Sales Data
What is a median price?
Why do you use median prices?
What is a seasonally adjusted median price?
What is a trend median price?
Why do you revise your median prices?
What are upper and lower quartile points?
What is the difference between the median price and stratified/hedonic indices?
Why are unit prices in some suburbs as high as house prices?
Why are only areas with 25, 30 or 50 sales included in snapshots?
Which regions are ‘inner’, ‘middle’ and ‘outer’ Melbourne?
Which areas are included in ‘metropolitan Melbourne’?

Auction Data
What is defined by sold at auction?
How is the clearance rate calculated?
How do you gather your data?
Is your data accurate?
Why do you collect less auctions than you forecasted?
When do you publish your preliminary and revised clearance rates?
Year to date results compared to weekly reports

Rental Data
What is a median rent?
How do you gather your rental data?
Why can't I find the median rent for my suburb?

Key Terms
Property classification for medians
Sales terms

Interested in understanding the source of our data? Learn about our research.


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 the lowest to the highest value, the eighth sale price is the median price. In the case where there is an even number of sales in a series, the median is the average of the middle two prices.

Why do you use median 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.

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 a property’s value is a job for a qualified professional who possesses the knowledge, experience and comparable sales information required to do so.

What is a seasonally adjusted median price?
A seasonally adjusted median price takes into account seasonal, calendar-related movements. For example, median prices generally increase in December quarters and falls in March quarters. To identify and remove the seasonal effects of the median price data, the REIV has run through historical median price data from 1992 for metropolitan and regional houses and from 2002 for regional units.

What is a trend median price?
A trend median price is the long term movement of the median price and is considered as the underlying direction of the median price. A five-term Henderson moving average was adopted to calculate the trend movement. Like the seasonally adjusted median price, the REIV has calculated the trend median price using historical median price data from 1992 for metropolitan and regional houses and from 2002 for regional units.

Why do you revise your median prices?
The REIV continuously collects sales data from its Members and revises medians (and the clearance rate) to ensure accuracy. The median price for the most recent quarter is the preliminary one and is revised in three months time and again in a year.

What are upper and lower quartile points?
The lower quartile is the point where one quarter of the sales are of a lesser value, and the upper quartile is the point where one quarter of the sales are of a higher value.

What is the difference between the median price and stratified/hedonic indices?
The median price is the middle price in a series of sales transacted over a period (i.e. a quarter). It does not adjust for compositional changes such as changes in location (sales in more/less expensive suburbs), number of bedrooms, or land size. The median price is an easy-to-understand calculation that is useful in determining actual transactional price changes as opposed to overall estimates of value changes adjusted by location or dwelling type. As such, it is not directly comparable to stratified/hedonic indices that are used for different purpose.

Why are unit prices in some suburbs as high as house prices?
The REIV classification for a unit or apartment consists of higher density (flats and apartments) and lower density (townhouses) types. In general, suburbs further from the CBD have a larger proportion of lower density compared to higher density unit types. Lower density units tend to have more similar characteristics to a detached house compared to an apartment from a high-rise building. As a result, unit prices can be as high as house prices in some suburbs due to a large proportion of units being of lower density. For further information, please click here.

Why are only areas with 25, 30 or 50 sales included in snapshots?
If we use a median price that has been taken from a limited sample, the data will tend to be more volatile from one period to the next, and we are therefore cautious about making a broad conclusion about the market from such figures.

Which regions are ‘inner’, ‘middle’ and ‘outer’ Melbourne?
For the purposes of our analysis we define:

• ‘inner’ as being within 10km of the CBD;
• ‘middle’ as being between 10km and 20km from the CBD; and
• ‘outer’ as being more than 20km from the CBD.

Click here for a full listing of suburbs within these regions.

Which areas are included in ‘metropolitan Melbourne’?
for the purpose of our analysis we define ‘metropolitan Melbourne’ as those suburbs contained within the following 31 municipalities:

• Banyule
• Bayside
• Boroondara
• Brimbank
• Cardinia
• Casey
• Darebin
• Frankston
• Glen Eira
• Greater Dandenong
• Hobsons Bay
• Hume
• Kingston
• Knox
• Manningham
• Maribyrnong
• Maroondah
• Melbourne
• Melton
• Monash
• Moonee Valley
• Moreland
• Mornington Peninsula
• Nillumbik
• Port Phillip
• Stonnington
• Whitehorse
• Whittlesea
• Wyndham
• Yarra
• Yarra Ranges

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What is defined as sold by auction?
The sale of a property sold under an Auction Authority and under Auction Conditions, it includes:

Sold Before: Sold prior to the commencement of a scheduled auction.
Auction Sale: Sold on the day of the Auction at or after the scheduled time of the Auction.
Sold After Auction: Sold on the day following the day of Auction.

