In today’s show we look at our property markets state by state in our annual market wrap.

We asked our experts to tell us what’s on the horizon with development and infrastructure in their state, any issues that might impact the market in those areas, if there are any areas showing potential for investment and also any areas to avoid and why.

As we have done in the past, you will also hear them describe what you can buy for $500,000 and where to look.

Our experts include Peter Koulizos, Damian Collins, Michael Yardney, George Raptis, Shannon Davis and to wrap it all up Dr Andrew Wilson takes an overall look at the national property market.

We have it all covered for you today!

 
Transcripts:
Peter Koulizos 

Kevin:  As I said at the start of the show, today we’ll be taking you all around Australia. We’ll look at each of the individual states to tell you what is happening there; we’ll look at development and infrastructure. Of each of our guests, we are going to pose the question, “If you had $500,000 to spend, where would you spend it in that location, whether that’s a state or in the capital city?â€

We’re going to start off by heading straight to South Australia. I’ll be talking to property lecturer and author Peter Koulizos. Peter, tell me about the South Australian market. What are you hearing right now?

Peter:  I just had a look at some recent RP Data stats, Kevin, and I know a month is not a long time in property, but just the last month, Adelaide was the second best performing capital city behind Sydney and it also had the second highest clearance rate behind Sydney. Sydney is out-performing the country at the moment and has been for the last two years.

Some of the positives for South Australia include the fact that the Aussie dollar is dropping. It’s great for three of our biggest exports, which are manufacturing, agriculture and international students. On the horizon, we also have Holden shutting down, which I think we’re going to talk about later on in the interview.

Here in Adelaide, we are quietly confident. We’re not waving the flags because the stats don’t show that we’re going terrifically. The drop in the Aussie dollar is certainly going to help states like ours and Victoria, which rely heavily on the manufacturing industry.

Kevin:  Of course, South Australia has come in for some pretty bad press in the last 12 months to two years over things, like you mentioned the Holden closure. Car manufacturing has been the backbone of that area for quite some time. Is there anything on the horizon that looks like it might replace that?

Peter:  We have a lot of major infrastructure projects happening in Adelaide, in particular. I’ve been born and bred in South Australia, and I have never seen so much infrastructure going on as I have seen in the last few years.

As far as road infrastructure is concerned, we have what they’re calling the Torrens-to-Torrens Upgrade, which is from South Road, which is our major north-south arterial road between the River Torrens and Torrens Road, is getting a huge upgrade.

Further south around Darlington, there is a big road upgrade there, as well. That is coming on the heels of the Melbourne Expressway, which was finished a little while ago, and also the Southern Expressway which finished its duplication just a matter of months ago. A lot of jobs involved in that.

Kevin:  Those infrastructure developments you talk about, is that opening up more land for the area?

Peter:  No, because that is happening in already existing metropolitan areas. One of the great things is the fact that the infrastructure improving within the metropolitan area makes those particular suburbs around it more popular.

Whereas if you have, for example, the Northern and Southern Expressway, which do lead to the edge of the metropolitan area, because there is so much land available there and you can have a huge supply of houses, it doesn’t do a lot for prices.