Indicators

Population increases can affect the demand for property and an increase in demand can consequently drive up prices. There are a number of factors needing to be considered when analysing the population of a city or town before investing there.

The vacancy rate is a measure of how many rental properties in a location or market are currently without a tenant. A low vacancy rate means more confidence in a market and more security for the investor, as the cash flow avoids lengthy periods without a tenant and returns a better yield, and greater demand indicates a an undersupply of housing. 

You might say to yourself “you can’t go wrong with property; it all goes up in value eventually” and you might be right, but you might also be missing out on maximising your ability to build your wealth effectively. Whether buying or selling a property, it is important to get the timing right so that you aren’t exposing yourself to an elevated risk of losing money.

Commodities, including iron ore and coal, are some of Australia's biggest export products. A significant decline in the prices of commodities can affect property markets, therefore it’s important that an investor understands the positive and negative impact this may have on property markets associated with commodity price movement.

Yield is a measure of return on an investment, expressed as a percentage of the purchase price, usually on an annual basis. In our research at Performance Data we calculate yield as an average figure for a house and a unit in every suburb in Australia – we also calculate this figure for each city and regional town.

When trying to read an individual property market the Affordability Index (AI) is one of the most important statistics. The AI is a measure of affordability. In essence, it is a measure of how much of the average wage is consumed by the average mortgage repayment in that specific market.