UNSW, PEXA and Frontier SI launch Slate Analytics

“This new commercial partnership brings together PEXA’s expertise in data and digital property settlements, Frontier SI’s specialisation in spatial mapping and geodesy with UNSW’s leading research on data science and the future of our cities to deliver a world-class platform”
_{Prof.Chris Pettit, UNSW City Futures Research Centre}

In July 2022, a new commercial partnership between UNSW, PEXA and Frontier SI launched a data-driven toolkit that rapidly calculates property valuations to inform urban development. The toolkit, hosted by the new venture Slate Analytics, allows users to visualise diverse infrastructure and planning scenarios and their effect on surrounding property values. In doing so it facilities data-driven solutions to support better city planning.

The digital toolkit, called the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE), uses big data, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to calculate property valuations across Australia’s residential property market. Its interactive, what-if scenario capability represents an industry-first for planning support systems.

The venture builds on previous research by UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, Frontier SI, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Liverpool City Council, the NSW Office of the Valuer General and property data management company Omnilink, that was funded by an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) grant. This $8.7 million project was conducted over three years from 2019-2022 and was the largest research project in Australia in the discipline of urban planning. This body of research has been the recipient of multiple awards including the prestigious Planning Institute of Australia’s National Award for Research Excellence in 2021.

The Value Australia project has made significant impact with partners adopting and using the research produced. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is using the automated land valuation model (AVM) to assist with mortgage assessments. This data-driven, machine learning AVM produces a highly accurate prediction of residential property value for Australia’s 13 million residential properties. The project also created the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) toolkit version 2, which can calculate value uplift from new infrastructure planned in the city including train stations, new schools and hospitals.
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The successful commercialisation of Value Australia’s Intellectual Property assignments has led to the formation of Slate Analytics. PEXA Ltd has invested $10 million into the formation of this new company for which UNSW maintains 15% ownership and an ongoing R&D partnership going forward.

UNSW Built Environment team
Prof. Chris Pettit
Prof. Bill Randolph
Prof. Hoon Han
A/Prof. Chyi Lin Lee

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