Settlement and Moving In
The period between signing the contract and getting the keys is where the professionals do their best work and your job is mostly to stay responsive and organised. It's also the part first home buyers often don't understand until they're inside it, because from the outside settlement looks like nothing happening for six weeks. Inside, there's a choreography.
The settlement period
The settlement period is the time between contract signing and the day the balance is paid and the property becomes yours. In Victoria it's commonly 30, 60 or 90 days, whatever the contract says, and it's negotiable, which matters both ways: a first home buyer waiting on a landlord's notice might want a longer settlement, while a vendor buying elsewhere might need a specific date. Longer isn't automatically safer; it's more time for something to change, and the date is set by the contract, not by convenience.
| Time | What's typically happening |
|---|---|
| Days 1 to 7 | Contract and Section 32 go to your conveyancer. You sign loan documents and return them. The deposit is paid to the agent's trust account. Any subject-to clauses start their clocks. |
| Weeks 2 to 4 | The lender orders a valuation and moves to formal (unconditional) approval. Your conveyancer conducts searches, checks the title, and prepares the statement of adjustments, the document that splits council rates, water and strata fees between vendor and buyer at the settlement date. |
| Weeks 4 to 8 | Final figures are confirmed, your conveyancer and the vendor's agree the settlement time, and everyone is booked into PEXA, the electronic settlement platform Victorian settlements run through. |
| Final week | You do the pre-settlement inspection, transfer the balance of funds, arrange insurance effective from settlement, and organise the practical side, removalists, connections, and keys. |
An illustrative shape of a 60 day settlement. Each transaction varies with the contract, lender and parties.
What your team is doing
Your conveyancer (or solicitor) is the conductor: title searches, the Section 32 cross-check, the adjustments, the duty transaction, including any first home buyer exemption, and the PEXA settlement itself. Your lender finalises the loan, orders the valuation, and prepares the mortgage that gets registered on the title. The agent coordinates access and hands over keys on the day. Your job in this phase: answer emails fast, sign things quickly, and read what you sign, or at least ask your conveyancer to walk you through each document rather than discovering later what you agreed to.
On insurance: in Victoria, the standard contract generally leaves risk with the vendor until settlement, but lenders require your building insurance to be in place by settlement day, and arranging it a week or two early costs nothing extra. Contents insurance covers your belongings from the moment they're yours, including in the removalist's truck.
The final inspection
A few days before settlement, you're entitled to a pre-settlement inspection. This isn't a second building inspection, it's a check that the property is in the same condition as when you signed, minus fair wear and tear, that everything included in the contract is still there, that the vendor hasn't taken the light fittings (it happens), and that anything you agreed would be repaired was. Issues found here are usually fixed by negotiation, or settled with a small adjustment, and that's much easier to arrange before the money moves than after.
Settlement day
On the day, settlement is electronic. The conveyancers and lender, not you, attend in PEXA, the money moves, the title transfers to your name, the mortgage registers, the agent is notified, and keys are released. You don't get a ceremony or a physical title deed in the mail; the title lives electronically, and you can confirm it through the land titles system. Most settlements happen mid morning to mid afternoon, and the practical tip worth knowing: plan your day so you can be flexible, because settlements slip by hours occasionally, and having your removalist booked for the same morning is a known trap.
After settlement your conveyancer sends you the final statements, your lender confirms the loan details and your first repayment date, and the home is legally yours.
The first weeks of ownership
A practical first two weeks covers:
- Connections: electricity and gas in your name from settlement (the Victorian Energy Compare tool in the resources hub is the way to choose a retailer rather than accepting the incumbent by default), water (each area has its own water corporation), internet, which can have lead times of weeks, so book it early.
- Council and mail: rates notices will start arriving, and a mail redirect catches the ones that don't.
- Security and safety: changing the locks, checking smoke alarms, and finding the meter boxes, water main and switchboard before an emergency finds them for you.
- Records: photos of the property's condition, a file for the contract, settlement statement, loan documents and inspection reports, which becomes gold later for insurance, tax and renovations.
- Loan admin: confirming the first direct debit date, setting up an offset account if your loan has one, and checking whether extra repayments are allowed from day one.
- The home itself: a slow list of the small things every new home reveals, a dripping tap, a stiff door, before they become big things.
One gentle observation from experienced owners: the first month in a first home often comes with a strange flatness after years of striving. That's normal, it passes, and it helps to have a housewarming, a paint colour or a garden bed to point the energy at.
When things wobble
Two things most commonly wobble in the settlement period. The first is finance timing: formal approval takes longer than the clause allowed, usually because a document was missing. The remedy is speed and a good broker chasing the lender, and, if needed, the conveyancer requesting an extension, which vendors often grant when asked early and rarely when discovered late. The second is the vendor's side: they can't settle on time because their own purchase slipped. Penalties can apply for delay under the contract, and extensions are common. In both cases the pattern holds: problems raised early are negotiations, problems raised late are crises.
Illustrative composite scenario
Liam and Chloe settle a $640,000 townhouse on a 60 day settlement. Week 5, the lender's valuation comes back and formal approval lands two days after their finance clause expired. Because their broker had flagged it and the conveyancer had already requested a short extension in writing, the vendor agrees within a day and settlement completes on time. On settlement morning, their removalist is booked for 2pm, after the 11am settlement, and the keys arrive at noon.
Composite example. The lesson inside it is that almost every settlement drama is a timing problem that someone saw coming, and the difference between drama and footnote is who noticed first.
Figures correct as at September 2026. Always confirm current amounts and thresholds with Consumer Affairs Victoria or a licensed conveyancer or a licensed conveyancer before relying on them.
Quick knowledge check
1. Common settlement periods in Victorian contracts are typically which of these?
2. What is a pre-settlement inspection for?
3. When does the lender's home building insurance requirement generally bite?