More than 30,000 vacant sites across South Australia mapped in an interactive database for the first time

From a rare spot by the coast to a handy location in your preferred school zone we’ve crunched SA’s vacant land database to help you quickly zero in on the perfect block for you.

Searching for the perfect block of land to build a dream home can be a nightmare for many aspiring homeowners.

But The Advertiser is making it a whole lot easier by bringing our readers a searchable map of more than 30,000 vacant blocks across South Australia.

The map would usually cost the public thousands to access but we have been able to provide the service at the cost of a subscription thanks to a partnership with Land Services SA, custodian of SA’s property records and transactions.

Whether it’s a rare coastal block just metres from the beach, acreage for your dream Hills abode, the site for a new warehouse, or a parcel to build your castle in Adelaide’s tightly-held eastern suburbs, you can find it here for the first time.

SELECT THE COUNCIL AREA BELOW TO FIND LAND IN YOUR AREA OR DREAM SUBURB

The Advertiser has narrowed down the vacant land by residential, industrial, commercial and ‘other’ zoning and by land use categories: vacant land urban, vacant land minor improvements, vacant land rural residential (no primary production) and vacant land minor improvements (rural living)

Each block is mapped using the property’s unique valuation number, showing its zoning and size.

The information does not show if a block is for sale.

The data was extracted from Land Service vault on May 6 this year and does include parcels which are under development or have since been developed.

There is no legal obligation for property owners to advise Land Services SA when building has started or finished.

It’s no surprise that the vast majority of vacant land mapped is residential, followed by commercial and industrial real estate.

There are some curiosities with laneways, particularly in the Adelaide City Council, included among vacant residential land.

There’s no problem finding an empty site in the Yorke Peninsula and Copper Coast councils which ranked first and second for most residential sites – 1349 and 1315 respectively, according to the Land Services SA data.

Yorke Peninsula Council also had the most vacant land across all property types at 1596.

Port Adelaide Enfield, Salisbury and Onkaparinga have the most vacant industrial land.

While you’ll have a great chance of building for your new shop or perhaps micro-brewery in the Adelaide Hills, which topped the list of available vacant commercial sites.

Perhaps unsurprisingly councils closer to the city have fewer residential blocks for sale.

Prospect Council, which has undergone significant infill development, had only 69 sites classified as vacant, according to the data.

Adelaide and Walkerville each had 49 vacant residential blocks, while Unley had 106.

Shaun and Rebecca Smith, who live in Seaton but grew up on the Eyre Peninsula, bought a block of land in Strathalbyn’s Piper Crest development be closer to Rebecca’s parents.

“It’s still close to the city and there’s plenty of amenities in Mt Barker and Strathalbyn,” Mr Smith said.

Spike in sales of blocks as boom intensifies

Vacant land sales in South Australia surged by nearly 50 per cent year last year fuelled by a huge spike in transactions in the state’s regions.

Valuer-General SA sales figures released to The Advertiser reveal 8407 vacant blocks were sold during Covid-19 2020, compared to 5804 in 2019 – a 45 per cent increase.

The standout performer was regional SA where sales increased 60 per cent year-on-year, from 2291 to 3678.

Sales across metropolitan Adelaide had jumped from 3513 blocks in 2019 to 4729 last year.

Monthly sales figures also show that sales ramped up in the second-half of 2020 coinciding with the government’s HomeBuilder housing stimulus grant, which offered up to $25,000 for new homes.

Specific vacant land sales data by metropolitan councils revealed Playford Council topped the list with 1053 blocks – or nearly 88 a month

– sold in 2020, followed by 794 in Onkaparinga Council, 769 in the Port Adelaide Enfield district and 525 in Charles Sturt Council.

Walkerville Council area recorded only 13 sales of vacant land.

Shaun and Rebecca Smith and their children Jobe, 8, Madeline, 6, and Zara, 3, at their new block of land at Strathalbyn’s Piper’s Crest development.

The council areas of Mount Barker (681), Gawler (294) and Alexandrina (274) recorded the highest volume of regional land sales last year.

In her annual report Valuer-General Katherine Bartolo said SA represented a “lowr isk opportunity” for property investors amid Covid-19, leading to an “uplift in interstate and international interest in our property assets”. She said 2020 was a year of “great disruption to the status quo”.

“This was readily evident in the changes observed in regional transaction volumes, which were significantly higher, particularly for residential land, than in recent history” she said.

“This was owing to a number of factors which largely relate back to Covid-19 and includes an uplift in buyer demand and decentralised living, supported by greater flexibility in remote working.

“All levels of government introduced various stimulus measures which, when coupled with a low interest rate climate, saw an unprecedented consumption of residential vacant land in our state.”

The surge in housing demand – there were 13,900 applications in SA for HomeBuilder grants between July and April – resulted in developers scrambling to release more land to satisfy unprecedented activity. The Urban Development Institute of Australia’s State of the Land report released in March revealed annual house-and-land sales increased by 83 per cent, from 2054 in 2019 to a record 3766 last year.

The 2020 result was 48 per cent higher than the previous highest volume set in 2013 and had been attributed to historically low interest rates and government housing stimulus packages including HomeBuilder.

Elders Real Estate Normanville’s Zackary Gawley, who sells property on the Fleurieu Peninsula, said any vacant land had been more attractive to buyers.

“I’ve sold most blocks above asking price,” he said. “When usually it would take me 12-plus months to sell a block of land they were selling within a week.”

Shaun and Rebecca Smith, who live in Seaton but grew up on the Eyre Peninsula, bought a block of land in Strathalbyn’s Piper Crest development. “It’s still close to the city and there’s plenty of amenities in Mt Barker and Strathalbyn,” Mr Smith said.

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