30 January 2013
Prosper repeats its call for timely, national data on property sales to be collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“Buying and selling houses in Australia suffers from ‘information asymmetry’ – some participants know a lot more than others about current market prices,” David Collyer Campaign Manager Prosper Australia said today.
“The ABS House Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities 6416.0 is sound and accurate. It collects data from state titles offices, but settlement and timing delays means an average five month delay.
“Compare this to the Australian Stock Exchange, where comprehensive price and volume data is available within minutes, if not seconds.
“The serious delays in issuing the ABS data has attracted a flock of private providers arguing their case from different statistical bases. Further, their raw data relies on voluntary reporting from RE agents, who have a vested interest in talking up demand.
“By the time the authoritative ABS data is released, the private providers and the media are already debating fresher information.
“This is a gross national inefficiency: weak vendors sell too cheaply and naïve buyers over pay. The arbitrage opportunity has attracted the talents and energies of too many individuals and detracts from Australia’s productivity.
Our original call Australia Deserves Better Property Data is at: www.prosper.org.au/Zp
Media comment: David Collyer 0413 248 193
About Prosper: Prosper Australia is a tax reform lobby group and think tank that is now 120 years old. It seeks to move the base of government revenues from taxing individuals and enterprise to capturing the economic rents of the natural endowment, notably through Land Value Tax and Mining Tax.
[…] There are substantial delays between sale date to lodgement to collation. Records are provided to the Valuer General thirty days after settlement, which is typically sixty to ninety days after price is agreed and then aggregated and released quarterly. Five per cent of 2012 sales still remain unrecorded in June 2013. I have condemned this time gap elsewhere. […]
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