Where our data comes from

Every number on NextSuburb is sourced from a public dataset or carefully scoped heuristic anchored to a public benchmark. We do not redistribute raw data — NextSuburb provides the analysis on top.

Live API ingest

State-level mean dwelling price and population are pulled fresh from the ABS Data API on every build via scripts/ingest/abs.mjs. Last pulled 2026-05-03.

• ABS Data API · ABS:RES_DWELL_ST(1.0.0) — Residential Dwellings: Values, Mean Price and Number by State and Territories. Mean residential dwelling price by state, quarterly. Window: 2018-Q4 to 2025-Q4 (preliminary). API endpoint: https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,RES_DWELL_ST/5..Q
• ABS Data API · ABS:ERP_Q(1.0.0) — Quarterly Population Estimates (ERP), by State/Territory, Sex and Age. Estimated Resident Population by state, quarterly. Window: 2018-Q4 to 2025-Q3. API endpoint: https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,ERP_Q/1.3.TOT..Q
• ABS Data API · ABS:C21_G02_SAL(1.0.0) — Census 2021, G02 Selected medians and averages, Suburbs and Localities (SAL). 15,200 suburbs ingested (8,298 of our 9,375 curated suburbs mapped to a SAL today). Carries: median household income (weekly), median rent (weekly), median mortgage (monthly), median age, average household size, total residents (G01). Last pulled 2026-05-03. Endpoint: https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/data/ABS,C21_G02_SAL/all?startPeriod=2021&endPeriod=2021
• Domain Developer API · POST /v1/listings/residential/_search — live advertised sale + rent listings, aggregated to per-suburb median listing price and median advertised weekly rent. Free tier: 500 calls/day. Auth: OAuth client-credentials at https://auth.domain.com.au/v1/connect/token with scopes api_listings_read api_locations_read. The ingest backfills ~250 curated suburbs/day (2 calls each) and refreshes any entry older than 30 days, so the cache rolls forward without ever blowing the quota. Ingest gated on DOMAIN_CLIENT_ID + DOMAIN_CLIENT_SECRET env vars; without them the Domain block is empty and the score falls back to Census rent then the regional benchmark.

Score precedence chain

For each suburb’s gross-rental-yield input, we walk this chain in order — first hit wins, others stay in the artifact for transparency:

1. Domain rent ÷ Domain median listing price — both real, from live listings (last 30d).
2. Domain rent ÷ our curated suburb median sale price — when only Domain rent is available.
3. Census 2021 weekly rent ÷ our curated suburb median sale price — snapshot from the August 2021 ABS Census.
4. Regional fundamentals heuristic— the original benchmark per region (kept so suburbs that don’t map cleanly to a SAL still get scored).

5-year CAGR and 1-year / 5-year population growth are computed from these series matched-quarter (no seasonality smoothing). Period codes carry through to the methodology page so you can verify the exact quarter every figure ends on.

Static / heuristic data

The fields below are not yet wired to a free API. Where the data is paywalled (SQM Research, Domain, CoreLogic) we use heuristic benchmarks consistent with publicly-reported levels. The plan is to swap in a live ingest as paid feeds are added.

• SQM Research. Vacancy rates, asking rents, days on market. Currently heuristic — the SQM web portal allows postcode-level CSV downloads but commercial reuse requires a licence. Refresh: monthly (manual).
• Domain.Median sale prices, listing counts, days on market, rental medians. Currently heuristic at the suburb level — Domain’s public API requires partnership. Refresh: monthly (manual).
• realestate.com.au. Listing counts and rental medians (cross-check). Currently heuristic — no public API. Refresh: monthly (manual).
• ATO. Median taxable income by postcode and 5-year income trend. Currently heuristic — the historical ATO postcode CSVs are public via ato.gov.au, latest covering FY 2022-23. Wiring those in is on the roadmap.
• State infrastructure authorities. Project name, value, status, location curated from public agency websites (Transport for NSW, Major Road Projects Victoria, Cross River Rail, Metronet WA, etc.). Refresh: quarterly review.