Anyone who’s serious about property investment needs data. And that data isn’t always easy to find or interpret. Infometrics Property is designed to do that for the residential property investor.
Wednesday, August 30th 2006, 4:49PM
by The Landlord
Product: InfometricsProperty.co.nz Property and housing data at your fingertips
The site takes data from all sorts of sources such as Statistics New Zealand, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), Quotable Value, Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, gives it a consistent format and makes it easily digestible for subscribers.
Infometrics Property also provides articles from its economists, designed to analyse sometimes confusing data. These include analysis of economic data such as the RBNZ monetary policy statements and articles on subjects of importance to landlords such as home ownership and ethnicity, or how the house price riddle has proved forecasters wrong.
Much of the data on Infometrics Property is available free elsewhere. But I can tell you that you need to be a sleuth extraordinaire to find some of it. Try searching Google for rental inflation or gross rental yields for Kaiapoi and you’ll see what I mean. Even if you find the data you’re looking for, some of the raw information on the RBNZ’s of Statistics New Zealand’s websites can be a little daunting. As with everything in life, the convenience of a one-stop-shop can be useful.
The people behind Infometrics Property say that the “Articles” section is the most popular. But from where I sit, the site really comes into its element for investors who may want to buy property outside their traditional stomping ground when the rental yields get thin.
If for example, you have noticed that Taranaki/Manawatu had greater than average house price inflation over the past year [not that past performance is any indicator of future performance], you can drill further down into towns such as Levin and find local information on gross rents, median house prices, rental inflation, gross rental yield, house prices, median number of days to sell, housing affordability, occupancy and vacancy rates. You can then find out what’s happening in Horowhenua District as a whole, or look at economic indicators for Manawatu – right down to guest nights, car registrations, and business confidence data.
The How Does My Region Compare With Others comparisons are very useful indeed if you’re looking outside your local area to invest. You can compare the rental yields, capital gains and total returns for the region you’re interested in. Levin, for example, ranks tenth of 73 for rental yields in the country, sixteenth for capital gains and fifteenth over all.
It’s easy to miss incremental changes that are affecting profitability and the “Indicators” section of Infometrics has some surprisingly interesting statistics covering both New Zealand-wide statistics and also local information.
For example, annual ownership expenses including rates, insurance, repairs and maintenance have been tracking up at a scary rate over the past five years, but if you’re not tracking these costs as a whole it could be that you don’t realise their significance.
For investors indicators such as employment rates, hourly wages and consumer price inflation, net migration and overseas investment activity are all part of the matrix you’ll need to make sensible investment decisions.
If you’re looking for the right time in the cycle to build, subdivide or add a minor dwelling, then fact that construction costs have actually been falling may be of interest.
The site also has regularly updated opinions on regions and areas and has negative and positive price watch.
There is also a calculator section, which like many sites has a mortgage calculator. However I found the council rates and rental comparison calculators of interest.
When I first looked at this website I wondered how many people would find the information of huge importance. (It is, however a goldmine for a journalist putting a story together and I’ve used it many a time). But then I got thinking about the numbers of investors who buy property on gut instinct, or even worse, because they like the décor, and I realised that the more people who seek data such as this, the fewer who will come a cropper when the next downturn hits. About 50% of subscribers are private individuals – many of whom will be property investors.
What’s more, it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. A three-month subscription costs AUD$30, or an annual subscription AUD$85. It’s chickenfeed if you make one good decision as a result of it.
On the downside, the website would be more valuable if it was possible to click on the charts and see the data behind them.
I also found it a little difficult to find my way back to where I’d been. For example, I found an excellent map of New Zealand showing the areas that had shown the best recent growth. Or at least it was something like that, because when I went back to find it again to write about it, I simply couldn’t track it down.
One tiny gripe was that “This week’s featured article” was 19 days old when we viewed it.
Infometrics Property has no direct competitor in New Zealand. But investors without bottomless pockets might want to consider whether their money is best spent on Infometrics Property or websites as QV.co.nz or Terranet.co.nz, which provide specific information about sales
Contact: www.infometricsproperty.co.nz System requirements: · Internet access
Verdict: A one-stop-shop for property market and economic data. Pros: Easily digestible sales and economic data Cons: Site a little difficult to navigate.
Reproduced from the NZ Property Magazine, August 2006 Click here to subscribe today!
