Conveyancers threatened with further layoffs

THE bottom has fallen out of the previously lucrative conveyancing industry, with a prediction of more retrenchments nationwide this year.

Australian Institute of Conveyancers president Pauline Barrow said a tightening of bank-lending practices, a reluctance of owners to sell and employment uncertainty by buyers had seen business fall in some instances by up to 40 per cent. Losses varied between states.

In the previously buoyant West Australian property market, conveyancing had experienced up to a 40 per cent drop in 12 to 18months.

Jillian Nelson-Coulon, the institute's WA president, said some businesses had laid off staff and many had shut over Christmas.

In South Australia, transfer lodgements for November had fallen from 5885 in 2007 to 3673 last year, a 38 per cent drop.

The institute's chief executive in South Australia, Geoffrey Adam, said the state's property market was already slowing when the global financial crisis hit.

Ms Barrow said the exception was conveyancing of home and land packages where there had been some respite because of the federal Government's first-home owners' scheme.

Ms Barrow said more retrenchments in the conveying industry were expected in coming months.

Gold Coast solicitor Alison Hiscocks said the number of conveyancing contracts in her sole practice went from up to 50 a month to just 15 settlements.

"I had anticipated we would experience a drop off in conveyancing of about 20 per cent, but in May-June it was like somebody turned the tap off," she said.

"That happened in the space of a month -- that's before people started to talk about it (an economic downturn). I'm not aware of a firm on the Gold Coast which either hasn't put staff off or cut everybody's hours back."

She said that before the increase to the first-home buyers' scheme, business had dropped 40-60 per cent from 12 months before. Now the figure was 30 per cent.

Adelaide-based conveyancer Jeff Stevens said the market in commercial and industrial conveying had also "dropped away", with banks increasing the equity required in property from about 25 per cent to 35 per cent.

Ms Barrow said banks previously had lent up to 110 per cent of valuation in just days; now they took up to a month to finance a purchase.

Additional reporting: Gavin Lower

The Australian Chris Griffith and Debbie Guest | January 03, 2009