Frequently Asked Questions
Q) What is Old Listings?
A) Old Listings is an independent archive of real estate listings that are no longer active. These listings were originally found through Suburb View’s search engine and are now stored as historical records. Each listing shows the last known advertised price and the date it was last seen online. In many cases, price changes and re-listings are also tracked and displayed.
The goal is to give everyday Australians access to a view of the property market that’s usually hidden — what homes used to be listed for, and how prices changed over time.
Q) Are you affiliated with any of the major real estate websites?
A) No. Old Listings and Suburb View are completely independent. They are not affiliated with any agency, listing aggregator, or commercial property portal. This independence allows me to provide data in a more transparent and historical context, without influence from real estate marketing or paid listings.
Q) How do you get the location of a property listing?
A) When a listing includes a full street address, I use Google’s geocoding API to determine the property’s coordinates. This allows the listing to appear on an interactive map. If an address can't be resolved accurately, the property will not appear on the map, but it will still be included in the suburb’s search results.
Q) Some of the prices seem incorrect — why is that?
A) The site displays the advertised price that was detected at the time the property was listed. Some listings may have multiple price points due to re-listings or price adjustments over time. In some cases, especially with developments like apartments or townhouses, the pricing may refer to a range rather than a single dwelling.
Every effort is made to extract the correct data, but due to differences in how listings are presented across thousands of websites, some variations can occur. If you spot a clear error, I welcome corrections via the Contact Form.
Q) Are the prices shown the actual sold prices?
A) No. These are advertised prices only, captured at the time of listing. The site does not display official sale prices or title transfer data. If you're after sold prices, those are usually available through paid services or government land title databases.
Q) Can I request that a listing be removed?
A) Yes. I respect privacy and am happy to remove listings on request. Please use the Contact Form and include the property’s address or a link to the listing you’d like removed.
Q) How often are suburbs updated?
A) Suburb updates are dynamic and based on real-time user activity through Suburb View. If a suburb hasn’t been searched in a while, it’s automatically re-scanned if the data is more than 5 days old. In most cases, a fresh search triggers an update within 24 hours.
This approach ensures the system focuses on what users are actually looking for, making the most efficient use of server resources and keeping the listings fresh.
Q) Why are there no old listings for my suburb?
A) That likely means it hasn’t been actively searched in Suburb View, or there simply weren’t any properties listed there during the scan window. Try searching the suburb again, and if there are any current or past listings, the system will queue it for an update.
Q) What does the “last updated” date on a suburb report mean?
A) This is the most recent date that suburb was processed and listings were reviewed. If it’s older than a few days, it means no one has searched for that suburb recently. Performing a search will usually update the data automatically.
Q) Is this site really run by one person?
A) Yes. Every part of this platform — from the backend crawling systems to the frontend interfaces, search logic, and even this FAQ — has been built and maintained by one person (me, Mark F). I started Suburb View back in the mid-2000s out of frustration with how hard it was to find properties, and it’s been evolving ever since.
Despite being a solo project, the system is highly automated and can crawl and process data from over 10,000 real estate websites. That’s how Old Listings has been able to maintain one of the largest historical collections of advertised property prices in Australia.
Q) How advanced is the technology behind this site?
A) The platform uses a custom-built property data engine developed specifically for the quirks of the Australian real estate market. It handles:
- Distributed crawling across thousands of agent websites
- Automated price change detection
- Timeline tracking for each listing
- Real-time suburb activity monitoring
- Google Maps and geocoding integration
- Historical report generation per suburb
This setup allows users to search the property market with a level of transparency and insight that’s usually locked behind paywalls or not available at all.
Q) Can I use this data for research or analysis?
A) I’m open to working with researchers, analysts, or media outlets interested in using historical real estate data. If you’re working on something aligned, get in touch via the Contact Form.