Lodgement of mortgages and discharges with the Queensland Land Registry can be completed electronically through Australia’s first national online e-Conveyancing platform, Property Exchange Australia (PEXA).
E-Conveyancing is the process of completing property transactions online, this includes electronic lodgement of the transaction with Land Registries and settlement of funds.
Over one million property transactions are completed in scope in Australia every year, according to PEXA. The aim of PEXA is to create an online business environment that provides users with time and cost benefits. This will be delivered through two releases.
In scope transactions include discharges, mortgages, transfers (and combinations of these transactions), caveats and withdrawal of caveats. Name changes, notice of death and transmission application may also be considered in a future release.
Release 1 allows all four major banks, and a number of smaller financial institutions, to perform a limited range of single party transactions (the simple release of mortgages and new mortgages). Release 2 will enable property lawyers and conveyancers to use the platform as well.
A mortgage transaction completed by ANZ in December last year was the first e-conveyancing transaction in Queensland. Other state land registries that also use PEXA include Victoria, New South Wales and most recently Western Australia.
PEXA allows banks to complete mortgage discharges and refinance transactions online in Queensland. The platform will also enable property lawyers to complete online transactions through the Queensland land registry as of February 2015. This is offically part of PEXA’s Release 2, which will also allow transfers to occur using the platform.
PEXA was formed in 2010 and its key financial stakeholders are the Queensland, Victorian, NSW and WA governments and some of Australia’s largest financial institutions.
In Queensland there are four options for lodging land dealings and property transactions. The other three options are e-lodgement of paper documents, by the post and over the counter.
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