Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform (AHDAP)

The Challenge

Housing researchers face significant challenges in accessing, processing and integrating housing data from numerous independent agencies across a range of jurisdictions. 

This is a significant barrier to evidence-based housing research and policymaking at the national scale.

The Response

The project partners has created the Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform (AHDAP), a unique federated platform for the ingestion, management and analysis of digital data on housing and the built environment. 

It allows rapid multi-scale complex modelling and simulation to address the pressing questions regarding housing provision and sustainability across Australia.

This project involved the following elements:

A housing data portal

Federated in design, the portal enables users to search and access housing data assets from across Australia.

Colouring Australian Cities

This free knowledge exchange platform was designed to collate, collect, generate and visualise open spatial data on every building across Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. This platform helps make the cities more sustainable.

Housing Analytics Workbench

This is a suite of interrelated housing-focused analytical tools, initially populated with 4 existing tools. The workbench will be extensible so other tools can be added in future.

Capacity and community building

Communities of practice have been created around the data platforms and analytical tools. End users were engaged through face-to-face and online training sessions and symposia.

Who Will Benefit

This project connects academia, government, industry and communities to the best available data, analytics and insights to assist in solving the challenges facing Australia’s housing future. It:

• facilitates research into areas such as housing supply, affordability and diversity through making available nationally standardised and trusted datasets
• improves Australia’s ability to undertake housing research and support policy decisions that are fair, data-driven, and accurate.

The Partners

The project brought together key federal agencies responsible for researching and monitoring national housing and planning policy. 

This collaboration delivered a sustainable national governance model for Australia’s digital housing assets and provide researchers and policymakers with a prioritised set of nationally harmonised housing data.

Our partners were:

• UNSW
• Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
• Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN)
• FrontierSI
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
• National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation 
• NSW Government Spatial Services
• Omnilink Pty Ltd
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia
• Curtin University
• Swinburne University
• The University of Queensland
• University of Canberra
• The University of Melbourne
• University of South Australia
• University of Tasmania.