How is the GetReal property realism score calculated?

The realism score estimates what percentage of properties in a suburb would match all of a buyer's criteria (suburb, property type, budget, bedrooms, bathrooms) based on actual sales from the last year. For NSW, the budget factor is calculated directly from 146,000+ individual Valuer General sale records — the exact count of sales at or below your budget. Each criterion is measured as a fraction of sales meeting it, then multiplied together. The result is scaled so that 25 or more matching sales per year = 100%.

What does a 50% realism score mean?

A 50% realism score means that on current market data, roughly half of the sales that occurred in that suburb last year matched all of your criteria — suburb, property type, budget, bedrooms, and bathrooms. It does not mean 50% of properties are currently available. It's a signal of how frequently properties matching your full combination appear in the market.

Why does the realism score cap at 100%?

GetReal defines 100% as 25 or more matching sales per year — a frequency roughly equivalent to fortnightly availability. Above this threshold, supply is considered plentiful and the score is capped. The cap prevents very active markets from showing artificially high numbers and keeps the score interpretable: 100% means regular opportunities, not unlimited supply.

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GetReal — Methodology

Property realism score

v1.0 — January 2025

The realism score estimates what percentage of properties in a suburb would match all of a buyer's criteria based on actual sales from the last year. A score of 100% means 25 or more matching sales per year — roughly fortnightly availability.

The score is not a count of available listings. It is a signal of how often properties matching your full combination of criteria appear in this market. A tight score on any single factor — especially budget — dominates the result.

Score calculation

raw_score = budget_pct × bedrooms_pct × bathrooms_pct // Each factor: fraction of sales meeting that criterion. // Factors assumed independent (not correlated). estimated_matches = raw_score × annual_sales_count display_score = min(estimated_matches ÷ 25, 1.0) × 100 // 25 matching sales/year = 100%

Budget factor — NSW

For NSW, GetReal counts exactly how many of the last 13 months' sold properties fall at or below the budget from the Valuer General database. This is a direct calculation from individual records — no estimation.

Budget factor — VIC

VIC uses estimated curves derived from NSW data. See VIC suburb methodology.

Bedroom and bathroom factors

Where agency-sourced enrichment data is available (Ray White, McGrath, LJ Hooker), bedroom and bathroom distributions are calculated from actual sold records. For un-enriched properties, national distribution estimates are used as a fallback. Current NSW enrichment coverage: approximately 12% of records.

Score grade labels

Grade	Score	What it means
Highly Realistic	75–100%	Strong supply. Regular opportunities.
Realistic	55–74%	Good supply. Patience needed.
Competitive	35–54%	Limited supply. Act quickly or compromise.
Tight	15–34%	Very limited. Consider relaxing one criterion.
Very Difficult	5–14%	Rare supply. Most criteria are binding.
Unrealistic	0–4%	This combination almost never appears.

↗ Source: NSW Valuer General — Bulk Property Sales Information