When it comes to making sound investment decisions in the property market, it is wise to learn how to analyse real estate market data. This will help you to identify profitable opportunities and avoid potential pitfalls.
There are multiple free data resources available that can help you with your market research. Using a search engine is a good place to start, as there are numerous websites that provide useful information and data on the property market. However, you will often find that free-tier real estate data is unstructured, fragmented and sometimes outdated, which can make it difficult to derive value from it.
HtAG Analytics aims to present property market data in a concise, structured format and makes it easily accessible. Whilst you require subscription to take advantage of advanced market insights, we offer 7 free real estate data features which are a great way to get started without spending a cent.
Table of Contents
Explore Emerging Markets via a Country-wide Heatmap
Navigate Australia’s emerging hotspot markets by visiting the Search Page. You will be presented with a heatmap of LGAs and a search form which you can use to locate any property market in the country.
Use the nav panel on the left [1] to load detailed heatmaps for a state/territory or capital city. Note that Australian Capital Territory and Brisbane do not have Local Government Areas (LGAs) so these options are greyed out.
Use the Houses/Units toggle [2] to switch between these 2 views. There are more houses than units in australia, so there will be fewer LGAs with data for units available on the heatmap.
Lastly, enable the Lower Risk layer [3] to understand how LGAs are positioned in terms of environmental, market or data risk based on the Lower Risk RCS™ metric.
See How LGAs or Suburbs Compare on 11 Market Indicators
Head over to the HtAG Analytics homepage and click on the Discover Hotspots button. You will be presented with a ranking and comparison table which will highlight key statistics for over 400 LGAs and 5,000 suburbs country wide.
Learn more about how to work with the filter section of the ranking table by reviewing our Getting Started guide. You will be able to compare markets based on 11 indicators without having to sign up:
- Typical price & weekly median rent (2 metrics)
- Indicative gross yield (1 metric)
- Monthly (Δ1M), quarterly (Δ1Q), yearly (Δ1Y) typical price & median rent change (6 metrics)
- Monthly sales & rentals (2 metrics)
Use the Expert table view to toggle on all free-tier 11 indicators in the ranking table.
Explore Price Growth and Assess Market Risk via Suburb Heatmaps
Click on an LGA link in the ranking table described in step 1 to navigate to that market’s dashboard. You will see a heatmap which outlines all suburbs in that LGA.
The suburbs are colour coded by capital growth. Darker shades of blue indicate higher yearly price growth, whilst lighter shades highlight lower price increases.
Hold the shift key on your keyboard to zoom in and out of the heatmap or pinch with two fingers if you’re on a smartphone. Alternatively use the +/- controls in the top left corner [1]. You can also enable the full screen view via the button positioned just below the map zoom controls.
Switch between views for Houses and Units via controls highlighted [2] on the screenshot above.
In addition to capital growth you can also explore Lower Risk ranking via the heatmap. It will highlight areas exhibiting lower environmental, market and data risk in darker shades of blue. Learn more about HtAG’s Lower Risk RCS™ metric here.
Lastly, roll your mouse over a suburb to display detailed statistics for that market.
Visualise Typical Price and Median Rent Trends
Click on an LGA or suburb link in the ranking table described in point 2 above to navigate to that market’s dashboard. Scroll down to the graph section. You will be presented with Typical Price and Median Rent charts.
The floating menu just above the chart has filter controls that allow you to switch between views for Houses and Units as well as show more historical data i.e. 10 years or more.
Click in the BR legend underneath the graphs to show prices per number of bedrooms. They will be presented as dashed lines.
Lastly, roll your mouse over the lines or bars on the graphs to see price or sale/rental volume for any given month.
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Assess Supply and Demand via 6 Indicators
Scroll down to the Supply & Demand section on any LGA or Suburb dashboard to see 6 key metrics presented.
There are 3 Supply and 3 Demand metrics colour coded using the traffic-light notation:
- Red = high supply or low demand
- Yellow = nominal supply or demand
- Green = low supply or high demand
Learn more about Supply and Demand metrics by clicking on one of the links below:
Visualise Median Prices for Capital and Regional Markets
Although median price is not a great way to report house prices for suburbs, it holds value when presenting data for wider markets such as capital cities or regional areas. Head over to our median price dashboard to see the most current house prices for capital cities and regional markets.
To show prices for a specific market, click on the city name on the chart legend. You can also show median prices for regional markets and/or toggle prices for houses/units via the control panel just below the chart legend. Scroll down further on the page to see prices and their change summarised in tabular format.
HtAG Analytics developed a specialised metric called Typical Price to represent the common value of properties in a suburb. The metric overcomes several shortcomings of median house values for suburbs, which are described in detail here.
As there are markets within markets, we recommend to always refer to Typical Price when assessing house prices in a particular suburb. Only use median price data above to get a general feel of wider market outlook.
Data Dictionary to Get Deep Understanding of Real Estate Markets
Last but not least, if you’re looking to get a deep understanding of real estate markets, our data dictionary is a great free resource. It includes definitions of key terms and concepts, as well as favorable and unfavorable ranges for metrics we touched on above.
With this information at your fingertips, you’ll be able to better understand how the real estate market works and make more informed decisions about your investment strategies.
Summary
HtAG Analytics provides real estate market data in a concise, structured format and makes it easily accessible. We offer 7 free real estate data features which are a great way to get started on your data-driven property investment journey. These features include a country-wide heatmap, suburb heatmaps, historical price and rent charts, a median price dashboard for capital cities. We also have a supply and demand section that includes 6 key metrics, and a data dictionary that provides definitions of key terms and concepts.
Here are the links (where applicable) to all features we covered in this blog post:
- Country wide capital growth & market risk heatmap
- Market comparison table
- Suburb heatmaps (Drill down to LGA dashboard using feature [1] or [2])
- LGA/Suburb typical price & median rent charts (Drill down to LGA or suburb dashboard using feature [1] or [2])
- Supply/Demand Indicators (Drill down to LGA or suburb dashboard using feature [1] or [2])
- Capital City & Regional Market Median Prices
- Data Dictionary
We are working on creating additional free resources in the future and will update this article as they become available.
Is there a particular real estate metric you’d like to see featured in this blog post? Leave a comment below.
Here are additional free property data resources for you to explore:
1. Latest census data presented in a variety of formats.
2. Detailed demographic and economic area profiles.
3. School ranking information.
4. Suburb reviews by their residents.
5. Monthly property market reports from Herron Tod White.
6. Suburb walk score.
7. Historical listing data.
8. Planning applications alerts.
9. Australia-wide crime maps.
10. Heatmaps for various real estate metrics.
11. NSW value general property sales data.
12. Sydney price map.
13. Detailed NSW property sale data.
14. QLD resource with rich heatmap data:
15. WA focused real estate market research toolset.
16. VIC planning property reports.
Do you know of another free resource? Post the link to it in the comment section below.
Appreciate the inclusion of helpful links to the various features discussed, as it makes it easy to refer back to each one. I did start to become overwhelmed near the end of the article, so these links are extremely helpful.
We added another free resource which maps the Australian property market (and submarkets) via an interactive treemap. Take it for a spin here.