Investment Property Data and Research Sources

Thursday, February 18, 2016 / Services

Never before in human history has information been so freely flowing and readily available as it is in this current era.

With the rise of the internet, and the mass interconnection of the global population, you can find the answers to almost any question you ever may have.

There are a few things that need to be kept in mind however.

1. The information you find is only as trustworthy as the source, and the source’s source.
   Being on the internet is a far cry from being a valid or accurate piece of information. There is a lot of misdirection, inaccurate and often just plain incorrect sources out there in the wild world web.
2. The most useful information is generally not free
   Whilst there are a suite of sites and sources that will provide you with accurate and relevant data for free, they will generally have a premium paid service with greater levels of information and data.
3. Researching anything is a time consuming activity
   A professional property strategist spends a majority of their working week researching the market, attempting to identify hot spots of value growth, and predicting where the next hot spots will occur. The cost benefit of this time spent is clear, as it is their job to be in the know about all things property investment.
4. Using free information sources generally takes much longer
   Often, the premium information sources are not necessarily charging for information that couldn’t other wise be gained from a free source. The value in their service comes from the fact that the information is collated and organised in a more stream lined way, not scattered throughout the internet.
5. Most data is current data, which may not always accurately predict the future outcomes
   When you look at current property value, current vacancy rates and so on, you are getting a great snap shot of some key metrics. However, a truly streamlined research process will also include diving into key business data for the region, population data, demographic data, infrastructure data, and so much more!

Don’t let the above 4 points get you down, as you still have some amazing opportunities to delve into the research side of property investing yourself.

We have put together some useful websites where you can gather information and data for property investment related research.

We will start with the free ones.

RealEstate.com.au have grown from so much more than a simple catalogue or classifieds site for properties which are on the market.

Inside their “news” portal you can find a wealth of articles about the state of property in Australia.
Their “Invest” portal has some great visualisations and data on current market stats for various suburbs.

Domain.com.au also have a great portal on property investing within their “advice” area, filled with useful articles and tips to help you along your investment pathway.

They are also a leading source of property news within their “news” portal on their main site.

 

This selection has some free features and information available, but also reserve their premium services and reports for a fee.

SQMresearch.com.au provides some great free reports, such as:

• Sold Property Records
• Property Rental Yield
• Asking Property Prices
• Weekly Rents
• Total Property Listings
• Vacancy Rates
• Demographics

Paid reports options change from time to time, but they are generally reports that have been professionally collated and then had meaning drawn from the data. SQM does the hard work so that they can bring you the results.

Residex.com.au has some very high powered reports available, that provide some serious property data.

Unfortunately the only free reports that you can get from them are individual suburb reports which must be downloaded one at a time in a PDF format. However these individual suburb reports have some significantly useful information held inside.

Their other paid reports boast even greater level of detail and information, however in terms of paid individual reports they are considerably more expensive than some of their competitors.

Corelogic.com.au is one of Australia’s largest property data companies.

Their services break into subcategories, one for professional usage, and one for home purchasers and investor usage.

RP Data is their professional product, with some ultra high powered data and functionality.

You would be hard pressed to find  real estate agent or other property professional who does not use RP Data for their information gathering needs!

As you can expect however, their premium professional product has a premium price tag attached.

This we can only imagine is why they have a product which is designed to suit the non-professional property researcher also.

Property Value is their non-commercial product, which is packed with some great information.

Their affordable price tag also make them an attainable researching tool for would be investors to gain some greater insights into the marketplace.

As always, when it comes to finding data and information on property investing, you need to make sure that you are only getting your information from reliable sources, and be aware of just how much detail you can afford to put into the researching phase of property investing.