Ms Marie Hunt:

As somebody involved in data analysis on a day-to-day basis, we just clearly do not have an independent source and with the best will in the world, private firms, such as ourselves, do it themselves. We all use different definitions. There is huge duplication of effort. We would love a central clearing system where we all supply our data into one source, it is cleansed and we get the aggregate back because it would avoid us engaging in a huge amount of duplication of effort. As I said, invariably, when we issue our research, regardless of what we say, we are deemed to have a vested interest and it is thrown back at us. It has been a completely thankless task.

The UK market is miles ahead of us, in terms of the amount and the quality of data available, yet their investment property forum recently stated that if they are to prepare for the next property slowdown, they need access to better quality data and that should go across the lending institutions, the regulations, etc. They say that, and they are light years ahead of us in terms of the quality and access to data that is available there.