Beyond Reach: The key worker housing crisis in South Australia

Adelaide has long been considered one of Australia’s most affordable housing markets.

This report largely debunks that myth.

In fact, Adelaide now only trails Sydney as Australia’s most expensive housing market on a relative basis as measured by median house prices to median household incomes. On this measure, Adelaide is more expensive than Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Canberra.

This report demonstrates that for many key worker households across a range of suburbs in our community, housing in Adelaide is ‘Beyond Reach’. The suburbs selected for this report were Munno Para, Salisbury, Christies Beach, Seaton, Tea Tree Gully, Hallett Cove, Mount Barker, Prospect, Port Adelaide, Magill, Unley and the CBD.

The housing crisis is a crisis of supply. This report calls on the state government to focus intently on reducing the statutory costs of housing supply by slashing taxes and charges associated with new development. In consulting with members, these charges can add up to 30% of the cost of new houses.

As we strive to increase much-needed housing supply, it is crucial to recognise that the state government wields significant influence over the costs of new housing developments compared to existing properties, and this is the key to improving housing affordability in Greater metropolitan Adelaide.

For this report, “affordable” housing is defined as housing costs comprising 30 per cent or less of household income. Such affordability has vanished across the state.

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