The Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) is a single national register, operated by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), that records security interests granted over personal property - tangible assets like vehicles, machinery, livestock, and inventory; intangible assets like intellectual property, accounts receivable, and shares.
The PPSR was established under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth), replacing dozens of state-based registers that previously fragmented secured-party records across Australia. It went live in January 2012.
What it does
Lenders, equipment dealers, and other secured parties register their security interests on the PPSR. A registration tells the world: this party has a claim over that asset until paid out. Without registration, a security interest can fail to perfect, which can be ruinous in insolvency.
How searches work
Anyone can pay A$2 to search the PPSR by ACN (organisation), individual grantor (with consent / for certain purposes), or serial number (VIN, chassis, aircraft serial). The search returns an AFSA-issued certificate listing any current and historical registrations.
In Australian asset finance context
Asset finance brokers run PPSR searches at pre-approval to confirm the asset isn't already encumbered against a different lender. Insolvency practitioners run them to identify secured creditors. Equipment dealers run them on trade-ins to confirm clear title.
Related terms
- NPII - Disambiguation: AFSA's National Personal Insolvency Index (bankruptcy register), distinct from Hoist's deprecated internal 'NPII' shorthand for org-only PPSR searches (now renamed to 'org-only').
- ACN - A unique 9-digit number assigned by ASIC to every Australian company at registration.
- Secured party - The party who holds a security interest over the grantor's property - typically a lender, finance company, supplier on retention-of-title terms, or lessor.
- Grantor - The entity (organisation or person) whose property is subject to a security interest under the Personal Property Securities Act.
- Search certificate - The official, AFSA-issued PDF returned by every PPSR search - proof of what the register showed at a specific point in time.
- Serial-number search - A PPSR search by an asset's serial number (VIN, chassis, aircraft serial) rather than by the grantor's identity.
- AFSA - The Commonwealth statutory authority that operates the PPSR and administers personal insolvency.
- B2G Account - AFSA's framework for approved PPSR account-customer organisations and source availability.
How Hoist uses this
Hoist documents PPSR preview and search contracts through API and MCP, but current calls fail closed without a price or register dispatch. Use AFSA direct if you need a PPSR search today.