All calculations are based on results reported to the REIV. No assumptions are made on whether a property was sold or not.

How is the clearance rate calculated?
The clearance rate is calculated based on number of auctions reported to the REIV. It refers to all properties Sold by auction (defined above) as a percentage of total reported auctions.

Properties withdrawn from auction or postponed, are not considered as these properties never went up for auction on the previously scheduled date.

All calculations are based on results reported to the REIV. No assumptions are made on whether a property was sold or not.

How do you gather your data?
The REIV gathers most of its data online from agents submitting their sales results electronically and it also has a dedicated call centre to collect property sales results at the time of contract. The sales results submitted to the REIV include residential, commercial, industrial and rural sales results from around the state.

Is your data accurate?
All our data is checked for accuracy and questionable sales are either verified with the selling agent or excluded from analysis.

Why do you collect less auctions than you forecasted?
The REIV forecasts the number of auctions every weekend based on forthcoming auction listings. However some auctions can be postponed, withdrawn, or do not have a result at the time of publishing. On average, around two per cent of auctions are postponed, two per cent are withdrawn, and three per cent have no results. This can vary week by week.

When do you publish your preliminary and revised clearance rates?
The REIV publishes clearance rates three times a week: Saturday night, Sunday night, and again on Wednesday. The clearance rates published on Saturday nights are for auctions held in the week to Saturday. The Sunday night clearance rate is the 'preliminary' clearance rate for the week. However, not all auction results would have been collected by the Saturday night as negotiations for some sales can be ongoing at that cut-off time. Therefore the REIV publishes a 'final' or 'revised' clearance rate on Wednesday which reflects at least 95% of auction results by then.

Year to date results compared to weekly reports
The REIV sales database is a live one and is subject to ongoing revision. Weekly reports are a snapshot in time and should not be used to calculate a total yearly clearance rate.

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What is a median rent?
Similarly to median prices, the median rent is the middle price in a series of leases. For example, if 15 leases are recorded in a suburb and arranged in order from the lowest to the highest value, the eighth sale price is the median rent. In the case where there is an even number of leases in a series, the median is the average of the middle two leases. Unless otherwise specified, the REIV expresses median rents as a ‘weekly’ rent.

How do you gather your rental data?
The REIV gathers rental data electronically from agents submitting their rental listings and results through realestateview.com.au. The rental data submitted includes residential, commercial, industrial, and rural lease results from across the state.

Why can't I find the median rent for my suburb?
All our data is checked for accuracy and volatility. In some suburbs, there may be too few leases to publish a meaningful median rent. For some of these cases, the REIV combines similar suburbs together to provide a collective median rent for this region.

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Property classification for medians
The REIV provides median prices in two categories: houses and units/apartments. This requires that choices are made regarding dwelling types and the categories into which they belong, as there is considerable variety in styles and designs.

Property that falls under the ‘house’ classification includes:

• detached houses
• terraced houses
• semi-detached houses
• holiday houses
• duplexes
• house and granny flat

Property that falls under the ‘units & apartments’ classification includes:

• flats
• units
• apartments
• townhouses
• villas
• bed-sitters
• residential warehouse conversions

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Sales terms
The REIV distinguishes several sales methods that are often abbreviated in publications. The most common acronyms used to denote the type of sale or result is detailed below.

Auction-related acronyms include:

SB (sold before auction) whereby a property is sold prior to the scheduled auction;
SO (auction sale) whereby a property is sold on the day of the auction whether it be at the auction itself or afterwards during the same day;
SA (sold after auction) whereby a property is sold on the following day of the auction (note that a property that sells two or more days after the scheduled auction becomes classified as a 'private sale')
PI (passed in at auction) whereby the property is passed in on the day of the scheduled auction either on a public bid or no bids; and
VB (passed in vendor bid) whereby a property is passed in on a vendor bid at the scheduled auction.

Other acronyms include:

PS (private sale) which refers to private sales
T (sale by sender) whereby the property is sold under a Tender sales authority;
EOI (expression of interest) whereby a written offer is required by a specific date but is less formal than a tender process and is sold under a General or Exclusive sale authority

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