SCOPE AND COVERAGE

INTRODUCTION

5.1 This section outlines the scope and coverage of the indexes and related statistics with references to the classifications that are used to define them.


SCOPE

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

5.3 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.

5.4 For the ADPI, an attached dwelling is defined as a dwelling which shares a structural component with one or more other buildings. This may include walls, ceiling, floor or roofing.

5.5 The definition of dwelling structure type for the purpose of the indexes is consistent with the ABS classifications: the Functional Classification of Buildings, 1999 (Revision 2011) (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, 2016 (cat. no. 2901.0)).

5.6 Dwellings in scope of the HPI are:

• ordinary detached house;
• house with office;
• house with flat; and
• rural residential houses (which are not part of a farming business);

5.7 Dwellings in scope of the ADPI are:

• semi-detached, row and terrace houses;
• townhouses; and
• flats, units and apartments.

GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE

5.8 The geographic scope of the indexes is the eight Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSAs).

5.9 The GCCSAs capture the socio-economic extent of the State/Territory capital cities for statistical purposes (footnote 9). From the December quarter 2013 issue all references to capital cities are defined by the ASGS GCCSA. Historical naming conventions (i.e. Sydney rather than Greater Sydney) have been maintained in the publication. A time-series will be maintained but users should exercise caution in interpreting medians and numbers of house transfers over time as historical data will reflect capital city boundaries as previously defined. This is particularly significant for Canberra where the capital city is now defined to be the whole of the ACT.

5.10 This coverage is limited to those suburbs which existed within the GCCSA boundaries at the time of the Census of Population and Housing, used to determine the weights of the HPI and ADPI.

5.11 The outputs for median price and transfer counts are for established houses and attached dwellings in the GCCSAs. Additional outputs for median price and transfer counts for the Rest of State for established houses and attached dwellings are also included in a time series spreadsheet, published on the ABS website.

5.12 Dwellings in scope of the TVDS are the same as the indexes, however, geographic coverage is expanded to the whole of state (including the Other Territories).

5.13 Where table headings indicate the estimates relate to the Rest of State or total State/Territory the ASGS classification is used to determine boundaries.


ISSUES AFFECTING COVERAGE

5.14 Due to the classification of structures used in the source data, for Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Darwin it is currently not practical to separately identify some dwelling types (townhouses and terraces) as attached dwellings and they are instead classified as established houses and contribute to the HPI. The underlying value weights in these cities still reflect the actual dwellings in scope (i.e. they exclude townhouses and terraces). This also impacts on the unstratified medians and transfer counts for the Capital Cities and Rest of State in these states and territories.

Footnotes:
9 For more detail please see Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS):Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001). <back