to adopt PEXA. “There is no e-conveyancing (PEXA or Simpli Electronic Settlements) in the Northern Territory, thus we are being left behind,” she says.

Carmody has noticed a recent trend in the territory of interstate lawyers moving to the territory and setting up conveyancing practices.

“With the current state of the economy, more and more businesses are being forced to expand their markets to ensure survival,” she says. “And they are moving into new geographical areas with new potential clients, so growth will assist in their profitability.”