Buildings¶
Disclaimer
Overview¶
Buildings is a digital dataset representing buildings across Australia. The Buildings dataset has relationships with the G-NAF, Cadastre, Property and Administrative Boundaries products produced by Geoscape Australia.
Data quality and potential capture timelines will vary across Australia based on three categories. Each category has been developed based on several factors defined by the population distribution (categorised based on population size), industrial/commercial activities, the probability of natural events (e.g. flooding) and the image source.
Urban (satellite source) - areas with a population greater than 200, or with significant industrial/commercial activity in a visual assessment, digitised from satellite imagery
Urban (aerial source) - areas with a population greater than 200, or with significant industrial/commercial activity in a visual assessment, digitised from aerial imagery
Rural – all other areas
Geoscape welcomes your feedback on the Buildings product. We also publish regular product development updates on our website ( www.geoscape.com.au ).
Release Summary¶
This product was released to customers on 30 June 2025 with data extracted on 18 June 2025.
This release is a full national data population for Version 3.3 of the Buildings product, described by the Buildings Product Guide v3.3.
Any issues that have been identified for this release are described in the Issues section.
This release includes updates for the areas listed in the table below.
State |
Location |
Urban Area (km2) |
---|---|---|
NSW |
Shoalhaven City Council |
43 |
NT |
Alice Springs Municipality |
54 |
QLD |
Lockyer Valley Regional |
3 |
QLD |
Toowoomba Regional |
164 |
SA |
The Corporation of the City of Whyalla |
26 |
SA |
UIA Whyalla |
9 |
VIC |
Banyule City |
24 |
VIC |
Bayside City |
15 |
VIC |
Boroondara City |
60 |
VIC |
Brimbank City |
73 |
VIC |
Darebin City |
22 |
VIC |
Glen Eira City |
37 |
VIC |
Greater Dandenong City |
1 |
VIC |
Greater Geelong City |
59 |
VIC |
Hobsons Bay City |
63 |
VIC |
Hume City |
13 |
VIC |
Kingston City |
4 |
VIC |
Knox City |
54 |
VIC |
Macedon Ranges Shire |
411 |
VIC |
Manningham City |
88 |
VIC |
Maribyrnong City |
31 |
VIC |
Maroondah City |
28 |
VIC |
Melbourne City |
38 |
VIC |
Melton City |
32 |
VIC |
Merri-Bek City |
20 |
VIC |
Mitchell Shire |
217 |
VIC |
Monash City |
81 |
VIC |
Moonee Valley City |
32 |
VIC |
Moorabool Shire |
10 |
VIC |
Nillumbik Shire |
4 |
VIC |
Port Phillip City |
21 |
VIC |
Stonnington City |
26 |
VIC |
Whitehorse City |
64 |
VIC |
Whittlesea City |
232 |
VIC |
Wyndham City |
447 |
VIC |
Yarra City |
20 |
WA |
City of Albany |
48 |
WA |
City of Armadale |
447 |
WA |
City of Bayswater |
35 |
WA |
City of Belmont |
40 |
WA |
City of Canning |
65 |
WA |
City of Cockburn |
150 |
WA |
City of Fremantle |
20 |
WA |
City of Gosnells |
99 |
WA |
City of Joondalup |
99 |
WA |
City of Kalamunda |
278 |
WA |
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder |
40 |
WA |
City of Kwinana |
120 |
WA |
City of Mandurah |
92 |
WA |
City of Melville |
53 |
WA |
City of Nedlands |
20 |
WA |
City of Perth |
20 |
WA |
City of Rockingham |
212 |
WA |
City of South Perth |
20 |
WA |
City of Stirling |
105 |
WA |
City of Subiaco |
6 |
WA |
City of Swan |
913 |
WA |
City of Vincent |
11 |
WA |
City of Wanneroo |
249 |
WA |
Shire of Beverley |
4 |
WA |
Shire of Boddington |
6 |
WA |
Shire of Chittering |
221 |
WA |
Shire of Gingin |
1 |
WA |
Shire of Mundaring |
335 |
WA |
Shire of Murray |
462 |
WA |
Shire of Northam |
6 |
WA |
Shire of Peppermint Grove |
1 |
WA |
Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale |
559 |
WA |
Shire of Toodyay |
64 |
WA |
Shire of Wandering |
99 |
WA |
Town of Bassendean |
10 |
WA |
Town of Cambridge |
22 |
WA |
Town of Claremont |
5 |
WA |
Town of Cottesloe |
4 |
WA |
Town of East Fremantle |
4 |
WA |
Town of Mosman Park |
4 |
WA |
Town of Victoria Park |
18 |
Total |
7,493 |
Spatial files of the updated areas are available upon request via support@geoscape.com.au.
