Historically, gaining access to past property sales data for Sydney has been a laborious and costly process. Fortunately, new policies, and a new plug-in, make those headaches a thing of the past. Mashable reports on the developments which have liberated a large amount of data to the joy of real estate lovers everywhere. On Friday, NSW Minister for Finance, Services and Property, Dominic Perrottet, announced that 14 years worth of New South Wales property sales data would be accessible for free on a digital mapping service called NSW Globe.
"Until now, people had to pay the government or a third party provider to access property sales data," Mr Perrottet said in a statement. "The NSW Government recognises that in a booming property market, buyers and sellers are entitled to accurate and accessible land and property information."
The free NSW Globe application is a plug-in that works with Google Earth’s aerial imagery (also a free service), which, when successfully implemented, allows users to view about 2.5 million land valuations as well as historical for properties throughout New South Wales.
In October this trove of data will be released to online property portals like REA Group’s realestate.com.au. (REA Group is majority-owned by News Corp, which also owns Mansion Global.) [Mashable]