Adelaide property confidence follows growth of hot spots

You hardly need to be told about the health of the property market in Adelaide. The results speak for themselves. But if the constant flurry of events, the endless variety of public activities and suburb after suburb of pretty, pretty parks and houses isn't enough to convince you that real estate in Adelaide is where it's at – which, let's face it, is unlikely – then maybe some hard data will.

It turns out that confidence among the South Australian property industry has bounced back, jumping a whole 4 points in the Property Council/ANZ Property Industry Confidence Survey for the September quarter. This puts the current index at 114 points, well above the neutral value of 100 and the second highest number ever recorded since the survey's use in SA, which started in 2011. 

Property Council Acting Executive Director Lino Iacomella said that while the current reading is less than the state's peak of 130 recorded at the beginning of the year, it indicated that levels were back in the territory of growth. 

And why shouldn't the SA property industry be confident? It's got plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Only three days before the release of the Property Council's report, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) revealed the number of property hot spots in the state grew from three to five in 2012 and 2013 – and they were all located in Adelaide. 

A hot spot was defined by the HIA as a locality where the population growth rate outpaced the national rate of 1.8 per cent, and the value of residential building work exceeded $100 million. One such area was central Adelaide, which saw an annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent. 

All of these indicators point to property in Adelaide being in hot demand for the future. It may be an idea to get in early while you can.