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6464.0 - House Price Indexes: Concepts, Sources and Methods, Australia, 2009  
Latest ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/12/2009   
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CHAPTER 6 COVERAGE AND CLASSIFICATION


SCOPE

6.1 For the HPI, an established house is defined as a free standing/detached residential dwelling on its own block of land regardless of age, i.e. including new houses sold as a house and land package as well as second-hand houses. Price changes, therefore, relate to changes in the total price of houses and land.

6.2 The scope for the HPI is restricted to those dwellings where the primary purpose is residential (i.e. excluding commercial properties) regardless of ownership or tenure of the occupants (i.e. including government-owned properties and properties owned by private landlords).

6.3 The definition of structure type for the purpose of the HPI is consistent with ABS classifications: the Functional Classification of Building, 1999 (cat. no. 1268.0.55.001), which is used in building activity statistics; and the Dwelling Structure Classification which is used in the Census of Population and Housing (refer to Census Dictionary, 2006 (cat. no. 2901.0)).

6.4 Examples of dwelling types in scope are:

  • Ordinary detached house;
  • House with office;
  • House with flat; and
  • Rural residential houses (within a capital city and not part of a farming business).

6.5 Examples of dwelling types not in scope are:
  • Flats;
  • Apartments;
  • Terrace houses;
  • Townhouses; and
  • House with farm engaged in primary production.

6.6 HPI processing identifies the out of scope dwelling types of flats, units and apartments in the sets of price data provided to the ABS and these sales records are removed from the calculation of price change for all cities. It should be noted, however, that for Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Darwin it is currently not practical to identify and remove some other out of scope dwelling types (e.g. townhouses and terraces). Work is currently underway to address this issue.


GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE

6.7 Houses within capital city statistical divisions (SD), as defined in the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (cat. no. 1216.0) are included.

6.8 Coverage is limited to those suburbs which existed within SD boundaries at the time of the Census used to determine the weights of the HPI.


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