What's the difference between a Significant Urban Area (SUA) and a local government area?

A Significant Urban Area (SUA) is an urban centre, or city, with a population over 10,000 such as Alice Springs, Sunshine Coast, and Melbourne. Whereas a Local Government Area (LGA) is a pocket of suburbs a local council is responsible for. An example of an LGA is the Surfcoast Shire in Victoria, which is comprised of many suburbs (Torquay, the famous surf beach, Bells Beach, Lorne, and many others). Or, the City of Randwick in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Some researchers like to look for the next major city (SUA) that is showing the best investment potential. Once they'd identified the best city, they then search for the best local government area (LGA) within that city. Finally, they zero in on the best suburb within the best LGA, within the best SUA. Other researchers prefer to search for the best suburbs anywhere in the country, regardless of which LGA or SUA it is in. But sometimes data at the suburb level can be unreliable, depending on the statistic. For example, auctions may not be common in some suburbs. Combining the data to a larger geography makes it more reliable. Searching by postcodes, LGAs, SA2s and SA3s may be preferred to reduce risk and to highlight whole areas of potential instead of isolated single suburbs. Suburb Search is flexible. You can search for the best cities within the country, or the best LGAs within a state, or the best suburbs within an SA4 (Statistical Area level 4), or the best SA2s (Statistical Area level 2) within an SUA or the best postcodes within an SA3. Any combination is possible.

Do I just invest in the top suburb on the list?

No. Please do your due diligence using the other tools in our property research platform to get a complete picture of the suburb first. Suburb Search is for "shortlisting" purposes – meaning that you've narrowed down the top markets for you, and can now start the investment property search from a very strong vantage point. With this critical information in hand, you can jump on real estate advertising companies like www.realestate.com.au or www.domain.com.au to search for properties within these top locations.

What if I need help using the tool?

We have demonstration videos inside our platform to take you through the process step-by-step, so you know exactly how to use the tool and how to maximise its features to get the best "bang for buck". You'll also find question mark icons throughout the tool that give you additional help and clear instructions as you go along. Simply click this icon to get the information you need. If, for whatever reason, you still need assistance, we have a "help" button in the bottom right corner of every page where you can ask us anything you like. We have designed our tool to be as user-friendly as possible. But we still want to allow for rather complex analysis.

If I can search for data on "houses" and "units" – what about townhouses?

We only have 2 broad property types: Houses and Units. If the property was advertised as something other than a house or a unit, e.g., a Townhouse, then we categorise it as either a house or a unit based on bedroom count. If the property was advertised as a townhouse, terrace or villa and has more than two bedrooms, it falls under the category of "houses". If it has less than 2 bedrooms, it falls under "units".

What's the difference between the DSR and the other property market statistics (like vacancy rates, rental yield, etc)?

The property market statistics such as vacancy rates, rental yield, auction clearance rates, etc. are "base" metrics that often reflect the nature of supply or demand from a specific perspective. Whereas the DSR pulls these statistics, and hundreds more, into ONE single score out of 100 that gives you an overall gauge of the nature of demand relative to supply. The DSR is therefore a summary of many measurements of a suburb's investment potential. The DSR combines all the relevant statistics to give you a concise overview of a market. The higher the DSR, the higher the investment potential.

Why do I need the DSR score AND the individual property statistics – can't I just look at the DSR?

Yes, you can. The DSR is arguably the most important statistic to look at – however, it is useful to also assess individual metrics, depending on your investment strategy. For example: if you have a set budget, you might want to know the Typical Value of an area, or if you are looking for cashflow, the Rental Yield will be highly valuable to you. This is true for a range of statistics, and your risk level, requirements and goals. Along with the DSR, we also consider the Statistical Reliability (SR) to be a very important statistic as this will tell you how valid (reliable) the data is so you can make the most informed decision possible. Some suburbs have limited data. The SR can be checked to confirm the reliability of the DSR. In a nutshell: you can just look at the DSR, and if you're interested in the granular detail and want to have complete transparency on the numbers… check out the individual statistics.

What's the research "best practice" after I've shortlisted top suburbs?

Once you're happy with the top investment suburbs that match your criteria, use the Heat Map to see if there are any clusters of heat. If an entire area is hot, it lends more weight to the argument it is a hotspot, than if there was only one isolated suburb on its own. Then use the Market Metrics tool to get a more comprehensive list of statistics for each suburb of interest. You might need to consult the Context Ruler for some statistics to see if they are good or bad for a candidate suburb. This is especially true of novel statistics you be unfamiliar with. The context ruler will show you how good your suburb's statistic is compared to the broader market. You can also view the history of certain metrics to check for volatility, or trends, or to see what the long-term "norm" has been for this suburb.

Can I try the tool for free first?

Yes. Simply click "Get Started" anywhere on this page and you can try out Suburb Search for as long as you like. This way, you can experience the features for yourself and see just how powerful the tool is in shortlisting top suburbs across Australia.

Can I limit searches to within certain states or cities?

Yes. Suburb Search gives you tremendous flexibility. You can search all of Australia or any state or set of states, any city or set of cities – pretty much any area in any way.

Can I exclude certain areas from my search like a state I don't like?

Yes. You can exclude any state, city or area. You can even select the area on a map if you prefer.

Can I search for high growth suburbs?

Yes. And that is exactly what this tool is designed for. You can search Australia-wide. You can limit to certain cities or areas. You can search for house or unit markets. You can search for cheap or expensive property. You can search for suburbs with very precise data qualifications.

Can I find high cashflow suburbs?

Yes. You can filter suburbs to have yields above 5% or higher. You can filter suburbs to have a vacancy rate below 2% or that have had recent rental growth.

How do I ensure I don't buy in a risky suburb?

You can filter by one of our statistics called, "Statistical Reliability" to ensure the data you have on a suburb is reliable. The more data you have at your fingertips, the less risk.

Can I sort suburbs by price?

Yes. You can sort by any statistic. You can sort by reliability of the data, by future growth potential, by past growth, by vacancy, by ripple effect potential, and many more. You can even have multiple sort preferences. For example, you can sort suburbs by DSR and then if 2 or more suburbs have the same DSR, you can sort between those by price. You can keep adding sort criteria to many levels until you find the very best suburb for you.

SUBURB SEARCH

Find suburbs matching your criteria

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Filter by DSR, yield, growth & more
Search across states or regions
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Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers to common questions about Suburb Search

Typically, anything above 60 gets us excited. Each market comes with its own statistical average, so this will vary based on what we're specifically looking at, as well as any other requirements you may have. For example, it may have a high DSR of 72 – but the gross rental yield on that suburb is not suitable as an investment for you. Or, perhaps more interestingly, it has a high DSR but on further investigation with the Heat Maps, you discover it is a "stand alone" market – meaning that there aren't clusters of heat coming from its neighbouring suburbs. This may come with potential risk, and looking at an alternative market would be a safer option. Using all of the features together (Historical Charts, Market Metrics, etc), you can get a much more comprehensive insight into the specific location. This will allow you to dive even deeper into the "living and breathing" reality of the suburb, on top of the DSR that scores its capital growth potential.