Stressful delays in Australia s 5.7 trillion residential property market

Stressful delays in Australia’s $5.7 trillion residential property marketAustralia’s biggest asset class, the $5.7 trillion mum and dad residential property market, is being held back by error-prone settlement practices, finds PwC’s Digital Property Report.The Digital Property Report, based on research commissioned by Property Exchange Australia Limited (PEXA), reveals that one in three consumers find the process of property settlement stressful, with one in five suffering long delays.The report includes state-by-state analysis, with 34 per cent of respondents in Western Australia and 33 per cent of those in the Northern Territory reporting a settlement delay, compared with 18 per cent in Victoria and 17 per cent in New South Wales.PEXA’s chief executive officer, Marcus Price, says the finding underscore the need to bring property transactions into the digital economy and unlock the industry in the same way the ASX did for share transactions more than two decades ago.”It’s not good enough that many Australian consumers are bearing the emotional and financial toll that comes with buying and selling homes because the final steps of conveyancing fail in some way,” he says.”Property transfer affects everyone buying or selling a home. Fast, safe and efficient transactions will occur with state governments, lenders and property professionals collaborating to drive change.”Santina Taranto, National President of the Australian Institute of Conveyancers, welcomed the call for digital reform.”We’re excited to be able to align with the rest of the Australian economy by making this long over-due digital shift,” she says.