Where a lot of Adelaide’s cheaper housing is, and where the difference between one suburb and the next can be bigger than you would expect. Here is how it works and where we have bought.
A lot of Adelaide’s cheaper housing is in the north, and that is why so many buyers end up looking here. People priced out of the inner and eastern suburbs come north instead, and when more buyers chase a limited number of homes, prices move. It is still one of the more affordable parts of Adelaide to buy in, and it covers three councils and around forty suburbs.
Most of the north sits below the Adelaide median, so buying here can happen years earlier than it would closer to the city. That is what brings first home buyers. Investors are looking at the same number for a different reason.
If you pay less for the property and the rent holds up, the rental yield is better than you will get across most of Adelaide. That gap widens when there is not much on the market and vacancy rates are low, which has been the case across a lot of the north.
More people have moved north as well. Buyers priced out of the dearer suburbs come looking here, there is only so much stock, and prices move faster as a result. That is why growth in the north has run ahead of parts of Adelaide that cost a great deal more to get into.
Getting into the city from the north is easier than it used to be. The Gawler rail line was electrified end to end at a cost of $842 million, running 42 kilometres from Adelaide to Gawler across 27 stations, and it is now the busiest service on the Adelaide Metro network, carrying more than ten thousand passengers on an average weekday. By road, the Northern Expressway and the Northern Connector give a direct run into the city without using Main North Road.
There is more housing planned for the north than for anywhere else in Adelaide. Riverlea Park, in the City of Playford, is a $3 billion Walker Corporation project approved for around 12,000 homes and a population above 30,000, staged across decades, with its own schools and retail precincts. The state government’s land releases add roughly 10,000 homes at Concordia near Gawler and another 10,000 at Dry Creek. The Department for Infrastructure and Transport has been running a dedicated northern Adelaide transport study covering Modbury, Mawson Lakes, Salisbury, Golden Grove, Virginia, Angle Vale, Two Wells, Buckland Park and Roseworthy, which tells you how much growth is expected to land here.
All of that is good for the area over time. It also means a lot of new housing arriving, and that matters if you are buying in one of the release areas.
The north works well for three kinds of buyer. Someone buying their first home who wants to own something now, because the entry price makes that possible years earlier than it would be closer in. An investor whose first priority is rental yield, for the reasons above. And an upsizer who wants more land and more house for the budget they have, which is the same affordability working in a third direction.
It is the wrong place for some people. If you want an established character home on a tree lined street, or you are buying around a particular inner eastern school catchment, or being close to the city matters more to you than the size of the block, your budget is better spent somewhere else. That is about what you are looking for, and says nothing about the area.
The mistake we see most often is people assuming that because it is cheaper it will be easier. Low prices are exactly what brings the crowd, and some of the most competitive purchases we have negotiated have been at the cheaper end of the north.
Three councils, forty suburbs. The north covers Playford, Salisbury and Gawler, and they do not all move together. Growth, rental demand and how hard you have to compete for a property vary between them, so a median for the whole region tells you almost nothing about what you would end up buying.
What we assess. The infrastructure a council has planned and budgeted for the area, the median rental yield across the suburb, the rental yield on the specific property in front of you, vacancy rates, what homes have been selling for and how long they are taking to sell. Knowing which of these numbers matter for your brief and how the data is interpreted is key.
Who a particular street suits. There are streets and estates in the north that work for an investor chasing rental yield, and others that work for a first home buyer planning to stay a decade. They are rarely the same streets, and a listing will not tell you which one you are looking at.
Agents in the north offer their quiet listings to buyers they know will act on them. That comes down to relationships built up over years, and it is how a property reaches us before it reaches a portal. We work the same off market network here as we do across the rest of Adelaide.
Negotiating on something that was never advertised is different too. There is no campaign, so you cannot see what anyone else thinks it is worth, and the appraisal has to do all the work. That is why we appraise every property independently before an offer goes in.
Twenty three purchases across the north. Twelve came to us off market, thirteen were for investors and ten for owner occupiers. Sale prices are public record in South Australia, and no addresses or client details are shown.
| Suburb | Property | Bought for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrews Farm | 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $580,000 |
| Blakeview Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $588,000 |
| Blakeview | 2 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Owner occupier | $398,000 |
| Craigmore | 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 car | Investor | $565,000 |
| Davoren Park Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $422,300 |
| Evanston | 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Investor | $650,000 |
| Evanston Gardens | 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $705,000 |
| Evanston Gardens | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $481,500 |
| Evanston Gardens Off market | 4 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $360,000 |
| Eyre | 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $810,500 |
| Gawler East Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $578,000 |
| Hillbank Off market | 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $445,000 |
| Hillier Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Owner occupier | $450,000 |
| Mawson Lakes | 2 bed, 1 bath, 1 car | Investor | $479,000 |
| Mawson Lakes Off market | 2 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $455,000 |
| Mawson Lakes | 2 bed, 1 bath, 1 car | Investor | $395,000 |
| Munno Para | 4 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Owner occupier | $725,500 |
| Munno Para Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $685,000 |
| Munno Para Off market | 2 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Investor | $495,500 |
| Munno Para West Off market | 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car | Investor | $780,000 |
| Munno Para West Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Owner occupier | $558,500 |
| Munno Para West Off market | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1 car | Owner occupier | $416,400 |
| Salisbury Downs | 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 car | Investor | $357,500 |
Some purchases are written up in full, with the brief behind them and how the negotiation went. The Munno Para West one above is one of six on our results page.
Gawler, Gawler East, Gawler South, Willaston, Evanston, Evanston Gardens, Evanston Park, Hewett, Roseworthy, Concordia, Hillier, Angle Vale, Virginia, Two Wells, Riverlea Park, Munno Para, Munno Para West, Andrews Farm, Blakeview, Craigmore, Smithfield, Davoren Park, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Vale, Elizabeth Park, Elizabeth Downs, Elizabeth East, Elizabeth North, Elizabeth South, Eyre, Hillbank, One Tree Hill, Salisbury, Salisbury Downs, Salisbury East, Salisbury Heights, Salisbury Park, Paralowie, Parafield Gardens, Burton, Direk, Mawson Lakes, Pooraka, Para Hills, Ingle Farm.
We work across Adelaide and regional South Australia, so this is where we have bought, not a limit on where we will look.
Mainly the City of Playford, the City of Salisbury and the Town of Gawler, with parts of Port Adelaide Enfield at the southern edge. Each sets its own rates, development rules and infrastructure priorities, which is one reason two suburbs a few minutes apart can behave differently.
It can be. You pay less for the property, the rent tends to hold up, and the rental yield comes out better than most of Adelaide, especially where vacancy is tight. Whether a particular suburb suits what you are after is a different question, and the answer changes street by street.
Compared with the rest of Adelaide, yes. Prices have risen because buyers priced out of dearer suburbs came looking here and there was only so much to buy. Even after that, the north is still one of the more affordable parts of the city.
The Gawler rail line runs 42 kilometres from Adelaide to Gawler and is the busiest service on the Adelaide Metro network, carrying more than ten thousand passengers on an average weekday. By road the Northern Expressway and Northern Connector give a direct run to the city without using Main North Road.
It depends on what you want from it. A new build is low maintenance and comes with depreciation benefits, and it also comes with more similar homes going up nearby over the following years. An established home is usually on a bigger block with fewer identical properties around it to set the price.