RP Data-Rismark Property Index

RP Data Ltd Announcement - 3rd August 2007

Housing Market Continues To Turn The Corner In July

The latest RP Data-Rismark Hedonic Index results for July, 2007, show that the housing market is continuing to recover across Australia, with the exception of Canberra.

Brisbane continues to perform strongly and is expected to be Australia's top performing capital city market over the next five years.

Melbourne housing prices continue their resurgence, partly on the back of high levels of migration, with inner city and bay side suburbs showing 10 per cent growth over the last six months.

Sydney appears to have officially turned the corner, with consistent growth in house prices of up to 7 per cent shown in the inner city, eastern suburbs, lower North Shore and the Northern Beaches.

However house prices in the city's outer metropolitan suburbs and Central Coast continue to stall, with no sign of a growth in the near future.

Chief Executive Officer of RP Data, Mr Graham Mirabito, said "Unfortunately interest rate rises could stall growth across the whole market, with Brisbane expected to cope better than any other city".

Rental yields are a strong 5 per cent in Brisbane, with yields still high in Canberra, Darwin and Adelaide, while there has been a recent decline in Melbourne because of strong price growth. Evidence of the much talked about rental increases in Sydney is now showing through in yields.

Dr Matthew Hardman, Rismark's Head of Research, said " Units have done better than houses in Sydney and Melbourne in the past 12 months. Previously, house price returns had been better than units and now units are catching up again. Brisbane continues to show superior returns on houses than units and we believe that lack of supply will make this a persistent phenomenon in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane."

"What is interesting is that only the more expensive areas of Sydney and Melbourne have shown recent growth. We expect this to continue as supply can't meet demand in these areas as long as the economy is buoyant.

"Outer metropolitan areas where supply problems are easier to alleviate have shown little or no recent growth. Increasing supply will benefit many prospective buyers in these areas by reining in future growth. The flipside is that price growth in more affluent areas will further diverge from the rest", he added.

* The June 2007 year-to-date results are "indicative" only, since they rely on a smaller sample of property sales data and do not reflect the MORE comprehensive sales database used to publish the "final" figures of May 2007 YTD.

* The June 2007 year-to-date results are "indicative" only, since they rely on a smaller sample of property sales data and do not reflect the MORE comprehensive sales database used to publish the "final" figures of May 2007 YTD.

For more detailed information on the RP Data-Rismark Indices, please go to http://www.rpdata.com/indices/

Background on RP Data:
Established in 1991, ASX-listed RP Data (ASX: RPX) is the largest supplier of commercial and residential property information services throughout Australia and New Zealand and is the first and only provider of only provider of hedonic based Property Indices and AVM’s. Subscription clients to RP Data’s property information service include over 8,500 real estate agents, valuers, property developers, financial institutions and government departments. RP Data is also the largest supplier of property reports to Australians with over 600,000 property reports issued each year.

With an annual investment of more than $5 million in databases, RP Data has more than 65 million property data records covering 12 million properties in Australia and New Zealand including ownership records; 11 million property attribute records; 3.6 million property features records; 15.8 million property sales records; 12 million property maps; 16.8 million property photos; and 9 million “on the market” property listing records. For more information visit www.rpdata.com.

Background on Rismark International:
Rismark is a global real estate investment business that specialises in quantitative research, funding, and securitisation. Rismark is a private company owned by management and a number of leading financial services companies. Rismark has executed exclusive strategic agreements with organisations such as Adelaide Bank, PMI Mortgage Insurance, GFI Group (NASDAQ: GFIG), Wizard Home Loans, RP Data Limited, and others. Rismark’s management team has extensive experience in quantitative residential real estate research and is augmented by a Global Research Advisory Board comprising of eminent academics from Sydney University, Melbourne University, and Yale. For more information visit www.rismark.com.au.