Data is trusted. So why isn’t it being used?

Most real estate agencies will say the same thing if you ask them about data.

They trust it.

They know it matters

They want more insight.

And yet, when you look at how decisions actually get made day-to-day, data often sits on the sidelines.

That contradiction showed up clearly in our State of the Australian Real Estate Market 2026 report. Not in one chapter, but across several.

Agencies told us they value data.

They also told us they’re not consistently using it to guide strategy, pricing, follow-up or planning.

So, what’s going on?

The gap between belief and behaviour

In one part of the survey, a portion of agencies admitted they don’t regularly use data to inform business strategy.

Later in the report, those same agencies pointed to a growing need for better insights around performance, profitability and market movement.

On paper, that doesn’t line up.

In reality, it makes perfect sense.

It’s like owning a gym membership, believing exercise is important, and still driving past the gym most days.

Not because you doubt the benefits.

But because life gets busy and the friction is real.

It’s not a trust problem. It’s a usability problem.

Most agencies aren’t ignoring data because they don’t believe in it.

They’re ignoring it because:

• It’s scattered across systems
• It takes too long to pull together
• It’s hard to turn into a clear next step
• By the time it’s reviewed, the moment has passed

When data lives in reports you only open once a month, it doesn’t shape every day decisions.

It becomes something you review after the fact, not something you work with in the moment.

Trusted, but distant.

What the report shows when you read it end to end

Looking across the chapters, a pattern emerges.

Agencies want:

• Better clarity when advising owners
• More confidence when setting rent or pricing
• Stronger visibility across sales and property management
• Fewer missed follow-ups and handover gaps

All of those needs rely on data.

But they rely on data being close to the work.

Not locked away in spreadsheets, exports or dashboards no one has time to open mid-day.

The demand for insight is growing faster than the ability to actually use it.

When data shows up too late, instinct fills the gap

When insight is hard to access, people fall back on experience.

There’s nothing wrong with experience. Real estate runs on it.

But experience without visibility can turn into a guessing game.

Especially when markets move quickly and expectations keep changing.

The report highlights this tension quietly.

Decisions are being made every day without the full picture agencies say they want.

Not because teams don’t care.

Because the system around them makes it hard.

The opportunity most agencies are missing

This is the part the report doesn’t spell out directly.

The opportunity isn’t just “use more data”.

It’s to reduce the distance between data and action.

When insight is:

• Easy to access
• Relevant to the task at hand
• Connected across roles

It stops feeling like analysis and starts feeling like support.

That’s when data actually earns its place in decision making.

What this means heading into 2026

As agencies plan for the year ahead, this gap is worth pressure-testing.

Not by asking, “do we trust our data?”

But by asking:

• Is insight easy to each when decisions need to be made?
• Does it show up during conversations, or only after them?
• Are we reviewing performance, or using it to steer work in real time?

The answers matter more than any single stat.

If the tension between trusting data and actually using it feels familiar, this next bit is for you.

It’s one of the clearest signals in the State of the Australian Real Estate Market 2026 report.

And one of the most useful to pay attention to.

You can read the full report here and see how this theme connects across sales, property management and leadership planning.

Sometimes the biggest insights aren’t in one chapter.

They’re in the space between them.

Want to see how this plays out in practice?

If you’re curious about how agencies are starting to close the gap between trusting data and actually using it day-to-day, these short walkthroughs are worth a look.

Golden Profile: A single view of a customer across sales and property management → Watch here

Analytics+ for Reapit PM: Turning portfolio data into clearer insights for planning and conversations → Watch here

Analytics+ for Reapit Sales: Visibility into performance, opportunity, and follow-up → Watch here

No pressure to watch them all. Just useful context if this part of the report struck a chord.