Commonwealth Bank unveils its property guide iPhone app

Lender anticipates favourable reception customers who want to tap 95% of Australia's residential homes market.

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) released a new iPhone app yesterday that it says will revolutionise the property market in Australia and change how home buyers will search for a property.

The free Property Guide iPhone app utilises 'augmented reality' technology, allowing users to point their iPhones at residential properties and be fed information such as past sale prices, whether the property is for sale, and current property listings. The results are then be mapped overlaid on the iPhone's screen.

Data is relayed from realestate.com.au and rpdata.com and the CBA indicates that 95 per cent of Australia's residential homes are covered by the app, which took five months to develop.

CBA public relations advisor, Sarah Gibbons, says that there were no concerns with privacy when building and releasing the app, simply because the information distributed by the app is publicly available and is not personally identifiable. "There are no privacy concerns regarding data provided through the iPhone application as it utilises the same data that has been available to professional and consumer subscribers for over a decade through RP Data and other sources," she said.

View the full story in Good Gear Guide.