Hi, thanks all for the info. I had used realestate.com.au and others however, so many have 'contact agent' rather than the price - annoying there isn't a fully free website like there is here in the UK.

Anyway, I agree it's handy to see what has been sold around the area you're looking in.

Very out of touch with house buying in Australia - is it the norm to go 10-15% under the price? I'm used to Scottish 'offers over' where you could go 10-15% and more over the price...

I just went on that, and after accepting their terms and conditions I got all the prices.

Definitely not in my area (inner Sydney). You need to know the market as some things are going for more than that over asking price in the same way some are over hopeful and sit around for months. One thing I've noticed that is different to the UK is that people will happily sit on the market until they get he price they want or rent for 6 months then remarket. It seems there isn't the stale factor here like there is in the UK.

hmmm wonder if it is different for different States, where are you? I will try it again and see if I can get the same results.

Tried in with different suburbs and clicked on the 'contact' and it just lead me to their website with an email address and phone number.

Ok I should have read the page more clearly...

"please Note: Western Australian Government supplied Sales Data is currently unavailable on our map search facility. We are woking on having this online and you would like to be notified when your state is online...."

Queensland. They all said 'contact' when I first looked but when I clicked on 'contact' an 'I agree' box came up and then they all showed.

Yup.... figured out that WA isn't playing ball with the figures, thus I was just getting the email/phone number. C'mon WA !

Just be aware that you have to know something about the area to interpret the prices. For example, if I look up my house I can see that I paid $330,000 for it in 2004, the one next door sold in March this year for $655,000 and the one over the road sold in April 2011 for $429,000 - what that doesn't tell you is that the one over the road was an unrenovated dump (it still only had an outside toilet!) which was basically bought for land value and has since been bulldozed and replaced by a 2-storey mansion.

I also notice that On The House gives what it calls a 'moderate guess' of the value of my house as being $497,000 to $561,000, which is considerably less than it has been valued at by a friend of mine who specialises in selling real estate in the area, so be warned if using their estimated values to determine if you can afford a house in a particular area. The house which sold competitively 3 months ago for $655,000 is shown as being worth $551,000 to $621,000 at a 'moderate guess' - property values haven't dropped that much in the time.

Totally agree - Australia's housing market cycle is significantly behind the US/UK one. We have years of gradual rate cuts in response to the slowing economy ahead of us and this will keep prices artificially propped up for a long time. Look at it like this, Britain's market essentially collapsed in in 2008 but they have kept prices artificially high for half a decade with a near-on ZIRP and Aus will do the same. While Aus houses need to fall at least 40% to get in line with long-term averages I can't see it happening soon or suddenly. They will let the air out of them slowly in real terms and this favours sellers. Although this is desperately unfair and ultimately dangerous, they do it because a serious collapse in the housing market will expose the economy to the enormous quantities of private debt that has built up.

Or worth what anyone is prepared to pay for it.

A recent house I've been looking at is about 10-15% over what comparable houses have sold for in the same area in recent months.

It's quite amusing. The agent keeps saying that the owner won't accept any less, and no one is offering any more.

A 2 bed unit near me recently went to auction for $300,000. No buyers. Second auction also no buyers. Response of seller? Let it out to tenants. He bought it for $70,000 in the late 1990s. 17 square metres outside space.

...... and I wonder of the toe dipping exercise cost?

there is a Commbank Property Guide app which may be of use as it shows sold prices (info from RPdata). Not sure how up to date it is though..