The ACT conveyancing process: step by step from required documents to settlement
Conveyancing in the ACT front-loads disclosure earlier than almost anywhere else in Australia. Before a seller can even advertise a property, they must already have a full set of required documents, including physical building, pest and energy reports, ready for a buyer to inspect. That single rule shapes the whole ACT process. This guide follows a standard ACT purchase from that starting point through to settlement, flagging where private treaty, auction and tender diverge.
What makes the ACT process different
In New South Wales and Victoria, the key disclosure document is prepared and handed to the buyer around the time of signing. In the ACT, under the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003 (ACT), the seller's obligation starts earlier: all of the required documents must already be available for a prospective buyer or their agent to inspect at all reasonable times when an offer to buy might be made, which in practice means before the property is even listed. A seller who fails to have them ready commits a strict-liability offence. Because of this, the highest-stakes work in an ACT sale, commissioning the building, compliance, pest and energy reports, happens before a single buyer has walked through the door, not in the days after an offer is accepted.
Every category of required document, why it matters, and which ones a seller can skip, is set out in the required documents ACT guide.
Leasehold, not freehold: the Crown lease
The ACT is also structurally different from every other state: all land in the territory is owned by the Commonwealth and leased out, so when you "buy" a house or unit you are actually buying the remaining term of a 99-year Crown lease, plus the improvements on it. A copy of the Crown lease is one of the required documents a seller must provide. In practice this rarely changes the buying experience day to day, since leases can be renewed and are routinely bought, sold and mortgaged like freehold title elsewhere, but it does mean the purpose clause of your Crown lease genuinely limits what you can use the land for, which your solicitor checks as part of reviewing the required documents.
Private treaty versus auction and tender
ACT residential property sells three ways, and the process changes at the point of commitment:
- Private treaty: you negotiate with the seller through the agent, then sign the contract. This path carries a statutory cooling-off period of 5 working days.
- Auction: the successful bidder signs on the spot, and there is no cooling-off period at all, including if the property passes in and you then sign later the same day having been a recorded bidder.
- Tender: a sale by tender also carries no cooling-off period.
The steps below describe private treaty, the path where the cooling-off period applies. Where auction or tender changes a step, it is called out.
Step 1: The seller prepares the required documents
Before marketing begins, the seller's solicitor assembles the required documents: a copy of the Crown lease, a certified land titles register extract, the deposited plan, details of encumbrances, a building and compliance inspection report and, if the residence has been occupied, a pest inspection report (both from an inspection carried out no earlier than 3 months before the property is first advertised), an energy efficiency rating statement, and, for a home built before 1991, an asbestos assessment report or advice. For a unit, additional owners corporation documents are required. This is the bulk of the seller's conveyancing work, and it has to be complete before the "for sale" sign goes up.
Step 2: Inspecting and reviewing before you offer
As a buyer, ask the agent for the required documents as soon as you are interested, and have your solicitor review them before you make an offer or bid. Because everything, including the building and pest reports, is already prepared, you can do a genuinely thorough review before committing any money, earlier in the process than in most other states. At an auction or tender this review must be finished before the auction or the tender closing date, since there is no window afterwards.
Step 3: Signing the contract
When terms are agreed (private treaty) or you are the successful bidder (auction) or your tender is accepted, you sign the contract of sale and pay the deposit, commonly up to 10% of the price, usually held in trust until settlement. The required documents automatically form part of the contract under the Act, whether or not they are physically attached, and certain warranties, for example that the property is free of undisclosed encumbrances and unapproved structures, are automatically included even if the contract does not spell them out.
Step 4: The cooling-off period
On a private treaty sale you then have 5 working days, running from the day the contract is made, to change your mind. If you withdraw within the period, the seller keeps 0.25% of the purchase price, forfeited to the seller, and the rest of any money paid is returned. There is no cooling-off period at auction or under a tender contract. The mechanics, the full list of exceptions and the penalty worked through at real prices are in the cooling-off period ACT guide.
Step 5: Between contract and settlement
Once the cooling-off period passes (or immediately, for an auction or tender sale), both sides prepare for settlement. In this phase your solicitor typically:
- Assesses conveyance duty: the ACT's conveyance duty (its name for stamp duty) is calculated on the greater of the price or market value, along with any Home Buyer Concession Scheme exemption you are entitled to. Duty is administered by the ACT Revenue Office and must be lodged, with the transfer, within 14 days of the contract being made. See the stamp duty ACT guide.
- Runs final searches: confirming nothing new has been registered against the title, or the Crown lease, since the required documents were prepared.
- Coordinates finance and figures: liaising with your lender so loan funds are ready, and calculating rates and land tax adjustments.
- Books settlement: agreeing the date and time in the electronic settlement workspace.
Step 6: Settlement day
Settlement is the day ownership of the Crown lease passes to you. Like other jurisdictions, ACT settlements now largely complete electronically through the PEXA platform. On the day, both solicitors are in the PEXA workspace with the agreed figures, your lender releases the loan funds, the platform simultaneously transfers the price to the seller (after discharging their mortgage), pays the conveyance duty, and lodges the transfer with Access Canberra. When settlement confirms, the agent releases the keys.
After settlement
After settlement, Access Canberra registers the transfer and updates the land titles register to show you as the registered proprietor of the Crown lease, the ACT Revenue Office records the duty as paid, and your lender registers its mortgage if you borrowed. Your solicitor confirms completion and you arrange to transfer utility and rates accounts into your name.
How long the ACT conveyancing process takes
There is no fixed statutory settlement period in the ACT; the date is whatever the contract specifies, negotiated between buyer and seller. A settlement period of around 4 to 8 weeks is common for an established home, with the exact date written into the contract, while a new build can run much longer because settlement waits on construction and a certificate of occupancy. Because the period is set by agreement rather than a legal default, confirm the date in your own contract with your solicitor rather than assuming a standard length.
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Conveyancing Explained provides general information about property transactions in Australia. It is not legal advice and does not create a client relationship. For advice on your situation, engage a licensed conveyancer, settlement agent, or property solicitor in your state or territory.