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One of our founding principles is sharing knowledge that furthers financial literacy, since this critical topic receives so little coverage in schools.

Our resources pages are updated regularly. Add this page to favourites and visit regularly to broaden your property and financial knowledge.

Property Listing Portals

Looking to buy, rent or research properties, start with these sites.

realestate.com.au (REA Group)
One of Australia’s two largest and most used property listings portals. Most properties on the market for sale or rent will be listed here, along with Domain. Also contains handy data like suburb profiles, demographic data, estimated values and sold price history.

Domain
Australia’s other largest and most used property listings portal. Most properties on the market for sale or rent will be listed here, along with realestate.com.au. Also contains handy data like suburb profiles, demographic data, estimated values and sold price history.

View
An alternative to the ‘big 2’ above, providing much the same features. However View includes NearMap aerial imagery, which is far higher resolution and clearer than regular Google satellite imagery. This makes desktop property hunting far easier, allowing you to explore streets and houses from the air. No image dates are provided, however examining familiar areas, we found the images in Sydney are around 12 months old.

Property Values

Are you about to make an offer or bid on a property?

We can provide a free professional property report with a more accurate valuation and sale price estimate. Contact us with the property address for your free report.

How do you know what a property is really worth? The property portals above all show sold listings, which help in getting an idea of property values. But there are other free helpful resources available with AVM’s based on their own prediction models.

In most cases, each source provides a varying estimated value. To get a more accurate idea, try them all then average the results. This will give you a decent idea of how much a given property should sell for.

The challenge with most free sources is, once a property is listed for sale, they won’t show an estimated value. That’s where professional paid tools come in. 

Please note, these sources do not replace formal bank valuations and are a guide only.

Property.com.au
This relatively new platform owned by REA Group provides a wealth of information displayed in a user-friendly format. Simply search for an address and you’ll see: value and rental estimates, sales and leasing history, school catchment zones, hazard overlays (bushfire, flooding and heritage), property boundaries and available NBN and mobile broadband types. There’s also pricing trends and comparable listings, well worth exploring.

On The House
Owned by leading industry data provider, CoreLogic, this free service provides estimated sale and rental values, property history and handy 10 year suburb pricing trends. A free account unlocks more data, enabling you to track suburbs and individual properties with monthly pricing updates. So it’s worth registering.

NSW Spatial – Land Value Search
This Government platform provides easy access to find the land value of any property in NSW. Simply search for an address, wait for it to pop up and click to select. To find the land value, you need to zoom in until “$” appears on each property, then select the $, not the block of land. Toggle the data in the popup until you see the “Valuer General” tab. Here you’ll find the land values over the last five years.

Also handy is the strata overlay. Any lot with a blue highlight is strata titled, whilst red means it’s a standard lot. There are a wealth of data layers available, so explore at your leisure.

SQM Research
A treasure trove of property market data. This site provides long term data across suburbs, cities and states covering listing numbers and pricing trends. Dive in, there’s a lot to see here.

Domain, realestate.com.au
Both listing portals will provide pricing estimates on off market properties and those sold more than three months ago. They won’t display estimates for properties listed for sale or rent.

Commbank Property Pricing
Another quick and useful guide, using data from Domain. CBA will apply its own modelling to the raw data, as results are different to what you’ll see on Domain. This tool is different from a formal Commonwealth Bank valuation and will provide different values. For clients applying for a home loan with CBA, we will order a formal valuation through the bank’s internal system.

PriceFinder (Paid Service)
A professional subscription product with extensive property sales history, reports, AVM’s and a unique sale price estimate tool. A direct competitor of RP Data, widely used by real estate agents and professional investors.

RP Data – CoreLogic (Paid Service)
Another professional subscription product with extensive property sales history, reports and AVM’s. A direct competitor of PriceFinder, widely used by real estate agents and professional investors. There is no free data available, instead see CoreLogic’s consumer site: On The House.

Feather Loans has access to RP Data and can provide a complementary professional property report, contact us to get your report today.

