Buried in your first contract of sale is a clause that could cost you your deposit. Someone qualified has to read it before you sign. The question is who.
Conveyancer vs solicitor, when you're buying property, is a simpler call than the internet makes it: for most straightforward purchases, a licensed conveyancer does the job well for less, and a solicitor earns the higher fee once the contract turns complicated. The bigger risk isn't picking the wrong one. It's briefing either of them after you've signed.
The timing suits buyers right now. The RBA lifted the cash rate three times between February and May 2026, held it at 4.35% in June, and meets again on Tuesday 11 August. Rate hikes thin out the crowd at open homes, which hands you room to negotiate on price, settlement dates and conditions. That leverage is only worth something if someone qualified checks what you negotiated before it binds you.
What does a conveyancer actually do?
A conveyancer is licensed to do one thing: move a property from the seller's name into yours. Narrow, and deep.
Before you sign, they review the contract of sale and the vendor's disclosure documents (the Section 32, if you're buying in Victoria) and flag anything unusual. After you sign, the work runs deeper than most buyers expect: title and planning searches, checks for easements and covenants over the block, transfer duty paperwork, liaison with your lender, an adjustment of council rates and water so you only pay from the day you own it, and the electronic settlement itself, booked and completed through PEXA. Then they call you. The keys are yours, and settlement day is done.
Typical cost at the time of writing: roughly $800 to $2,500 all-in, searches included. One wrinkle: Queensland and the ACT don't license independent conveyancers, so a solicitor's office handles the conveyancing there by default.
The duty paperwork matters more in 2026 than usual. WA, QLD, NSW and SA all changed their first home buyer concessions during the year, and the ACT abolished FHB duty outright from 1 July 2026. Your conveyancer claims the concession under whichever rules now apply. Get it wrong and you pay full duty at settlement, then claw the concession back later, a five-figure cash-flow hit in most capitals. Confirm it the week you appoint them, not the week you settle.
Conveyancer vs solicitor: what's the difference?
Both can legally act on your purchase, and both carry professional indemnity insurance. The difference is scope.
| Licensed conveyancer | Property solicitor | |
|---|---|---|
| What they cover | The property transfer, start to finish | The transfer, plus legal advice beyond it |
| Typical cost (at the time of writing) | ~$800–$2,500 | ~$1,500–$3,000 |
| Professional indemnity insurance | Yes | Yes |
| Can advise on disputes, trusts, estates | No | Yes |
| Available in your state | Not QLD or the ACT | All states and territories |
| Best suited to | Established homes, clean title, standard terms | Off the plan, complex structures, anything contested |
The industry frames this as a quality decision. It's mostly a timing one. Buyers agonise over which professional to hire, then make the mistake that actually hurts: signing first and booking the review second. A contract review after exchange can only tell you what you're already locked into.
When is a solicitor worth the extra money?
Pay for the law degree when the contract stops being standard. Buying off the plan, where sunset clauses and variation rights need negotiating before you commit. Buying through a trust or company structure. A deceased estate, an easement running through the backyard, a vendor already in dispute with a neighbour or a builder. A solicitor can advise and act on all of it; a conveyancer must stop at the transfer.
Auctions raise the stakes further. The contract is unconditional at the fall of the hammer, with no cooling-off, so the review has to happen before auction day, and any changes to special conditions negotiated with the agent in advance. Our guide to auction vs private treaty covers that trade-off; the cooling-off rules in each state explain what protection you get, and when you have none.
Jess buys in Coburg: same buyer, two contracts
Jess is a second-year primary teacher buying her first home in Coburg, in Melbourne's north, with a 15% deposit. Two properties made her shortlist.
Contract A, established unit: a 1970s two-bedder, clean title, 60-day settlement, standard conditions. A conveyancer quotes $1,150 all-in. Searches come back clear, the duty concession is lodged, and settlement completes on PEXA on schedule.
Contract B, off-the-plan townhouse: two streets over, a 30-page contract with a sunset clause letting the developer walk away if the build isn't registered by a fixed date. A solicitor quotes $2,600, negotiates the sunset date and caps the developer's right to vary the floor plan. The extra $1,450 bought advice on a clause that could have left her $46,500 deposit locked up for two years with nothing to show for it.
The upshot: the contract, not the property, decides which professional you need.
Based on typical scenarios. Individual outcomes vary.
When should you book one?
Before you sign anything. For a private treaty purchase, that means having the contract reviewed while you can still negotiate; for auctions, the full week before auction day. Your conveyancer will also draft the finance and building and pest inspection conditions that protect your deposit if something surfaces late.
Legal timeline and finance timeline have to land on the same dates. Often they don't. We've watched a settlement slip a fortnight because the seller's bank received its discharge request late; the conveyancer chased daily, and the removalists still charged their cancellation fee.
The WityLoanPlan closes that gap. It's the digital loan proposal your Wity broker builds before anything goes to a lender: finance approval date, deposit structure and settlement date in one versioned document, so your conveyancer and your broker work from the same numbers instead of two inboxes. It's part of Wity's first home buyer support; if you're earlier still, the complete first home buyer guide for 2026 walks the whole path.
Want to know what you could borrow before you brief a conveyancer? Start the Wity questionnaire → Free, no credit check, two minutes.