The REIA has broken with other data providers in reporting growth in Australian property values for the June quarter.

The group's Real Estate Market Facts report indicates an improvement of 1.2% for detached house values and 0.5% for "other dwelling" media values. The REIA said the increase is the largest since the September quarter of 2010.

The REIA data shows the Melbourne market performing strongest among capital cities, with a 5.4% increase. REIA acting president Pamela Bennet said the result indicated "a very stable and strong market and resilient house sales" for the city.

However, the data runs in direct contrast to figures released by RP Data, the ABS and Australian Property Monitors. All three organisations indicated declines in median values for the June quarter. RP Data claimed a 2.4% decline in median values for the quarter, while the ABS and APM showed more modest falls of 0.1% and 0.6%, respectively. Notably, while the REIA reported strong growth in the Melbourne market, RP Data reported a 3.6% decline in Melbourne values, ranking the city as the worst performer for the quarter.

The discrepancy, the REIA has said, all comes down to methodology. An REIA spokesperson told Australian BrokerNews the organisation uses a raw median of home sales prices, while the other bodies use methods taking into account compositional changes in the transaction samples, with RP Data taking into account detailed information on the characteristics of the homes sold. The REIA said that consumers examining the property market should take into account assessments from all the data providers.

"Each data set has its own attributes so we cannot say one is superior to another. Certainly the REIA data has been collected consistently over a long period of time. In any thorough assessment of market data one should examine all and seek to piece together a consistent and complete picture," a spokesperson told Australian BrokerNews.