Numbers highlight extent of Australia’s property obsession

Incredibly, a single user viewed more than 17,000 unique property listings in a single year, which is almost 50 per day.

The site also recorded over 6.5 million visits to property listings each day, as well as 22 billion views of property images during the year - the equivalent of 45,000 every minute.

Also, in 2016 the realestate.com.au app moved past 6 million downloads across iOS and Android, a 23 per cent year-on-year increase.

Chief digital officer Henry Ruiz said the numbers leave little doubt that Australia is a nation obsessed with property.

Chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the REA Group Property Demand Index shows the numbers peaked in October. The index compares the number of people looking at properties on the site with the number of properties for sale on the site.

“Although the increase in the index was partly due to a decline in supply, the driving force has been the rapid rise in the number of people looking to buy property in Australia," she said.

“And it’s not just Australians. Interest in Australian property from overseas is also strong, with people from the US, UK, Singapore, New Zealand and China looking regularly on realestate.com.au.”

At a glance

• A single realestate.com.au user viewed more than 17,000 unique property listings this year, almost 50 per day.

• 6.5 million visits to property listings on realestate.com.au on average every day.

• 110 million hours spent on the site.

• The realestate.com.au app has now reached 6 million downloads across iOS and Android.