RESEARCH
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The REIQ’s residential sales statistics are based upon official sales
records as held by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines in
their Queensland Valuation and Sales (QVAS) database as well as recent agents' sales advice.
Only sales transactions that are deemed “normal” transactions, ie
done at “arms length” are included. All other types of transactions such
as mulit-sales, part-sales or transfers and sales where the parties are
related are not generally indicative of the market and as such are not
included.
Sales data and other market indicators are currently provided to the REIQ through Australia’s leading property data provider CoreLogic RP Data, who augment this information through their own quality control processes.
SCOPE
As Queensland is comprised of such diverse regions (from the capital
city of Brisbane to the tourist hubs of Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and
Cairns to the resource centres of Gladstone, Mackay and Townsville),
REIQ publish property sales statistics by locality or suburb and Local
Government Area (LGA), based upon their respective boundaries at the
time of reporting.
In order to provide a broader analysis of the performance of the
residential property markets across Queensland, the REIQ publishes both
median values (via the Courier Mail) and median sale prices (REIQ
Queensland Market Monitor).
It should also be noted that data will only be published for
localities and LGA’s that record sufficient sales volumes over the
period, so as to ensure the reliability of the data and how reflective
it is of current market conditions.
MEDIAN VALUES
In reviewing the current state of the Queensland property market, the
REIQ analyses a variety of figures, one of which is the median value.
These figures are published each quarter in a Courier Mail Lift out
called What is your home worth?
Median values are based upon the estimated value of all properties
within a suburb, which CoreLogic RP data calculate using what’s called
an Automated Valuation Model (AVM).
Each AVM estimate is derived from several methodologies to determine a
value of the each home based on recent and historic sales data, a
property’s location and attributes such as lot size, number of bedrooms
and number of bathrooms.
The middle value is then calculated for all homes in a region to
determine the ‘median value’. The estimate utilises every piece of
information available about properties and is a more holistic approach
to looking at market changes compared with the median sale price which
only consider homes that have transacted over the period.
While median sale prices are useful as a measure of market activity –
ie what types of properties are selling and what types of buyers are
most active, the median value is a more indicative measure of actual
property price growth as it takes into consideration all properties
within a suburb.
Median values and other property market indicators such as days on
market and average vendor discounting, should however, be used with
caution where a low number of sales has occurred (LGAs – less than 50
sales; localities – less than 20 sales). Too few sales means the AVM has
less market evidence on which to calculate each properties value over
time.
MEDIAN SALE PRICES
Unlike the median value which looks at the estimated value of all
properties in a given location, the median sale price looks only at
official sales transactions that have occurred during the reporting
period, and is calculated by arranging all sales from lowest to highest
and taking the middle sale price. Where an even number of sales has
occurred, the median is the average of the middle two sale prices.
In order for a median sale price to be calculated, a minimum amount of sales must be recorded under the following criteria:
|
Suburbs |
Local Government Areas |
Quarterly period (all property sales) |
10 |
15 |
Yearly period (sales with land size under 2400m2 only) |
25 |
50 |
Yearly period (sales with land size over 2400m2 only) |
20 |
40 |
Median sale prices are typically a good measure of recent market
conditions, and whilst simplistic in their calculation, they are deemed a
reliable market indicator given they are based on actual sales
transactions, and reflect the state of the property market at the time
the transactions take place.
Long term median sale prices, that is those calculated over the 12
month period are deemed to be indicative of the trend in property
prices, whilst quarterly median sale prices are more reflective of what
types of properties sold.
One limitation of this method however (and a reason why different
property price measures exist) is that it does not take into account the
varying characteristics (such as bedrooms, land size, etc.) of
properties sold between two periods. To account for this, annotations
are included where available to help explain factors that might have
influenced significant price changes between quarterly periods. For a
complete list of annotations used please refer to the REIQ Research Explanatory Notes.
AVAILABILITY OF SALES DATA
While the REIQ’s property sales data is based upon on a contract of
sale date basis (instead of a settlement date basis), it can take up to
90 days or even longer between when a contract of sale is signed (i.e.
the day on which the parties legally agree on the price the property
will sell for) and the day on which the property transaction finally
settles. Official property sales information is only available once the
transaction itself has settled.
To further improve the volume of data available at the time of
reporting, the REIQ’s quarterly sales data also includes recent sales
transactions as advised by real estate agents. This information is made
available to CoreLogic RP data by real estate agents as contracts go
unconditional. This came into effect with the June quarter 2013 reports,
as such comparisons between sales volumes prior to this quarter should
be done with caution.
The REIQ’s quarterly data reports are run approximately five weeks
after the end of each quarter, where at this point somewhere between 60
to 70 per cent of sales transactions for that period are available.
Hence, this is why all quarterly and yearly sales data for the most
recent period are referred to as preliminary and subject to further
revision, as additional sales data becomes available.
To compare like with like, the quarterly change in median sale prices
compares current preliminary estimates with preliminary estimates for
the previous period. A percentage change is not available where there is
no preliminary estimate available for either reference period. Due to a
larger reporting period and therefore sample size, changes in the
annual median over the last one and five years compare current
preliminary estimates with revised figures for the previous
corresponding annual periods.
For any questions regarding REIQ research, phone 07 3249 7301 or send an email.