In Western Australia, conveyancing is usually handled by a licensed settlement agent, though a solicitor can do it too. That agent manages your contract, runs the searches, and steers the deal through to settlement when the money and the title change hands. In Perth you should expect to pay roughly $1,000 to $2,500 plus disbursements, and the single most important thing to know is that WA has no standard statutory cooling-off period, so the contract you sign is binding from the moment you sign it.
That last point catches a lot of east-coast transplants off guard, so we will come back to it. First, the basics.
What a conveyancer actually does
Conveyancing is the legal transfer of property ownership from one person to another. It is mostly paperwork, deadlines and money movements, but the paperwork is the kind that decides whether you inherit a problem or buy a clean title.
In WA, the licensed professional doing this work is most often a settlement agent, regulated under state law and required to hold a licence and professional indemnity insurance. A solicitor can do the same job, and many buyers use one where the contract is unusual, the property is part of a deceased estate, or there is a dispute brewing.
Whichever you choose, the core tasks are the same:
- Review the contract of sale and the certificate of title before you are locked in.
- Order searches: title, rates and water, land tax, strata, planning and orders affecting the land.
- Prepare and lodge the transfer documents and the duties paperwork.
- Calculate adjustments for council rates, water and strata levies so each party pays only for their share.
- Coordinate with your lender and the seller’s representative to settle on the agreed date.
- Attend settlement, confirm funds have cleared, and arrange for the title to be registered in your name.
For a deeper walk-through of the mechanics that apply across the country, our guide to conveyancing explained covers the searches and adjustments in more detail.
What it costs in Perth
Professional fees for a standard Perth purchase or sale typically land between $1,000 and $2,500. On top of that sit disbursements, which are the third-party costs your agent pays on your behalf and then passes through at cost.
Disbursements are easy to underestimate because they are a stack of small line items rather than one big number. Expect title searches, the Landgate registration fee, rates and water enquiry fees, and a settlement or PEXA transaction fee. The registration and transfer duty amounts scale with the property price, so they are the ones that move the total most.
| Cost item | Who charges it | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement agent professional fee | Your agent | $1,000 to $2,500 |
| Title and Landgate searches | Landgate, via agent | $20 to $150 |
| Title registration fee | Landgate | Scales with price |
| Rates, water and strata enquiries | Councils and utilities | $50 to $300 |
| Settlement platform fee | PEXA or similar | $100 to $150 |
Ranges are indicative and last checked June 2026, so confirm the figures with your agent for your specific property. Transfer duty, the WA equivalent of stamp duty, is separate again and usually the largest single cost. If you want the full picture of buying costs before you commit, it is worth taking the time to research the full cost of buying in Perth rather than budgeting on the headline price alone.
The cooling-off trap WA buyers need to know
Here is the part that surprises people. Unlike New South Wales, Victoria and most other states, Western Australia does not have a standard statutory cooling-off period on residential sales. In states that have one, a buyer who signs and then panics has a short window to walk away, usually for a small penalty. The mechanics differ everywhere, and if you have only ever bought interstate, our notes on stamp duty and buying in NSW show how different the rules can be from one border to the next.
In WA, once you sign the contract, you are generally bound by it. There is no automatic safety net. That puts the weight squarely on two things: the conditions written into your offer, and the due diligence you do before you put pen to paper.
In Western Australia the contract is your cooling-off period, so the time to be careful is before you sign, not after.
This is exactly why having a settlement agent or solicitor review the contract before you sign is not a nice-to-have in Perth. It is the difference between a binding agreement you understand and one you do not. A good agent will check that your finance condition, building and pest condition, and any special conditions are properly worded and give you the outs you actually need.
How the process runs, start to finish
A typical Perth transaction follows a fairly predictable rhythm once the offer is accepted.
You sign the contract, often through a real estate agent using the standard form. Your settlement agent opens the file, confirms the contract terms, and begins ordering searches. Conditions such as finance approval and building and pest inspections are worked through inside their deadlines. If a condition is not satisfied and not waived, the contract can fall over, which is why those dates are not flexible suggestions.
Once conditions are met, the deal moves toward an unconditional state. Your agent prepares the transfer documents, calculates the adjustments, and books the settlement date with all the other parties. On settlement day, funds clear, the title transfers, and you collect the keys. Most settlements in WA now happen electronically through PEXA rather than around a physical table.
If you are buying for the first time and want the wider buying journey rather than just the legal step, our how to buy a house guide sets out the stages from deposit to keys.
Choosing between a settlement agent and a solicitor
For a straightforward purchase, a licensed settlement agent is the common and cost-effective choice in Perth, and they do this work day in, day out. A solicitor tends to make sense when there is legal complexity: a contract with unusual special conditions, a property tangled in an estate or family arrangement, a commercial element, or any hint of a dispute. Some buyers like the reassurance that a solicitor can advise on the law as well as run the settlement, which a settlement agent is not licensed to do in the same way.
Either way, ask for a written quote that separates the professional fee from disbursements, confirm the licence, and ask how they handle problems if a search turns up something nasty. Price matters, but responsiveness around deadlines matters more.
The bottom line
In Perth, conveyancing is usually a job for a licensed settlement agent, costs roughly $1,000 to $2,500 plus disbursements, and runs from signed contract to electronic settlement over a few weeks. The WA-specific catch is the lack of a standard cooling-off period, which makes getting the contract reviewed before you sign genuinely important rather than optional. Get a clear quote, lock in your conditions, and do the due diligence early.
This is general information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are indicative and last checked June 2026. For the current rules and licensing, check the Western Australian Government and Landgate, and consider professional advice for your own situation.