PEXA settles more than $900bn in FY22

Online lodgement and financial settlement platform Property Exchange Australia Limited (PEXA) has released its financial results for the year ended 30 June 2022.

According to the company, more than $900 billion was settled through the exchange in the financial year 2022.

It also experienced a 12 per cent growth in total market volumes from FY21, with refinancing volumes up 31 per cent from the previous year and a 50 per cent increase in usage of the platform.

In its results, PEXA revealed that its pro forma net profit after tax (NPAT) for FY22 was $38 million, up $43 million from a small loss of $5 million last year.

Since its launch, PEXA has facilitated more than 12 million property transactions worth more than $2.4 trillion, and is said to be now supporting over 9,700 practitioner firms, over 160 financial institutions and over 1.1 million consumers per year.

PEXA Group managing director and chief executive Glenn King, commented: “Our team continues to deliver for the practitioners, financial institutions and homebuyers and sellers who have used the PEXA Exchange over the past 12 months in Australia, driving strong transaction volume growth on our exchange platform that maintained 99.9 per cent availability across FY22.

“We continue to execute on our strategy to build on PEXA’s position as the operator of Australia’s leading digital property settlements platform. With further enhancements made, and a new jurisdiction entered, we recognise the key and unique custodial role we play in managing this critical infrastructure that supports the safe and secure settlement of the majority of land transactions in Australia.”

FY22 saw PEXA drive a 22 per cent increase in PEXA Exchange volumes to 4.05 million, reaching a 59 per cent transfer market penetration less than a year after launching in the ACT, and saw volumes more than double from FY21 to FY22 in Queensland.

PEXA also drove growth through a number of strategic partnerships and mergers and acquisitions during FY22, including acquiring a 38 per cent stake in property information leader, Landchecker, acquiring up to 25 per cent of AI software leader Elula, acquiring a 70 per cent stake in Slate Analytics, a progressive property analytics and technology solution co-developed by the UNSW Sydney and FrontierSI and acquiring Australian demographics company .id — PEXA Insights’ first 100 per cent acquisition.

Commenting on the company’s FY23 outlook, Mr King said that PEXA had started FY23 in a strong position.

“Volumes on the PEXA Exchange platform in Australia remain robust, and we are targeting an Exchange EBITDA margin in the 50 per cent to 55 per cent range. To drive future growth of the PEXA Exchange, we continue to invest in our core business, with PEXA Exchange technology investment expected to be circa 20 per cent of revenue in FY23 with a focus on API development, customer-facing enhancements, and cyber security and platform resilience,” he said.

“We are excited by the opportunities for PEXA to grow its world-leading digital property settlement platform internationally, while also appropriately expanding data services in Australia to facilitate a more informed and efficient property industry at home. Our UK business will ‘go live’ next month, and by the end of FY23 we aim to have four lenders transacting on the platform.

“To support this, we plan to invest circa $45 million in international expansion over the next 12 months. In addition, with the growth opportunities we see for PEXA Insights, we plan to invest circa $15 million in FY23 into this business unit to support organic growth.”

FY22 results demonstrate monopoly: Sympli

Noting the figures, e-settlements business Sympli suggested that the financial year results “clearly demonstrate its monopoly status”.

“It is disappointing to see that progress on expansion into international markets is being delivered at the expense of progress on critical competition reform in Australia,” it reported, noting PEXA’s move into the UK.

According to the group, while PEXA is “assuring investors it is playing a ‘constructive role’ in the development of the new regulatory framework to support interoperability, key stakeholders involved in the process know PEXA has demonstrated an unwillingness to remain engaged, and progress to date has been significantly delayed by the monopoly.”

Philip Joyce, the CEO of Sympli, commented: “We are now at a critical point in time where all industry stakeholders must come together to collaborate and deliver.

"The interoperability targets for mid-2023 represent a golden opportunity to implement a safer, more secure, more competitive and resilient ecosystem – to benefit home buyers and sellers and the banks and practitioners that support them.

“Competition, through interoperability, will enable better outcomes for banks, practitioners and their clients.”

[Related: Interoperability model still ‘too costly’: PEXA]