Making the decision to buy property is hugely exciting as well a bit scary, as you are potentially going to be taking on a large debt.

Some of the biggest decisions are where and what to buy, but doing your research and spending just a fraction of the amount you intend to invest can save you thousands and minimise the risk of making a costly mistake.

Before researching property, get your finance in order. Check if you Qualify for a mortgage and discover how much you can save on your home and investment loans by using loansHub technology as your personal mortgage manager.

Once your finance is in order, use the following to understand your target property market;

1. Quarterly Economic Report

While property prices are dependent on local markets, it can be hugely helpful to have a ‘big picture’ view. This will help you understand how both the Australian market and the market in your capital city is performing and the economic factors that are driving it.

This will give you an understanding of whether demand for property is strong or easing, and how employment, interest rates and mortgage levels are performing.

2. Rental performance reports

When buying an investment property, you want to select a suburb or town that has a good rental yield.

A rental performance report identifies the top 50 or so suburbs that are active rental markets where rental yields are strong and vacancy rates are low together with the capital growth over past years and median value so you can work out if a typical property in the suburb is within your budget.

3. Trend Data

Trend data allows you to sort data according to median value, price growth over the past 12 months or three or five years, or rental yields.

This can be a helpful way to identify a suburb that is in the price bracket you’re interested in, and from there see which suburb in that price bracket has the best rental yields, or growth etc.

4. Suburb performance reports

You may be considering a particular suburb as a place to buy into. In this case, a suburb report can help you understand the investment fundamentals such as median value, value growth as well as rental yields and typical rents.

These reports help you confirm if the suburb is right for you.

5. Individual property reports

While suburb knowledge is useful, every investment is determined by how well you buy. An individual property report can be purchased for each property you are considering making an offer for.

It can help you understand the value of the property before you make an offer, and will also include some suburb fundamentals.

Most of these property reports can be purchased from specialised data provider like Corelogic and the reports on the economy is readily available on the RBA website.

This article does not constitute financial advice; readers should seek independent and personalised counsel from a financial adviser that specialises in property or a tax accountant.