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Value-added reseller licences for property sales data

On this page you will find information about:

Value-added reseller (VAR) licences
Applying for a VAR licence
The assessment process
Terms and conditions of a VAR licence

Value-added reseller (VAR) licences

A value-added reseller (VAR) licence gives the holder permission to use property sales records to create, develop and maintain products they can market as derivative information products – eg for a smartphone application. Up to 55 attributes of data are available for each sale record. No personal details are provided.
VAR licences are:

non-transferrable
not exclusive to one party
not able to be sub-licensed to another organisation or person.

The data available contains Land Services Group's (LSG) property sales records from 1 January 1993. New records are provided to licence holders each week.

An initial licence will expire on 30 September 2014. Licences may be extended up to a maximum of a further 6 years, at LSG's discretion.
The annual fee for a licence is $136,730 (GST inc) and is payable quarterly in advance. The fee is indexed quarterly from 1 October each year in line with general increases in government fees and charges.

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Applying for a VAR licence

Before applying you should read and understand the:

terms and conditions of the licence
evaluation criteria
business rules
file specification.

Apply by completing the data licence application form (PDF 354KB). For an alternative version of this document contact the Land Services Group.

Contact LSG custom data products for more information or clarification.

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The assessment process

An application for a VAR license is initially assessed against the mandatory criteria. Those that successfully pass this step are then further assessed against:

the capability criteria
referee reports
financial assessments
a technical data security audit.

If you don’t meet the technical audit requirements you may be given a timeframe to remedy any issues identified before being offered a licence. A follow-up audit may be required.

LSG may ask for additional information to make sure that a full assessment can be undertaken.

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Mandatory criteria

To meet the mandatory criteria you must:

agree to the terms and conditions of the data licensing agreement
agree to pay the CPI indexed licensing fees
agree to submit to the technical data security audits
provide an adequate response to all of the criteria in the application form.

You will usually be advised about the outcome of the mandatory criteria assessment within five working days.

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Capability criteria

To meet the capability criteria you must demonstrate:

your experience in the information services market with an emphasis on development and delivery of property information products
that you have data security arrangements in place and pass a technical data security audit
that your organisation is capable of product development and delivery
that you have downstream control of data to end users
your privacy plans, policies and practices meet the National Privacy Principles that your business is financially viable and has the appropriate insurance in place
that your organisation is a reputable organisation
that you have adequate internal quality assurance processes
that aspects of your application can be confirmed through referee reports
the capability to adequately plan and manage development and delivery of product to market.

You will usually be advised of the outcome of a capability criteria assessment within 30 business days.

The final outcome of your application depends on the technical data security audit. There are no estimated timeframes for this.

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Terms and conditions of a VAR licence

If your application is successful you must execute a data licence agreement that sets out the terms and conditions you must comply with.
These conditions include:

paying the quarterly instalments of the annual licence fee in advance
having the specified general disclosure notices on your derivative products
end users must execute a licence agreement that contains the specified government statement
having your branding on every derivative product
getting approval from LSG before a new derivative product is released on the market
agreeing to have technical data security audits carried out by LSG at their request and implement any actions required as a result
completing and lodging an annual self-assessment compliance report.

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