The Real Estate Institute of Victoria is recognised for its research.
The REIV is acknowledged as the major source of authoritative research data and statistical analysis on the Victorian real estate market. A key element of this research is the median price surveys of residential properties in Melbourne and major regional centres of Victoria. Median prices are published in Property Update, a quarterly review of the residential property market in Victoria. Property Update is released and available within six weeks after the end of the relevant quarter. The public, the industry and the media eagerly await these surveys.
A significant amount of REIV research is publicly available and can be accessed via the menu on the left.
What is a median price?
The median price is the middle price in a series of sales. For example, if 15 sales are recorded in a suburb and arranged in order from lowest to highest value, the eighth sale price is the median price. In the case where there are an even number of sales in a series, the median is the average of the middle two prices.
Median prices are used rather than average prices because median prices are unaffected by a few unusually high or low prices, making them a more accurate indicator of true market activity. The lower quartile is the point where one quarter of the sales are of lesser value and the upper quartile is the point where one quarter of the sales are of a higher value.
Median prices are a guide to market activity, and the REIV does not intend for median price measures to be regarded as a valuation tool. The assessment of an individual property’s value is a job for a qualified professional, who possesses the knowledge, experience, and comparable sales information required to do so.
How does the REIV gather data?
The REIV has conducted surveys of our Member agencies since 1992. Data is gathered on residential, commercial, and industrial sales and passed-in results from around the state.
In August 2004 the REIV, together with industry portal realestateview.com.au, established a call centre dedicated to the collection of property sales results at the time of contract, which has received widespread support within the industry.
All our data is checked for accuracy, and questionable sales results are either verified with the selling agent or excluded from analysis. We also use various statistical techniques to look at the composition and completeness of our data. In line with good statistical practice our median prices are revised in the two quarters following initial release, as new data comes to hand.
We believe this makes our data set the most timely, comprehensive and accurate sample available, and allows the REIV to speak with authority on the state of the Victorian property market.
About Median Prices