LE, this is from the sqm site...about their metholodgy to determine vacancy's....note they take the ABS 2006 number of dwellings...then estimate the number for2005.??? 2007,2008 it appears convoluted...and exclude props without an address....hehehehe and so it goes on....like keen, they need to be different to stand out in a crowd...regardless of the facts ..................................................... SQMs Vacancy Rate Methodology Two main parts to the methodology. The numerator, being rental listings. And the denominator, being the number of established properties available for rent.
Rental Listings
The rental listings component is based on all monitored and unique listings for the period of a calendar month. The series starts off in January 2005.
We then monitor all residential listings for each month and create three columns. 1) New listings added for the month..2) Listings withdrawn for the month and current listings as at the very end of the month.
A reconciliation is conducted with the number added, number withdrawn and the previous current listings.
All listings are taken from online monitoring of major listings sites. Only those properties with unique addresses are used. Those advertisements with no addresses are excluded from the series. Any addresses repeated between the two sites are de-duped.
Finally, only those listings that have been advertised for two weeks or more (and are still currently advertised as at the time of collation) are used.
Established Dwellings
We use the 2006 No. of total established Dwellings (as a base) by postcode as determined by the ABS census. In addition we estimate total dwellings for 2005, 2007 and 2008. We then multiply this by the percentage of renters for each postcode as also provided in the census. This provides an estimated available total stock for rent.
The numerator is then divided into the denominator, which provides a vacancy rate percentage.
Some have argued that using real estate listings cannot be done because of advertising of false listings and properties that are only advertised for a fleeting moment as they are taken up immediately.
We have addressed those issues.
We have left out those ads without an advertised address and also taking into account a whole month’s worth of listings which automatically adjusts for those ads withdrawn quickly.
just another time wasting exercise...to humour...the pigs might fly scenario's
