REISA “Viewpoints” Autumn Edition 2023
The publication provides valuable, up-to-date information on the South Australian property market, allowing for deeper conversations with vendors and buyers about the state of the market.
This edition shows that South Australia remains in a balanced market, with the median sale price in Adelaide holding relatively steady at $667,500 as of February 2023. While most of the eastern states have also entered a balance in the past three months, this comes off the back of sustained falls throughout 2022, which did not occur in South Australia.
However, even in a balanced market, some areas will perform better than others. The 3-month sales growth trends map in the Viewpoints report shows which areas have been performing well and which areas have retreated. In the previous quarters’ publication (Summer 2022/23), we observed 160 suburbs with a three-month trend increase and 198 in decline. In the past three months, we have seen this shift back in favour of growth, with 208 suburbs increasing and 152 declining. In a balanced market, these patterns are not unexpected.
It is also likely that the stability in median house prices is being sustained by a dip in sales volumes. Early in the ‘spring selling season’, there were indications that the typical peak in sales would return; however, the latter half of spring and summer did not see the peak eventuate. This indicates we are still seeing ‘corrective’ effects in the market from the unprecedented Covid boom. However, some important questions remain about the impact of interest rate rises and how this may ‘force’ stock onto the market, artificially creating a sales volume peak and bringing on a buyers’ market (with potentially lower median sales prices).
The Autumn Viewpoints also looks at the long-term performance of Adelaide’s property market. For people looking for a ‘forever home’ or for an investment property, taking a longer-term view of growth is likely more relevant than shorter-term trends. Over the past five years, every area of Metropolitan Adelaide has seen positive growth trends. 13% of metropolitan Adelaide suburbs experienced growth of over 60% since the start of 2018, with the median at circa 50%. It would be essential to acknowledge that the covid-boom accelerated this growth. Still, it is also possible that many properties in metro Adelaide did not realise their full value five years ago.