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The digital property settlements platform has forged another strategic alliance, announcing it now holds a 38 per cent stake in property information service Landchecker.
It comes on the heels of PEXA’s partnership with Honey Insurance, unveiled earlier this month, which the ASX-listed company said was part of a broader plan to “identify, incubate and accelerate entrepreneurial businesses committed to innovation across the property industry ecosystem”.
The new deal reveals those plans to be in swift motion.
The investment was made alongside RACV, which will hold a 51 per cent equity interest in the start-up. Landchecker will complement the PEXA Insights offering.
Melbourne-based Landchecker, which was founded in 2015, has recently attracted attention for its exponential growth by doubling its subscriber base over the past year.
The company aims to be an all-in-one source for property information, creating access for property professionals and consumers to data from state governments, local councils and other partners.
Scott Butterworth, PEXA’s chief data and analytics officer, noted this was the first strategic investment made by the company’s arm PEXA Insights, which offers property data and regular reports on market trends.
“The PEXA Insights team is driven to provide a richer service offering to governments, industry, and Australian consumers, and we believe that the synergies between the two companies will enhance our position as the trusted resource for robust, real-time property data,” Mr Butterworth said.
But on the e-conveyancing front, one industry player is concerned that PEXA is growing entirely too large.
Philip Joyce, chief executive of electronic conveyancing platform Sympli, has called out the company’s recent rate of expansion.
“It’s plain to see what an advantage it is to be an incumbent monopoly. The latest profit results show it is alive and well. But in reality, it is customers that miss out when Australian regulators and government mandates for industry reform here in Australia are ignored by those in the industry that prefer to chase profits in global markets,” Mr Joyce said.
Australian practitioners and consumers, he argued, are being robbed of “any real choice” while the interoperability scheme is still in the works.
