Australian Geographies

Suburb

Australia is split into thousands of suburbs aka localities. “Locality” is used more often in rural areas and “Suburb” is used more in cities.

Postcode

To help deliver mail, Australia Post created a set of numbers assigned to areas that usually approximate a few suburbs in size.

Local Government Area (LGA)

Councils govern an area typically consisting of a dozen or so suburbs, often abbreviated to LGA.

Significant Urban Area (SUA)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has labelled about a hundred areas around Australia as SUAs. These contain many suburbs, sometimes hundreds, sometimes only a dozen.

Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics divides Australia into a special set of geographies to better assist them with data reporting. An SA2 is one of the more granular reporting groups since it only contains a few suburbs.

Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics divides Australia into a special set of geographies to better assist them with data reporting. An SA3 contains a set of SA2s and is somewhat like the size of a Local Government Area – i.e. council.

Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics divides Australia into a special set of geographies to better assist them with data reporting. An SA4 contains a set of SA3s and is often referred to as a “Region”.

State

Australia is governed at a “Federal” level and at a “State” level. There are 8 states and territories: ACT, NSW, NT, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA. Each has slightly different real estate laws. Each state’s government is further divided into councils (LGAs).

What is a “Market”?

Reservoir Houses could be considered a market. Reservoir Units could be considered a different market. A market is the combination of a geography and a property type, i.e. houses or units.
Suburb Data publishes data for the following geographies:

• Suburbs
• Postcodes
• SA2s (Statistical Area Level 2)
• SA3s
• SA4s
• Local government areas (LGAs), i.e. local councils
• Significant Urban Areas (SUAs) like Sydney, Geelong, Gold Coast – Tweed Heads
• States like NSW, QLD, etc
• All of Australia

Research Tool

Suburb Data provides several research tools to help investors analyse data. Each tool is essentially a visualisation of some data, like an historical chart, heat map or context ruler.

Aggregation 

The median is the middle figure in a set of figures when ordered numerically. The average gives a similar figure in many cases. Both are called aggregations. Sometimes data can be aggregated for a postcode or city instead of a suburb. 

Macro Geos & Micro Geos

Geographies like states, SUAs (cities) and SA4s are generally considered “macro” geographies since they cover large areas. Suburbs, postcodes and SA2s are generally considered “micro” geographies. LGAs and SA3s are in-between. 

Period/Month

All published data is specific to a month. Data is acquired during a month and published early in the following month.
Sometimes the month is called, “Period”. This is not to be confused with the periods of historical charts that start at one month and end at another. 

Metrics 

Suburb Data publishes many different types of metrics. Examples include:

• Typical Value
• Auction Clearance Rate
• Ripple Effect Potential
• Vacancy
• Demand to Supply Ratio
• Stock on Market
• Neighbour Price Balancing
• Days on Market
• Market Cycle Timing
• Yield
• Online Search Interest
• And many more

Please visit our Our Data page for a list and summary of all metrics.