Australia's Commonwealth Bank (CommBank) has launched a property app on the back of its research showing half of home buyers overestimate the median dwelling price of their capital city.

CommBank says the comprehensive property app uses multiple data sources to help buyers identify the gap in perception and reality to navigate the home-buying process more confidently.

The survey of prospective Australian home buyers found most were reasonably confident about their knowledge of the local property market.

However, respondents from Sydney (57 per cent), Brisbane (49 per cent) and Adelaide (47 per cent) are the most likely to overvalue properties in their capital city.
The survey also revealed many Australians looking for a property have a limited understanding of what they can borrow and afford.

Just over half of respondents (55 per cent) could identify what factors could potentially affect their borrowing power, such as credit card limits, monthly living expenses, annual income and savings.

Commonwealth Bank Home Buying Executive General Manager Dan Huggins says discussing the local property market is a national pastime but the survey results show that even for those actively looking to buy a property, perception can be different to reality.

He says the new CommBank Property app on Android and iOS provides everything Australians need to do their research.

"The CommBank Property app can help potential buyers discover how affordable a property could be," Huggins says.

"It can also search for properties that suit their lifestyle based on their financial position, assess the property’s estimated market price and when they are ready, take the first steps to apply for a loan by applying for conditional eligibility or making an appointment with a home lender."

• The new CommBank Property app, allows home buyers to:


• View CommBank estimated market prices, based on multiple data sources, to help assess a property’s potential market price - even if it’s not for sale.


• Gain a better understanding of what they can afford, by allowing users to input their finances so they can find a property to suit their lifestyle.


• Allow buyers to use integrated calculators that assess repayments, upfront costs and how much they can borrow simply for each property.CommBank customers with NetBank can also use the app to apply for conditional eligibility.In addition the app will allow users to shortlist their favourite properties and share them with a buying partner.
  

  "the app will allow users to save calculations to their profile to help them further understand which properties are in their price range," Huggins says.
  

  "They can access relevant tips and articles to guide them along the way, as well as recent local sales history, capital growth, median prices and much more to help them assess a suburb's performance."
  

  Huggins says the CommBank research found more than half of respondents didn’t feel confident they could find current property market price estimates or what their potential repayments could be, which are important things to know when looking for a property.
  

  "Fortunately our app allows buyers to gain an estimated market value price, along with a clear snapshot of what their upfront costs might look like and their repayments," he says.
  

  "We know people use a variety of resources to inform their purchasing decisions such as websites, real estate agents and their friends and family.
  

  “Using multiple data sources to provide more informative data and estimated market prices, the CommBank Property app is a truly integrated property app solution which provides potential home buyers with the confidence they need."