Adelaide Records Australia’s Tightest Rental Vacancies

Adelaide is still one of Australia’s most affordable cities, but finding a rental property is becoming increasingly difficult in South Australia as interstate migration and a hot property market squeeze the rental stocks.

The city’s vacancy rate is at just 0.3 per cent, the lowest on record, according to SQM data.

South Australian suburbs fill the top three spots for lowest vacancy rate in Australia, all with 0 per cent. 

There is nothing on the market in Woodcroft, Mount Barker and Ascot Park with house prices increasing almost 28 per cent during the past 12 months for an average price of $686,713. 

According to Corelogic data, Brisbane and Adelaide remain Australia’s best performers in residential price growth while the top end of the market in Sydney and Melbourne has started to turn.

Corelogic head of research Eliza Owen said of the 651 houses analysed across the Brisbane and Adelaide markets there was not a single decrease in values across quarterly and annual figures. 

Owen said that in Adelaide, the strongest quarterly value gains were in Largs North, Ottoway and North Haven, close to trendy breweries and beaches.
 
Owen said the ongoing demand across South Australia was being driven by positive interstate migration trends, affordable dwelling values and low levels of advertised stock. 
 
Corelogic’s median dwelling value for Adelaide was $602,000 at the end of March, making it the country’s third most affordable capital city behind Perth and Darwin.

Three South Australian regions featured in the top 20 most undersupplied housing markets in Australia including Largs Bay, Salisbury Heights and Flagstaff Hill. 

According to SQM data, rents peaked last month with a three-bedroom house attracting rents of $825 per week in Adelaide City, the highest on record. 

In September last year, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed South Australia’s population was 1.77 million people, a 0.1 per cent increase on the previous year. 

About 83 per cent of the population lives in Greater Adelaide in highly urbanised areas. 

PlanSA forecasts the population will hit 2 million in 2037. According to South Australian government data, general and strategic infill development makes up three-quarters of all new houses built.

The top five price suburbs for growth in Adelaide are Rosslyn Park, Salisbury North, Medindie and Glen Osmond, all of which recorded three-month annualised price growths greater than 40 per cent.

ANZ recently lifted its house price forecast for Adelaide’s growth by nearly four-fold to 11 per cent, amid the stronger-than-expected market momentum recorded at the start of the year.