PadNav

Evaluate any Australian rental in 10 seconds.

• Next.js
• React
• TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• FastAPI
• PostgreSQL
• Google Maps
• NBN API

Every time I looked at a rental listing I wanted to check the same things: how long it would take me to get to work, whether the NBN was the good kind or the sad kind, and what was actually within walking distance. I’d end up with ten tabs open — Google Maps for commute, NBN Co for line type, Google again for the nearest Woolworths, Street View to see if the place was on a motorway — and by the fourth property I’d given up comparing them properly.

So I built one tool that answers all of it in ten seconds.

What it does

Paste any Australian address (or copy one off Domain or realestate.com.au) into PadNav and it fans out to four providers in parallel:

• Commute times to your saved destinations — driving and public transit, with per-step breakdowns so you can see which train, how many stops, and the walk at each end.
• NBN quality — FTTP, FTTN, HFC, or whatever the address is stuck with, rendered as a coloured gauge showing the predicted max speeds.
• Nearby amenities across 20+ categories: supermarkets, gyms, cafes, schools, parks, train stations, doctors, petrol, childcare. Five closest per category with walking distance.
• Street View thumbnail so you can sanity-check whether the photo in the listing is hiding a freeway.

The whole thing renders on a single page with a map, an address header, and a two-column card grid. You can save evaluations, add notes, share a read-only link with your partner, and compare two listings side by side.

Some of the interesting bits

A few implementation choices I’m happy with:

• Free-tier amenity data with paid fallback. Overpass/OpenStreetMap is free but occasionally flaky, so PadNav tries two Overpass endpoints first and only falls back to Google Places (which costs real money per call) if both fail. Each evaluation records which provider served it, so I can actually monitor my API cost exposure instead of guessing.
• Everything fans out concurrently. FastAPI + httpx.AsyncClient means the Google/NBN/Overpass calls all happen in parallel rather than stacked. The 10-second promise in the tagline isn’t aspirational — it’s the slowest of the four calls, not the sum.
• Street View gets cached as a blob. Google bills per Street View render, so I cache the image in Postgres the first time and serve it from there on subsequent loads. Page refreshes are free.
• Auth is JWT-in-httpOnly-cookie. The access token never touches JavaScript, which means even an XSS wouldn’t leak it.

Who it’s for

Mostly: Australian renters who are sick of tab-juggling. Interstate movers who’ve never been to the suburb they’re looking at. Expats landing in Sydney or Melbourne with no local knowledge. Anyone doing inspection tours on a Saturday and trying to remember which of five places was actually worth a second look.

PadNav is free during early access — no credit card, no catch. If you’re currently looking, give it a go:

→ padnav.com