Market rent explanation of statistical terms

Bonds received – The number of bonds received that had complete information about weekly rent, house type, number of bedrooms and the correct property address. Bonds without all of this information are excluded from the table.

Average rent – The most typical weekly rent, calculated by adding up the weekly rents for all bonds and dividing this by the total number of bonds.

Standard deviation – The distribution of rents around the average. If the standard deviation is small, most of the sample is close to the average. If it is large, the distribution is more spread out. Approximately 68% of all the weekly rents will fall within one standard deviation on either side of the average. For example, if the average rent is $100 and the standard deviation is equal to 20, then approximately 68% of weekly rents will be between $80 (the average minus one standard deviation) and $120 (the average plus one standard deviation).

Lower quartile – The weekly rent at 25% of all market rents when all are placed in order of value.

Median rent –The middle value when all of the weekly rents are placed in order of value. The median is a better indicator of rents in the middle of the range than the average or mean rent figure, as the average can be influenced by one or two rentals that are extremely high or low.

Upper quartile – The weekly rent at 75% of all market rents when all are placed in order of value.