As more than 1.3 million South Australians head to the polls this weekend, housing will dominate as a key issue for voters following years of surging home prices and rents.
The state’s major political parties have promised to help build more homes faster, help buyers into homeownership sooner, and ease housing costs.
But their plans vary and offer voters different pathways to fixing the state’s worsening housing affordability challenges.
Even with polls pointing to a Malinauskas Labor government win, the next state government will face an uphill battle on housing affordability, which has become especially acute in South Australia.
Home prices have been soaring in the state since the start of the pandemic.
The median home price in Adelaide rose 14.8% to $929,000 during the year to February, while home prices throughout the rest of South Australia jumped 13% to $504,000, according to the latest PropTrack Home Price Index.
Taking a closer look, the median house price in Adelaide was 14.6% higher at $1.01 million, with regional house prices up 12.8% to $512,000.
Units have also seen staggering price growth throughout the period, with median unit prices rising 15.2% to $692,000 in Adelaide, and regional unit prices climbing 15% to $459,000.
One of the drivers of home price growth in the state has been a shortage of homes for sale.
Key Labor Party housing pledges
| Election promises | Cost (Approx.) |
| Fast-track new housing | $1 billion |
| 2000 rent-to-own homes | $413.5 million |
| 200 supported accommodation homes and to renovate 300 vacant Housing Trust homes | $140 million |
| Stamp duty abolition for downsizers | $70 million |
| 1000 new tradies to build homes | $29 million |
| Portable rental bonds scheme | $3.6 million |
| Expansion of HomeStart’s low-deposit home loans | N/A |
| Establish the SA Gas and Water Trust, a new entity to de-corporatise SA Water and expand its remit | N/A |
In Adelaide, new listings were 7.6% lower in February compared to a year ago, while total listings were down 9.9%, according to PropTrack.
New listings and total listings in regional South Australia were 5.4% and 10.1% lower, respectively, in February, compared to the same time last year.
Key Liberal Party housing pledges
| Election promises | Cost (Approx.) |
| Stamp duty concessions for first-home buyers on existing homes valued at up to $1 million | $480 million |
| Cut payroll tax for apprentices | $80 million |
| Incentivise downsizers | $46 million |
| Build better fund | $40 million |
| Get mature apprentices into the workforce | $10 million |
| Other apprenticeship initiatives | $43 million |
| Mortgage waiver fees | $6 million |
But there’s another layer to the state’s housing affordability troubles: households are paying more and more of their income towards servicing a mortgage.
New PropTrack analysis shows South Australia had the second highest house mortgage repayments as a share of income in June 2025, following NSW.
The analysis, which considers median house prices relative to average household incomes in each state and territory, revealed new mortgage repayments on houses account for a whopping 41% of the average South Australian household income.
The ability for a household to service a new mortgage is widely considered unaffordable when more than 30% of household income is needed to service a home loan.
NSW was only slightly higher at about 43% on house mortgage serviceability, while the national average was about 35%.
While home buyers are struggling, renters have also been feeling the pain.
In Adelaide, weekly median rents for units rose 6.8% year-on-year to $550 in the December 2025 quarter, and house rents were up 5% to $630.
Conditions have been even harder for renters outside of the capital, with weekly median unit rents in regional South Australia jumping 10% during the same period to $330, with house rents 7.1% higher to $450.
One bright spot in the state has been rental vacancy rates, with Adelaide’s rental vacancy rate increasing 0.26 percentage points to 1.45% during the year to January, while the regional vacancy rate was 0.27 ppt higher at 1.89%.
With home prices climbing, mortgages getting harder to service and rents pushing higher, the state’s major political parties are hoping that building new homes faster and increasing the overall housing supply will help ease the housing cost pressures on South Australians.
Fortunately, home building approvals have been rising in the state.
Total dwelling approvals in South Australia reached just over 15,000 for the year to January, up 15.3% compared to prior year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The latest ABS figures show South Australia’s population grew by 1.1% to 1.908 million during the year to September 2025, adding about 21,100 new residents in that period alone.
While the population and building approval figures don’t align due to building lag times and other factors, it can help illustrate the state’s supply and demand dilemma and why local politicians are so eager to try and supercharge home building there.
And the problem could be about to get worse after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the second time in two months earlier this week, with more rate hikes widely expected this year.
Home builders fear the latest interest rate hike will make building new homes more expensive and slow down the delivery of much-needed housing supply right across the country.
While pre-election polling shows the Malinauskas Labor government is on track for re-election, it’s clear whoever wins this weekend’s state election will have a real challenge on their hands in making housing affordable for South Australians in the years ahead.
