SOUTH AUSTRALIA
ADELAIDE IS NOW OUR MOST LIVABLE CITY
Adelaide is now officially Australia ’ s most liveable city with the Economist Intelligence Unit deciding that it ’ s not only Australia ’ s finest city but the third best city in the world after Auckland and Osaka . While such accolades are always up for dispute , there is no doubt there is a lot to like about Adelaide and many of the best parts about it got even better during the pandemic .
Adelaide is an affordable city and has the lowest median of any capital city . The median is in fact almost half that of Sydney . Despite this affordability , it ’ s a city with high levels of amenity and liveability ( as The Economist found ). A big driver of affordability has been fewer higher paid employment opportunities compared to bigger cities . During the pandemic , this has mattered less , primarily because people have started working differently . This isn ’ t all that has helped Adelaide . High growth in government employment has also been a driver .
Over the past 12 months , all this has combined to make Adelaide ’ s house price growth one of the strongest in Australia with only smaller cities like Darwin , Hobart and Canberra seeing greater increases . The mix of suburbs seeing strong growth is also varied . Many of Adelaide ’ s most expensive suburbs such as St Peters , Walkerville and Toorak Gardens did very well . But at the same time , Salisbury Park , one of the city ’ s cheapest suburbs increased by just under 25 per cent .
Outside of Adelaide , all regional areas of South Australia are seeing price growth except for the Local Government Area of Grant which has seen a very slight decline . Like the rest of Australia , all this growth has been driven by four main factors - changes to the way people work , higher demand for holiday homes , strong mining conditions and a rebounding agricultural sector .
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