When it comes to judging what's really happening in the property market, we tend to find that getting hold of some hard and fast numbers from sources we can trust is a great way to make an informed judgement. So the release of the sales data from our own Barry Plant Head Office this week was quite an eye opener. Whilst some in the media have portrayed the market as quite subdued, the results of the 80 office Barry Plant network confirm the numbers that came out of the REIV last week, and the undeniable fact is that the market seems to be picking up. The Barry Plant Group's CEO, Mike McCarthy, confirmed yesterday that the group had posted 102 more sales in June this year than in it did in June 2011, which is an increase of 15.9%. In fact, 10 of the offices reported their best ever June whilst 3 of those offices had their best month ever! Mike also confirmed that the Barry Plant Group had made more sales in the first half of 2012 than the corresponding period in 2011, again indicating the positive trend in the market. When you add this data to the most recent figures from the REIV which showed the median property value in Melbourne had actually begun increasing again in the second quarter of this year, it seems that the doom and gloom merchants have well and truly missed the boat.