By Graeme Salt
Settling on a property can be one of the most stressful exercises you will have to go through.
In Australia, many contracts expect there to be 42 days (six weeks) between exchanging on a property and settling.
This allows time for everyone to get their ducks in a row. Things like:
- Banks issuing loan contract
- Conveyancers doing Title searches
- Purchasers ensuring that they their deposit available
The main reason why it’s so stressful is not because it’s messy, but there is often a lot of emotion riding on a home purchase.
In fact, compared to other places, it’s fairly painless.
In England and Wales, the average transaction takes around 120 days and roughly one in three sales falls through before completion.
As ever, Australia does most things better than the Poms. Here is what most Aussies are looking at:
| State / Territory | Typical Settlement Period |
| NSW | 42 days |
| VIC | 30–60 days |
| QLD | 30 days standard |
| SA | 30 days standard |
| WA | 30–60 days |
| TAS | 30–42 days |
| ACT | 30–45 days |
| NT | 30–42 days |
Years ago, I remember queuing up at the NSW Land Titles Office to get properties’ Title stamped. Thankfully many states have made this a digital and relatively painless process.
In NSW the Land Registry Services has been implementing a Digital Plans Reform — a statewide initiative to transition all survey and title plans to 100 per cent digital format to streamline property transactions and improve data accessibility
This has been so successful that the Lands Titles Building is now lying empty!
My sister and I are going through the process of selling our Mum’s home and it is an absolute pain – nobody can tell us what is going on!
In England – there is a heavy emphasis on the chain where one transaction is often dependent on another, which is dependent on another again. In practice, multiple exchanges and completions need to align at the same time. If one buyer’s settlement is delayed, the disruption can spread across the entire chain.
Aussies are way more robust than that – if you sign a Contract to buy a property, it’s your responsibility to make sure you are ready to settle in time. If not, the purchaser pays the consequences – they should not have to inconvenience the others.
Buying your home can be exceedingly stressful – but also very rewarding.
Australia has built a system which has taken a lot of the stress out of the process – but there’s still a lot of emotion riding in the transaction.
To minimise the stress, it’s vital you build a good team around you – with professional conveyancers and brokers around you who keep you in the loop.
Then, once you are happily settled in your dream home – you can think of your Pommy cousins who still have no idea what’s going on.
Graeme Salt is an award-winning mortgage broker. For a no-obligations consultation on your home loan needs, please contact him on 02 9922 5055
