This month, we sat down with Jerome Boutelet, InfoTrack’s Head of Government Relations, to discuss one of the most pressing and persistent questions facing the legal and property industry today: where do we really stand on eConveyancing competition reform?

Jerome is fiercely advocating for a practitioner-first approach, championing the voices of lawyers and conveyancers in a system that, for over a decade, has denied them meaningful choice. In this piece, Jerome offers a candid look at the state of play, the barriers holding reform back, and why action can no longer be delayed.

“We support competition.” But what has changed?

When it comes to eConveyancing, “we support competition” is a phrase that’s been repeated so often it risks losing meaning. Even the monopoly provider says it. And yet, despite this apparent alignment of interests, thousands of hours of workshops, regulatory reviews, and legislative work, lawyers and conveyancers still don’t have genuine choice in the platform they use to settle property transactions.

This lack of choice means there’s no downward pressure on fees, limited incentive for innovation, and uneven service outcomes. Practitioners are left carrying the cost of a system that was supposed to evolve and hasn’t.

Is it really that complex?

At first glance, the challenge may seem technical or overwhelming. But at its core, it’s not. We’ve built far more complex systems in shorter timeframes. This is ultimately a question of allowing two networks to exchange data securely, something Australia already does across industries like banking and telecommunications.

So, what’s the real reason for the delay?

What’s holding reform back?

In simple terms: the delay is mostly down to a lack of courage from decision makers to make the tough decisions, that’s the reality.

NSW has enforcement powers that haven’t been exercised in over two years. Nationally, momentum has slowed. Since June 2024, following concerns raised by some major banks around financial settlement, the competition program has been paused. At the time, around 90% of the technical work was already complete, yet progress stalled.

There are also clear vested interests. The current provider generates over $380 million annually from the system and has reportedly signalled legal concerns around intellectual property should true competition proceed. That sends an uncomfortable message to reformers, even when industry support for choice remains strong.

The practitioner-first path forward

In response to the delay, Sympli has put forward a practitioner-first (prac-first) release. This approach proposes a staged introduction of competition that keeps financial settlement and lodgement in the near term with PEXA, while opening up the retail side of the platform to genuine market choice.

The concept is simple. Think of it like the energy market, where one entity owns the infrastructure, but multiple providers can service end users. This release is focused on delivering choice to practitioners as soon as possible, a choice that was promised years ago and has yet to be delivered.

What this means for you

Under a practitioner-first release, your day-to-day practice won’t change, except for one significant improvement: you’ll be able to choose your eConveyancing provider.

You could stay with your current provider, explore an alternative, or switch based on what works best for your firm and clients. Right now, that freedom doesn’t exist.

This is particularly difficult to justify given the growing frustration across the market. 2024 saw a notable number of platform outages, creating delays, client dissatisfaction, and further erosion of trust. Choice isn’t just a matter of cost; it’s a matter of resilience and risk mitigation.

What can you do?

We’re calling on Government to support practitioner-first as the first stage of meaningful competition reform, and to make that decision before the year ends.

If you believe that lawyers and conveyancers should have a say in the tools you use, now is the time to speak up. Government needs to hear directly from practitioners, those who experience the system every day and understand what’s at stake.

There is wide industry support for competition including from AICs, the Law Council of Australia and the NSW Productivity Commission. If you’d like to lend your voice to this effort, or find out how to get involved, please reach out via Jerome.Boutelet@InfoTrack.com.au.

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