Conveyancing Fees in Australia Explained
Conveyancing fees in Australia — what conveyancers actually do, professional fees vs disbursements, and when to use a conveyancer versus a solicitor.
Conveyancing is the legal work of transferring property from one owner to another — one of the smaller bills in the process, and one of the most important. Done well, you never think about it again; done badly, you find out at settlement.
Here's what you're actually paying for, why the quote comes in two parts, and how to choose between a conveyancer and a solicitor without overpaying either.
What the quiet professional actually does
Conveyancing looks like admin from the outside. Underneath, it's a checklist of things that each go expensively wrong if missed:
- Reviewing the contract before you sign, and flagging clauses that bite
- Running searches on the property — title, council, water, planning — to surface debts, easements (someone else's legal right to use part of the land) and nasty surprises
- Sorting your stamp duty paperwork and any concessions you're entitled to
- Calculating settlement adjustments so you and the seller each pay your fair share of rates and water
- Coordinating settlement itself with your lender and the seller's side, then registering you as the new owner
The quote comes in two parts. Read both.
Every conveyancing quote splits into professional fees and disbursements, and confusing the two is how cheap quotes trick people.
Professional fees are the person's labour. For a standard residential purchase, that typically runs around $800 to $2,500, with licensed conveyancers toward the lower end and solicitors toward the upper.
Disbursements are the costs they pay on your behalf — title searches, council certificates, settlement platform fees. Those typically add around $300 to $800, and cost roughly the same whoever you hire, because they're mostly government and third-party charges passed straight through.
🏷️The 'from $499' trick
Bargain headline prices usually quote the professional fee only, with disbursements 'additional'. Always ask for the estimated all-in total, in writing, before comparing quotes. The cheapest headline is often not the cheapest invoice.
Conveyancer vs solicitor: the actual difference
A licensed conveyancer is a specialist qualified to do property transfers — that one job, done constantly. A solicitor is a fully qualified lawyer who can handle conveyancing plus everything around it: disputes, complex structures, litigation if a deal turns hostile.
For a routine transfer, the conveyancer is the specialist: typically cheaper, and for a standard established-home purchase, every bit as effective.
The solicitor's advantage is the ceiling. When something legally weird surfaces mid-purchase, a conveyancer may have to refer you out to a lawyer anyway. A solicitor just keeps going.
When cheap and cheerful is genuinely fine
For most purchases, a licensed conveyancer on a flat fee is the right call. Established house or unit, standard contract, clean title — this is exactly the routine work conveyancers do hundreds of times a year.
Online, fixed-fee conveyancing has made this even cheaper, and for straightforward transfers it works well. Just check the flat fee's fine print: some quotes exclude extras like contract reviews before you sign, or charge more if settlement gets delayed.
Whoever you pick, engage them before signing anything. A contract review costs little and happens while you still have negotiating power.
When you want the lawyer
Some purchases carry enough legal spice that the solicitor's higher fee is cheap insurance:
- Off-the-plan purchases — buying a property that doesn't exist yet, with long, developer-friendly contracts
- Buying through a company, trust or self-managed super fund
- Deceased estates, divorces, or any sale where the sellers may end up disagreeing with each other
- Title complications — easements, covenants (rules attached to the land about what you can build), boundary disputes
- Anything that already feels contested or likely to end in a dispute
⚖️The honest rule
Boring purchase, conveyancer. Interesting purchase, solicitor. In conveyancing, 'interesting' is not a compliment — and the fee difference is tiny next to the cost of a transfer going wrong.
FAQ
How much does conveyancing cost in Australia?
For a standard residential purchase, professional fees typically run around $800 to $2,500 — conveyancers at the lower end, solicitors higher — plus roughly $300 to $800 in disbursements (searches, certificates and settlement platform fees paid on your behalf). Costs vary by state and complexity.
Is a conveyancer as good as a solicitor?
For a standard transfer, yes — it's their entire specialty, and they're usually cheaper. The difference shows when something legally unusual appears: a solicitor can handle disputes and complex structures directly, while a conveyancer may need to refer you to a lawyer partway through.
Can I do my own conveyancing to save money?
It's legal in most states, but it's a bad trade. You'd save perhaps a thousand dollars while taking personal responsibility for legal work on a six- or seven-figure transaction, without professional insurance behind you. One missed search or botched settlement can cost far more than the fee ever would.
Run your own numbers
Sources: figures checked against ATO published rates and thresholds for FY2025-26 at the review date. See how we check our numbers.
⚠️ General information only — not tax or financial advice. Figures relate to FY2025-26 unless stated otherwise.