DETERMINANTS OF AUDIT REPORT LAG: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIAN PROPERTY AND REAL ESTATE COMPANIES

Abstract

This study examines the influence of audit committees, audit opinion, audit tenure, and auditor industry specialization on audit report lag in property and real estate companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the 2023–2025 period. The study is motivated by the persistent delays in financial statement submissions, with the property and real estate sector consistently recording the highest number of late submissions over the past two years, despite regulatory mandates requiring audited financial statements to be published within 90 days. The sample consists of 201 firm-year observations obtained from 67 property and real estate companies selected using purposive sampling. Multiple linear regression analysis was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that audit opinion has a significant negative effect on audit report lag, suggesting that companies receiving unqualified opinions tend to have shorter audit completion times. Audit tenure also has a significant negative effect on audit report lag, indicating that longer auditor-client relationships facilitate more efficient audit execution through accumulated knowledge and familiarity. In contrast, audit committees and auditor industry specialization do not significantly influence audit report lag, implying that oversight roles focus on accuracy rather than speed, and that professional standards and company-specific complexity may outweigh the benefits of industry specialization. The model explains 17.1% of the variation in audit report lag. These findings suggest that maintaining high-quality financial reporting to obtain unqualified opinions and considering continuity with audit firms within regulatory limits are effective strategies for minimizing audit report lag in the property and real estate sector.