Labor pushes ahead with Adelaide and Adelaide Botanic high school zone changes, as agents predict house price growth

Plans to rezone Adelaide’s two city high schools are going ahead – causing a likely surge in demand for inner-west homes.

Changes to the shared city high schools zone are set to drive up interest and house prices in a string of suburbs across Adelaide’s inner-west and southwest.

New Education Minister Blair Boyer says the state government will make good on its promise to expand the enrolment zones of Adelaide High and Adelaide Botanic High once a major upgrade to Adelaide Botanic is complete in 2024.

That would mean all or parts of Hilton, Torrensville, Mile End, Kurralta Park, Glandore, Richmond, Marleston, Black Forest and Clarence Park would be added into the shared zone.

Those areas were controversially cut from the enrolment area in 2019 and added into the zones for Underdale High, Plympton International College and Springbank Secondary.

Justin Peters, principal at LJ Hooker’s Mile End and Woodville branch, said the zoning change could boost prices in those suburbs by about 10 per cent amid strong interest in the two city public high schools.

“With the eastern side of Mile End, where that is the zone currently, we find it’s a drawcard for buyers to look at those pockets,” he said.

Mr Peters said the previous zoning change disappointed “quite a lot of people” who had hoped to send their children to Adelaide and Adelaide Botanic high schools but found they would miss out.

“Because these areas are up-and-coming inner-city suburbs, we have a mix of established families and new couples moving in,” he said.

“If they’re wanting to buy a million-dollar property, they’re thinking about the possibility of good public schooling and that’s pushed the prices up a fair bit in places like Thebarton.”

An artist's impression of the $98 million redevelopment of Adelaide Botanic High School. Picture: Supplied by Education Department

Mr Peters said buyers wanted to send their children to Adelaide or Adelaide Botanic because of their strong reputations, including quality STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) programs.

The $98m expansion of Adelaide Botanic will add another 700 student places, with a new multistorey building on the southern side of the existing school on Frome Rd.

Another $21m is being spent at Roma Mitchell College, Gepps Cross, to add 300 places, to be complete in 2025.

Mr Boyer did not expect adding the previously axed suburbs back to the shared city enrolment zone would create capacity problems.

“Long-term, perhaps depending on the growth in the shared zone, we might have to revisit the issue,” he said.

Ouwens Casserly sales consultant Alistair Loudon expected the rezoning plan to have an immediate effect, as couples with younger children bought into the area.

“It will definitely increase property values as a result because it will increase competition around these properties,” he said.

The Unley-based agent said Adelaide Botanic and Glenunga High were the two most sought-after school zones in his patch.

Harris Real Estate property consultant Sam Bennett estimated school zoning was a major factor for roughly 10-20 per cent of home buyers.

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