In short. A conveyancing quote has two parts: the professional fee for the work your conveyancer or solicitor does, and disbursements, which are third-party costs they pay on your behalf and pass on. Compare the two separately, because a low fee with vague disbursements is not a low quote.
What are you actually being quoted for?
Conveyancing is the work that turns a signed contract into a registered change of ownership. The Queensland Government describes it as the process after the contract is signed that ensures The Queensland Government describes conveyancing as the process after the contract is signed that ensures the land is registered in the buyer's name at the government's land title office5. Every state runs the same basic idea through a different system.
So a quote covers labour and outlays. The labour is reviewing the contract, ordering and reading searches, dealing with the other side's representative, preparing the transfer, booking settlement and lodging the documents. The outlays are what gets bought along the way: certificates from councils and authorities, title searches, lodgement fees, a settlement platform charge. Those are the disbursements, and they are the reason two honest quotes differ.
Why is there no price range on this page?
Because we could not verify one. Plenty of sites publish a confident band for conveyancing fees, usually somewhere between several hundred and a few thousand dollars, and quote no source for it at all. We looked for a published, dated figure from a body that would stand behind it, and did not find one we were willing to print.
Every other number on this site links to the government page it came from. A fee range without a source would be the only exception, so it is not here. When we find a named, dated industry survey we will publish it and label it as an industry figure rather than an official one.
Practical version: get three written quotes for your own purchase, in your own state, for your own property type. That is better data than any national average, because it is priced on the work in front of you.
What should the professional fee cover?
Ask for the scope in writing. A quote that covers a straightforward purchase often stops short of the things that actually happen: a delayed settlement, a second contract when the first falls over, a strata report that turns up a special levy, an extension of finance. None of that is unreasonable to charge for, but you want to know the price before it happens rather than after.
In Queensland you also have the option of doing it yourself. The state government says The Queensland Government says you may do your own conveyancing or have it done for you, and that you should get legal advice even if you do your own4. Few buyers should, but it is a reminder that you are buying expertise and risk management rather than a mandatory licence fee.
Fixed fee or hourly?
Fixed fees dominate residential conveyancing and they make comparison easy, as long as you check what falls outside the fixed scope. Hourly billing is more common where the transaction is unusual: a deceased estate, a related-party transfer, a property with an easement problem. Neither is a trap on its own. An unexplained fixed fee that excludes half the job is.
The number that dwarfs the fee
It is worth keeping the fee in proportion. On a $750,000 purchase the transfer duty is a multiple of anything a conveyancer will charge you, and it varies far more by state than any fee does.
Chart data
| Item | Duty payable |
|---|---|
| New South Wales | $27,937 |
| Victoria | $40,070 |
| Queensland | $19,600 |
That is not an argument for ignoring the fee. It is an argument for spending your attention where the money is: first on the duty and any relief you qualify for, then on the quote.
Five questions before you engage anyone
- Is this a fixed fee, and what takes it outside the fixed scope?
- What disbursements do you expect for this property, and which are estimates?
- Who does the work, and who answers the phone when settlement is a week away?
- What is your licence or practising certificate number?
- What happens to the fee if the contract does not proceed?
Ask the fourth question of everyone. It is the single fastest check that you are dealing with someone regulated, and the answer should arrive without hesitation.