Change Notifications¶
National Buildings 4.0 - Update¶
Geoscape’s Buildings product is evolving into a new and enhanced package called “National Buildings 4.0”, scheduled for release in March 2026.
This evolution brings improved attribution, better integration capabilities, and a stronger foundation for delivering future innovation to building insights.
National Buildings will be packaged to consist of a base “Buildings” dataset, with additional aspatial “Insights Packs” available that are designed to provide specific understanding or knowledge about a particular topic/theme for an industry or use-case.
Geoscape is committed to supporting current customers through this transition. Over the coming months, we’ll be in touch to understand the impacts to customer processes, share sample data, and provide guidance to facilitate a smooth changeover.
Issues¶
New Issues¶
No new issues to note.
Resolved Issues¶
No resolved issues to note.
Known Issues¶
Incorrect metal primary_roof_material assignment¶
In the update areas for the September 2024 release, we noticed that a large number of buildings have been classified with a primary_roof_material of ‘Metal’. On investigation, it was identified that this classification was not correct in many cases and so the primary_roof_material values were rolled back to the previous (June 2024) values where possible. We are looking to update these areas in an upcoming release to resolve remaining mis-classification and are working with our data supplier to improve this classification for future supplies.
Incorrect roof_type, roof_shape and roof_slope assignment¶
In the update areas for the September 2024 release, we noticed that a large number of buildings have been classified with a roof_type and roof shape of ‘Flat’ and roof_slope of ‘0’. On investigation, it was identified that this classification was not correct in many cases and so these values were rolled back to the previous (June 2024) values where possible. We are looking to update these areas in an upcoming release to resolve remaining mis-classification and are working with our data supplier to improve this classification for future supplies.
Centroid not within building polygon¶
When mapping the building centroid from the centroid_longitude and centroid_latitude there will be occurrences where the point does not fall inside the building geometry. This occurs because of the complexity of the building geometry and impacts < 0.1% of buildings. A fix for this issue will be investigated for a future release.
Swimming_pool_adjacent incorrectly ‘null’¶
Some records containing attribution for swimming_pool_review_date also contain ‘null’ attribution for swimming pool adjacent where the allowed values are ‘no’ or ‘yes’. This affects < 0.25% of buildings.
Duplication of buildings between update areas¶
New and updated buildings are captured within Areas of Interest (AOIs). Buildings that intersect two adjacent AOIs are duplicated. This issue affects approximately 1,800 buildings.
Duplicate building polygons¶
There are 8,417 buildings with duplicate geometries, resulting in 8,427 additional building polygons present. A fix for this issue will be investigated for a future release.
Roof colour assignment¶
There is an over classification of light roof colours primarily in the Melbourne region. Advances in processing has improved this issue in recent releases.
Building position offset from imagery¶
There is evidence of buildings having a horizontal shift of approximately 0.5m in the NSW suburbs of Parramatta and the Dee Why area. This has occurred where the new shift to the digital elevation model has not worked as intended. As we continue to refine the aerial derived building processes, we’ll seek to resolve this issue.
