Harcourts Smith’s Kate Smith on Adelaide’s hot property market

Auctions will remain a favoured method of selling houses well past the boom, according to leading SA agent Kate Smith, whose sales topped $158m last year.

The unprecedented surge in Adelaide house prices since the onset of Covid-19 will change the way properties are sold well past the boom, according to one of the state’s leading real estate agents.

Auction campaigns have become more prevalent over the past two years, as vendors have looked to cash in on the large number of local and interstate buyers circling Adelaide’s prized real estate.

Harcourts Smith business owner Kate Smith believes the preference for auctions over private sales will continue as the market stabilises, with both vendors and buyers more informed about the benefits of the auction process.

“Previously a lot of people chose not to auction or wouldn’t buy at auction, but I feel like people realise now that it’s a very transparent way to purchase,” she said.

“Yes, there’s the emotional aspect of that, but I also find that when you do an off-market or private treaty sale there’s a lot we can’t tell buyers.

Harcourts Smith business owner Kate Smith at a house she is selling in Largs Bay. Picture: Morgan Sette

“You get more examples of buyers missing out for an amount which they probably would have paid if they knew it was only that amount.”

Ms Smith, who specialises in Adelaide’s western and beachside suburbs, recently ranked second on The Advertiser’s list of SA’s top female real estate agents, having sold more than $158m worth of property in 2021.

Like many of her peers in the industry, Ms Smith’s career in real estate began as a fallback option, when the former professional basketballer was cut from the women’s national basketball team.

Two decades later, after becoming one of the state’s top performing agents, she says hard work and a commitment to her clients and the broader industry have been the keys to her success.

“I headed into an administration role within a real estate office so I could still do the training for the Adelaide Lightning at the same time, and then just developed a really strong passion for the industry,” she said.

“For me I never focus too much on what everyone else is doing. You can only control what you do, and what I love about real estate is if you do work hard and you do the right thing by people you will get rewarded for that.

“It’s certainly not an overnight success. For me it’s taken over 20 years to get to the level I’m at, and that’s been 20 years of seven days a week commitment to the industry.”

While rising interest rates have caused a major correction to housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne, Ms Smith is not expecting the same to occur in Adelaide, where she believes house prices have been undervalued for many years.

“I think a lot of people started to have a greater appreciation of what we have on offer here in Adelaide,” she said.

“A lot of people started to look outside of the typical areas that they would, and that has fuelled a really big demand, especially here in the western side of Adelaide.

“Demand for coastal property or property adjacent to the coast - I’ve never seen anything quite like it - the appetite is getting stronger and stronger.”