PEXA Group’s Value Australia recognised for ground-breaking work in AI-assisted property valuations
July 12, 2023
Value Australia, part of the PEXA Group, and the brainchild of FrontierSI and UNSW, took out the top spot at the 2023 Cooperative Research Australia Awards for Excellence in Innovation, in Adelaide this week, as the winner of the Award for Research Commercialisation.
Proudly sharing the honour with collaborators at FrontierSI, UNSW, and PEXA, Value Australia was awarded in recognition of its ability to successfully bring its AI-assisted property valuations technology to market, innovating the sector in Australia.
Value Australia’s machine learning technology models the inherent relationships and patterns between land value and sales price by analysing a complex set of land, property, locational, and market movement data.
The technology is the result of a five-year research and development partnership led by the University of NSW Sydney and FrontierSI, a not-for-profit company that uses its expertise in spatial mapping to support government, industry and the community.
In August 2022, PEXA Group acquired a 70% stake in Value Australia, with a view to maximising its property analytics and technology for the benefit of the $10 trillion property industry.
The Award for Research Commercialisation recognises the successful translation of research into a new business, product, or service that both generates long-term value for Australian society and creates new export opportunities for the economy.
Value Australia CEO, Mark Nassif, said the award was validation of the tremendous results that can be achieved through smart cooperation between industry, government, and academia.
“We are thrilled to be recognised for our contribution to the advancement of the industry and ensuring its continuous growth and sustainability in the future,” he said.
“The solutions we are currently developing aim to unlock substantial value and tangible benefits right across the property ecosystem, such as for the lending and government sectors, as well as for developers, property valuers and consumers.
“The commercialisation of this research is a testament to the CRC-Project program, as well as the hard work of all of the collaborators who worked together to develop the applied research under the leadership of FrontierSI and UNSW.
“We look forward to continuing to work alongside the valuation profession and the API for the sustainability of the industry.”
FrontierSI Deputy CEO, Phil Delaney, also welcomed the news.
“This project has allowed us to showcase what FrontierSI does best, translate innovative ideas into real world products and services, and the Cooperative Research Centres Projects funding from the Australian government was critical to helping us achieve these outcomes,” he said.
Leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms trained on enriched property market data, Value Australia’s platform delivers highly accurate, reliable valuations in ‘real-time’ for Australian properties.
These valuations can be generated at the individual, portfolio, and scenario level, delivering significant efficiencies for customers across government, finance, real estate development, and the broader property sector.
Powerful Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) allows users to realistically estimate property value uplifts in response to changes to infrastructure, services or planning controls – helping to model future values over a 30-year mortgage or extended tenancy.
These AVMs were initially developed and refined through pilot programs conducted in Brisbane and Sydney as part of the RAISE project alongside long-time collaborator Professor Chris Pettit and the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre.
“From the very beginning of our involvement with this project, to it being acquired and commercialised by PEXA, we would like to thank all of our staff and our colleagues for helping to make this project and this award possible,” Mr Delaney said.
Earlier this year, PEXA and Value Australia signed an MoU with the Australian Property Institute, which represents more than 8,000 valuers in Australia, to continue developing leading-edge solutions for the benefit of the industry and wider community.
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact:
Danielle Tricarico – Head of Corporate Affairs, PEXA
E: Danielle.tricarico@pexa.com.au
M: 0403 688 980
Chris Best – Science Communications Manager, FrontierSI
E: cbest@frontiersi.com.au
M: 0467 544 611
Julia Thomson, FrontierSI (centre left) and Professor Chris Pettit of the UNSW City Futures Research Centre (centre right) accept the Award for Research Commercialisation at the 2023 Cooperative Research Australia Awards for Excellence in Innovation from Professor Nicholas Fisk, UNSW (left) and Belinda Robinson, Cooperative Research Australia (right).