Best Sources to Find a Property’s Past Sales History in Australia

Do you hope to learn how to find out what property sold for? Perhaps you want to look up the information about a past sale or the neighbour’s sale price. It may be possible for you to get all of the property history information that you need right online.

The key to learning the history of home sales is to have the right tools to help you along the way.

Why Should You Seek Out the History of Home Sales?

There may be numerous reasons you wish to seek out a property’s sales history. Doing so may tell you how much a home or other property sold for at some time in the past.

It may also give you insight into how many times the property was sold. This information may help you in various ways. With a record of property sales, you may be able to make better decisions about the property you plan to purchase.

It’s not always simple to get this information. Previous property sales prices and sales histories are difficult to obtain, especially if the last sale occurrence was a long time ago. However, you can take a few steps to make this possible.

How do you find the history of a property?

The best source of information comes from the government offices and public records outlets that legally record this information.

If you want to know the price property last sold for, turning to a local resource like the following can help you gather that information from an official source. Here are some steps to get started.

• NSW: NSW Valuer General’s Office
• Northern Territory: Land and Development Information
• Queensland: Property and Land Valuations
• South Australia: South Australian Integrated Land Information System
• Tasmania: Land Information System Tasmania
• Victoria: LandData Resources
• Western Australia: Landgate Resources

Generally speaking, these are the best resources in most areas. However, some information may not be readily available.

Historic Data from Public Records Searches

Another option that may be beneficial to many looking for data that’s more historical than recent is to use public records.

These are records accessible to the public, meaning there’s no restriction on your access to them. Here are some tools to use.

• NSW: Historical Land Records (provides access to historical housing data) or use the State Archives and Records Office.
• Northern Territory: Northern Territories Archives Services Office
• Queensland: The Queensland State Archives
• South Australia: State Records of South Australia
• Tasmania: Archive and Heritage Portal
• Victoria: Public Records Office of Victoria
• Western Australia: State Records Office of Western Australia

You can also use the National Archives to find some information.

Looking for a property’s past sales history? Try property listing sites

Property listing sites can be helpful in finding both current and sold listings. However, if the property you’re interested in hasn’t been sold in a while, these sites may not have any information on it. To find recent property sales, your best bet is to check the “Sold” sections of these sites.

There are several property listing sites that offer information on past sales.

• Domain allows you to research millions of properties across Australia and provides recent sales, suburb level market trends, and auction results.
• Realestate.com.au provides property sales histories, market trends, and suburb profiles, as well as an insights tool for investors.
• Onthehouse.com.au allows you to view property history for each listed property, although you’ll need to sign up for detailed information.
• All homes also lets you search past sales by suburb, street, and address, although the information provided is limited.
• If you’re willing to pay, Pricefinder is a property data tool that offers past property sales, valuations, and more, with a free trial available.

But if you’re looking for a more cost-effective way to find property data in your suburb, try our Radius Suburb service. One of the reasons why we have been successful in this business for nearly ten years now is that we provide quality dates at low prices.

How do I find the details of a property owner from other Sources?

What did my house sell for previously? It’s a question that’s important to ask if you are hoping to see if the home has appreciated in value over time. You may want to know how much did that property sell for across the street from where you live, giving you some idea of what changes have happened in your local real estate market. There’s quite a bit of information to get available to you openly. The key is to know where to find real estate history by address or location.

Some locations may be harder to find information on than others. Sometimes the reports you receive could provide you with other valuable data. Here are some examples.

Rental history of the property

Sometimes, a real estate listing may provide you with access to data about a property that has been leased out. It may even tell you what the value of that lease was the last time it was rented.

Price estimates

When looking up the selling history of a property, you may want to be sure you know its estimated value today, in today’s real estate conditions. Some websites, like REALas, may offer predictions on what you may get based on various data points available to them. These are not exact figures but estimations that may provide you with some data.

You may also use other websites to get data on pricing. That includes using RealEstate.com.au and Domain to help you, for example.

Property reports

Free property reports may be available in other ways. A listing report from a bank or listing site may help you get a list of comparable sales in the property area. It does this by using the address of the property to look up properties in the area that could be considered comparable.

That may give you some information on sales history as well as price estimations, depending on the source. It may provide previous property sale prices for an area, too. This could be a helpful source of information.

ABS data

Publicly available data is always worth looking into as it can offer insights into so much. For example, you can use the Australian Bureau of Statistics to get data sets that may relate to housing and mortgages. These are typically nationwide reports, but they may help you to determine how to price a home for sale or be helpful in other research.