Due Diligence – Overlays and Risk Mitigation

When deciding whether to buy any given property, there’s a lot to consider. These resources can help you get a better understanding of the location and what risks impact the land you’re buying. Important considerations include:

  • Flood risk
  • Bushfire risk
  • Heritage overlays
  • Contaminated land

Most links below use a “freemium” model, where certain features can be used for free, and more advanced ones require a subscription.

Contract of Sale
Always refer to the contract of sale for the definitive source of all overlay information. In NSW Section 10.7 certificate (usually towards the end of the COS) will contain this information.

Council Websites
As of February 2024 are 537 councils in Australia, so we won’t list all of them here. Your first step in researching more about prospective land to buy should be a visit to the relevant council website. Most councils either have an online mapping portal or provide PDF maps for download. If in doubt, call the relevant council to confirm.

Property.com.au
This useful platform is the fastest way to check for property overlays. Simply search for an address and scroll down to “Government planning overlays & zones”. Here you’ll see at a glance whether any bushfire, flooding or heritage overlays apply to the address.

Floodmap.net (Freemium)
This simple and unassuming tool has a few powerful uses that can prevent you unexpectedly buying a flood prone property. The free version requires no account or login, however you can’t search for an address. 

Simply scroll the map to find the suburb or address you want to research. Click any location and you’ll see the height above sea level. Click the “set water level” button, and as you zoom out, you’ll see all lower altitude locations now shaded blue. 

If you want to find the high point of a street, you can gradually increase the water level, seeing the locations that aren’t submerged. If you’re looking at a property in a valley or which you suspect may be prone to flooding, this tool can be very helpful.

Ku-ring-gai Online Map Viewer
Being our local council and a good example of varied terrain in an established area. Ku-ring-gai LGA is bounded by national parks and major waterways. The platform has extensive bushfire maps, including historical fires, flood maps and detailed heritage overlays. For anyone looking at buying or building within the LGA, there’s a wealth of information available. 

Archistar (Freemium)
Provides an amalgamation of various data layers nationwide in one platform. The tool provides a generous amount of data layers in the free tier, including flooding, bushfire, heritage, lot sizes and contours. Higher tiers are more geared towards property developers, enterprise and government users. Its advantage is accessing data nationwide, without needing to visit multiple council websites and state planning portals. Although data is not exhaustive and further checks are needed, it provides a good starting point. Disclosure: I used to work for Archistar, and was actively involved in the platform’s early development.

Landchecker (Freemium)
Provides a similar aggregation of data sets across Australia like Archistar. The free tier includes a great range of overlays and property data, useful for consumers and businesses. As with Archistar, data coverage is not exhaustive and Landchecker is a useful starting point, before confirming with official sources.

First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) and Stamp Duty Concessions

FHOG Scheme Summary by State
The First Home Owner Grant and stamp duty exemptions and concessions, along with qualification criteria vary across states. The two benefits are often bundled as one, but are separate.

These benefits can save you tens of thousands of dollars, so it’s well worth knowing what’s available. We maintain an up to date summary of benefits under all schemes by state on our First Home Buyer page.

State Government Scheme Links
Links to all official state and territory government first home owner grant pages and stamp duty calculators

NSW
NSW FHOG website
NSW Stamp Duty calculator

VIC
Vic FHOG website
Vic Land Transfer (Stamp) Duty calculator

QLD
QLD FHOG website
QLD Transfer Duty calculator

SA
SA FHOG website
SA Stamp Duty calculator

ACT
ACT Home buyer concession scheme website
ACT Conveyance Duty calculator

TAS
Tas FHOG website
Tas Property Transfer Duty calculator

WA
WA FHOG website
WA HBBA website
WA Transfer Duty calculator

NT
NT FHOG website
NT Stamp Duty calculator

Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS)

The Home Guarantee Scheme is a Federal Government initiative supporting eligible home buyers to own a home sooner. The Scheme includes three types of Guarantees, we’ve summarised the key points of each:

For full eligibility requirements, please visit the official Housing Australia website:

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