Over-capture of metal roof material in aerial supplies¶
In the June 2022 release, we noticed that there was an over-capture of Metal roof type in the aerial capture. This occurred primarily for residential buildings. In some areas of the aerial capture (e.g. Perth and Cairns), Metal classification was actually improved overall in relation to the previous satellite capture (satellite previously incorrectly classified Metal roofs as Tile). We are working with our production partners to improve the accuracy of the roof_material attribute, which can be affected by image smoothing, causing Tile roofs to be incorrectly classified as Metal.
Future Considerations¶
This section outlines enhancements or changes under consideration, but not planned into a specific release. For further details on future initiatives, please contact Geoscape Support.
Legacy ‘CAD’ naming¶
The building_cad table contains a field that is called ‘cad_pid’, while the Cadastre product has an attribute called ‘cadastre_pid’. We have input the ‘cadastre_pid’ values into this ‘cad_pid’ field to not affect customer processes with attribute name changes. In addition, the table name of ‘building_cad’ no longer matches the Cadastre product. There is no current plan to change either the ‘building_cad’ table name or ‘cad_pid’ field name.
Additional Total Floor Area attribute¶
Geoscape intends to introduce a new total_floor_area attribute to a future release of the Geoscape Buildings product. This attribute will provide the estimated sum of floor space across all levels of a building. At the time of the addition of this new attribute there will be a minor increment to the Geoscape Buildings product version.
Annex A – Release Counts¶
For the buildings table the additional, retired, updated and total building counts, as well as the percent change to the previous release have been listed in the table below. For the aspatial tables the total record counts have been listed.
TABLE |
STATISTIC |
FLAG |
ACT |
NSW |
NT |
OT |
QLD |
SA |
TAS |
VIC |
WA |
TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
buildings |
Additional |
0 |
15 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
111,134 |
250,807 |
361,970 |
|
Retired |
0 |
18 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
77,078 |
130,381 |
207,488 |
||
Updated |
1,503 |
28,896 |
427 |
0 |
14,811 |
6,006 |
3,224 |
1,227,843 |
1,251,594 |
2,534,304 |
||
Total |
251,664 |
5,395,708 |
166,891 |
449 |
3,825,857 |
1,789,224 |
598,595 |
5,043,104 |
2,386,258 |
19,457,750 |
||
% Change |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.00% |
0.68% |
5.31% |
0.8% |
||
Solar Panel |
Yes |
50,705 |
708,830 |
18,904 |
8 |
736,680 |
297,614 |
35,511 |
605,745 |
421,563 |
2,875,560 |
|
No |
199,639 |
3,796,338 |
115,220 |
329 |
2,500,918 |
1,139,853 |
405,608 |
3,662,204 |
1,570,187 |
13,390,296 |
||
Swimming Pool Adjacent |
Yes |
18,587 |
754,146 |
46,097 |
0 |
795,794 |
129,547 |
10,058 |
327,106 |
377,885 |
2,459,220 |
|
No |
231,811 |
3,761,142 |
87,433 |
355 |
2,449,285 |
1,306,360 |
433,909 |
3,954,343 |
1,617,172 |
13,841,810 |
||
building_cad |
299,470 |
12,466,292 |
397,974 |
554 |
5,769,350 |
2,290,849 |
727,797 |
9,638,730 |
5,216,449 |
36,807,465 |
||
building_property |
260,675 |
12,710,483 |
322,838 |
0 |
5,756,537 |
2,213,304 |
630,634 |
11,844,196 |
2,403,844 |
36,142,511 |
||
building_address |
907,652 |
11,945,861 |
324,653 |
151 |
10,062,320 |
2,962,387 |
740,837 |
8,807,595 |
4,469,566 |
40,221,022 |
References¶
Aerometrex. Aerial imagery. Raster Dataset, 2023. URL: https://aerometrex.com.au/.
Geoscape. Local government areas 2.0. 2023. URL: https://docs.geoscape.com.au/projects/lga_guide/en/stable/index.html.