Adelaide records highest value growth of any city over past 20 years

Adelaide has been named the star performer in a new report, claiming a record two decades in the making. Find out what it is and what the future holds for housing in SA.

Adelaide has smashed the traditional star performers of Sydney and Melbourne to record the greatest median price increase of any Australian city over the past 20 years, a new report shows.

According to the inaugural Australian Property Institute (API) Valuation Report, Adelaide house prices rose by 175 per cent between 2005 and 2024, edging out Hobart’s 172 per cent growth Sydney’s 171 per cent, and both Brisbane and Melbourne’s 169 per cent increase.

Canberra wasn’t far behind at 148 per cent, ahead of Perth’s 123 per cent increase, with Darwin trailing at 102 per cent.

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Highlighting South Australia’s growing affordability problem, the report reveals a median-priced home is 7.3 times the average SA wage, significantly less than to buy in Sydney, where it is 13 times the average full-time wage, but up significantly on 2015, when the median house price was 5.4 times the average wage.

In contrast, in 1975 you needed just 3.2 times the average wage to buy a median-priced SA home.

Aerial image of Adelaide CBD skyline. Picture: Supplied by Colliers

The report said supply pressures were responsible for higher prices, and said, referencing a NAB release, this was tipped to continue, at least in the short term.

“In a research report on the city, the bank said Adelaide was expected to receive 22,000 new residents in 2025, equating to approximately 9000 new households,” it said.

“However, the bank says only 9700 new dwellings commenced in 2024.

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“Purchase prices and rents are also expected to remain under pressure with vacancy rates

remaining under 1 per cent.

“However, the city has the capacity to boost supply.

“The South Australian Government, through its Better Housing Future Plan, is paving the way for close to an additional 40,000 lots across the state.”

Mike Lao, Director/Sales, Edge Realty.

Edge Realty director Mike Lao, who sells in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, said the majority of the growth seen over the past 20 years had come in the past six.

“When I first started in 2009, value growth was pretty flat for six, seven or eight year following the GFC and obviously we’ve done a lot of catching up,” he said.

“Our market has been typified by fairly slow and consistent growth, just above CPI.

“We’ve had a big massive run in the past six years or so after Covid.

“We’re doing a lot of good things here, and I think we’ll still see, while maybe not as strong, solid consistent growth.”

Kevin and Tayla Coates and their son, 9-month-old Kieran, inside their Greenwith home. Picture: Dean Martin

Greenwith homeowner, electrician Kevin Coates, 30, said he hoped to see value growth in his area increase.

“We’ve seen price growth just shy of double in the five years since we bought here,” he said.

“I didn’t think it would go that way after Covid, but the fact that it has has been beneficial if you’re looking to leverage that to buy a few more, which is what we’ve done.

“I think it’ll slow down, but I definitely think that growth will keep going.”

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A strong as Adelaide’s housing market performed, it was surpassed by SA’s farming properties, whose values rose by 282 per cent over the past 20 years.

Regional hotpots singled out as strong performers included the Barossa Valley, Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Fleurieu Peninsula, the Limestone Coast and the Murraylands.

Adelaide’s commercial market was also a strong performer – Adelaide industrial warehouses increased 173 per cent over the same period.