Best Sites To Research Rental History of an Area

[nhan4769]

Hi Everyone,

I have had a good look around on the net and on these forums but have been unable to find a good site that shows a detailed 10 year rental history (i.e. the median rent of an area each year, to give an approximation of the rate of increase of rents per year).

I have looked on the main sites like RPdata, residex and even real estate sites like onthehouse but haven't been able to find the information I'm after . RPdata allows you to get a free report for a suburb on median house sales but I'm unsure about their rental data: it seems to be correlated with yield rather than actual data: for example the rental amounts are nice even numbers (260, 280 etc), and every year has the same or similar rental yield (e.g. 3%, 6% etc, depending on location). It makes me wonder whether the rental amounts are truly the median, or are calculated based on an estimate rental yield for the area used in combination with median property prices. I would rather direct rental medians rather than an indirect relation. Or I just could be wrong

Could anyone recommends what (free) sites they use to research median rents over a 10 year period? I understand the dangers of using median data, I am only using it as a 'first stage' analysis to locate decent areas (which I can already guess anyway but still... numbers are good =) ). Then I will try and find more specific rents (from property listings) to get an idea on how rates change yearly.

Thanks everyone and sorry for the long post!

 

[nhan4769]

Just realised that the median prices would be a nice even number as its not a mean. Ok a bit silly of me. But not withstanding that little mental boo boo, are there some good sites that offer detailed rental histories of a suburb? It would help me identify the suburbs that are showing good yields with strong annual rental increases. Thanks

 

[matto_]

back of prop mags have rental yield.

 

[nhan4769]

Thanks Matto. Coincidentally I am about to buy my first API magazine to see how it is and whether it warrants a subscription.

My next question would be, how do Property Magazines source these numbers? Do they choose a random pool of properties in a suberb and take the median to arrive at a rental number. Or do they source they from a site like Residex, or some other site?

Regards

 

[nhan4769]

Also Matto, do these mags have the yields over a long period of time (e.g 10 years) so you can see the trend of the rents? Buying a property with 8% yield is fantastic, but if it has only been increasing by 5% yearly than there is the possibility it may not be as attractive to me. I know I'm generalising, and simplifying, and I apologise to those who are offended by such novice comments . Just want to have as much information at hand before I make a decision (and I mean due diligence and strategy, not analysis paralysis )

 

[nhan4769]

Found a good post here by Jake, which explains why this data can be hard to find for free:

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81386

 

[ali]

NSW Housing department publishes rents and sales reports quarterly. They have oodles of excellent historical data also updated quarterly in xcel sheets. It only drills down to postcode level but it is easy to graph medium price and rent over about 20 years or so.

http://www.housing.nsw.gov.au/About+Us/Reports+Plans+and+Papers/Rent+and+Sales+Reports/

Cheers Ali

 

[norwoodman]

Thanks Matto. Coincidentally I am about to buy my first API magazine to see how it is and whether it warrants a subscription.

My next question would be, how do Property Magazines source these numbers? Do they choose a random pool of properties in a suberb and take the median to arrive at a rental number. Or do they source they from a site like Residex, or some other site?

Regards

They'll usually explain where they sourced their numbers from but usually it's from groups like Residex, SQM Research, APM Home Price Guide, etc.

 

[nhan4769]

NSW Housing department publishes rents and sales reports quarterly. They have oodles of excellent historical data also updated quarterly in xcel sheets. It only drills down to postcode level but it is easy to graph medium price and rent over about 20 years or so.

http://www.housing.nsw.gov.au/About+Us/Reports+Plans+and+Papers/Rent+and+Sales+Reports/

Cheers Ali

Ali this is fantastic thank you!! A great tool to add to the arsenal. I will do a bit of digging and see if I can find a similar site for Queensland and Victoria and post them up

 

[Andrew_A]

RTA is also a good resource to add to the bookmarks regarding median rents

http://www.rta.qld.gov.au/Resources/Median-rents

 

[vaughan]

Ali this is fantastic thank you!! A great tool to add to the arsenal. I will do a bit of digging and see if I can find a similar site for Queensland and Victoria and post them up

I haven't been able to find anything comparable to NSW. If you find any please post.