Task One – Summary of House Prices

Only analyse Price by itself. The importance of other variables is considered in other tasks. You

should, at the very least, thoroughly investigate relevant summary measures (and their reliability)

for this variable. Also, there may well be suitable tables and graphs that will illustrate, further and

more clearly, other important features of house prices. In your report you should comment, where

relevant, on data location, central tendency, variability, shape and outliers for this variable.

Reference: Module 1 – Topic 2

Task Two – Factors influencing house prices

Analyse house prices against other variables included in the data set. Use appropriate descriptive

techniques such as cross-tabulations, comparative summary measures, scatter diagrams to identify

key relationships. In your report you should only include the most important factors that impact

house prices (approximately between 3 – 5 factors).

Reference: Module 2 – Topic 4

Task Three – Development of a multiple regression model

You should follow the model building process outlined in topic 5. You are only required to consider

linear relationships in the model. Each stage of developing your model should be included in your

analysis. You will notice in the Baycoast spreadsheet that there are tabs called Q3-1, Q3-2, etc. These

are where you place each version of your model. Note that if you have undertaken more iterations

of the model then add more worksheets.

The report should only include your final model and a description of its overall strength as well as

the influence of each variable

Task Four – Time Series analysis

Quarterly median house prices in Baycoast from Q4, 2009 to Q3, 2013 are given in QtrPriceData

worksheet. Develop a multiplicative time series model to forecast median house prices for the next 4

quarters (Q4, 2013 to Q3, 2014).

If the observed values for those 4 quarters are as below, calculate the MAPE of the forecast.

Task Five – Critique the Business Research Approach

Discuss the suitability of the general business research approach taken. In your response, include

possible alternative approaches and other sources of (secondary) data. If the analysis was to be

repeated in the future, would you recommend a different approach? Note that no actual analysis is

required for this task 

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