Building progress with location intelligence
Jun 2025
Simonds Homes is an Australian founded and owned business with a 75-year-long commitment to helping people build quality and affordable homes – the Great Australian Dream.
Jun 2025
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Flagstone, QLD
With Nearmap location intelligence, Simonds Homes is better equipped to provide clients with a personalised level of service that delivers more than the eye can see, in seconds, covering hundreds of projects every month.
Siddhant (Sid) Lakhina – New Home Specialist at Simonds Homes – provides clients as much information as possible about properties and locations to help find suitable locations for their own homes or for investment. With his background in strata and account management, Sid understands the need for clear, up-to-date property data to enable confident decision-making when it comes to purchasing or building.
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Deanside, VIC
Housing development 2023–2025
The Challenge
Defining property boundaries and plan measurements
Every property boundary, every building and every site is different, with unique advantages and disadvantages, risks and benefits. Getting to the source of data to tell the most accurate story is a core part of the Simonds Homes experience.
Many clients may have already begun their own property research before bringing their list of criteria to Simonds Homes.
In one example, Sid Lakhina described how a client had identified a property that they thought could be a contender for a knock-down rebuild: all the standard, publicly available property data seemed to justify the client’s enthusiasm.
The Solution
Fulfilling projects with high-resolution insights
Nearmap location intelligence revealed that the property boundary locations were slightly different than the client had assumed. The boundaries intersected with several mature trees and dense vegetation which could have caused issues with a rebuild, potentially leading to plan alterations risking a budget blowout.
This information becomes clear instantly: “Instead of days, we’re talking about a few minutes,” said Sid Lakhina, “and with some insights the client wouldn’t have necessarily been able to understand themselves.”
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Angle Vale, SA
“People will often say ‘oh that is my car … that is the pool that we’ve just put in’. The most common feedback I get is: how is it so recent… what do you use?”
Sid Lakhina, New Home Specialist, Simonds HomesThe following images illustrate how Nearmap aerial imagery forms a base for shadow modelling. The first image shows the property and its boundaries, with images showing shadowing at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm.
This level of location intelligence helps plan better developments and new property builds.
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The image above shows property boundaries and measurements for a potential development site.
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The image above shows open space overshadowing at 9am highlighted in blue.
With this aerial perspective, and the corresponding boundary data, the Simonds Homes team can demonstrate the overshadowing impacts of a proposed structure.
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This image (above) shows which areas of open space in light yellow that will be affected by overshadowing at 12pm.
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The image above illustrates areas of open space that will be subject to overshadowing at 3pm.
Business Impact
With Nearmap location intelligence, Simonds Homes can present clients with more complete visual representations of projects.
Sid Lakhina explains that the most common positive feedback he hears from clients is about the level of property understanding they get from an aerial location intelligence perspective.
With Nearmap content covering 95% of Australia’s population and refreshed up to 6 times a year across metropolitan areas, Simonds Homes can connect clients with detailed up-to-date property information.
Using the Export tool in MapBrowser, the Simonds Homes teams can create informative, eye-catching proposals to give clients a clear idea of their proposed projects.
The MapBrowser timeline tool allows the team to keep track of projects – to check that demolition is happening, that properties have been revegetated, that rebuilds are underway.
Being able to see locations from multiple perspectives, and with historical imagery, gives the Simonds Homes team the location intelligence they need to help bring their clients into the picture – creating decisions that lead to enduring results.
“This data helps us give value to clients, and that leads to the decision making.”
Sid Lakhina, New Homes Specialist, Simonds HomesWork with clear property insights
Chat to our team today to see what you can uncover with location intelligence.