The Adelaide real estate market continues to gather momentum as we push deep into Spring, with quality homes selling quickly and achieving premium prices.

Despite the challenges created by COVID-19, South Australian property values have hit record levels and buyer demand is the strongest it has been for some time.

There’s no doubt the sparsity of new listings is a contributing factor in this upward trend, with more buyers chasing fewer homes, creating significant competition for the right properties.

At Toop&Toop, every metric we’ve gathered in-house has confirmed the strength of the market.

Our sales team sold almost 50 homes in October, at an average sale price of more than $1.1 million.

Attendee levels at property inspections were particularly strong, with several listings attracting close to 100 groups across a weekend of viewings.

Our digital data was similarly compelling.

Traffic to the Toop&Toop website in October grew by almost 30 per cent compared with the previous month, generating more than 135,000 page views, while our listings attracted more than 4.57 million page view on realestate.com.au.

The latest data produced by property market analyst Core Logic supports our findings.

Adelaide – along with Darwin - achieved the highest capital growth rate across the nation in October, at 1.2 per cent. That’s on the back of a 2 per cent increase for the quarter and a 4.4 per cent rise year-on-year, with property values here again reaching record levels.

Put simply, Adelaide property has never been more valuable.

The median days on market in South Australia has dropped from 55 days in October 2019 to 47 days in October 2020, another indicator of the buoyancy of the market.

Things are also looking more positive at a national level following a turbulent period earlier in the year.

In the three months to October, national dwelling values fell just 0.1 per cent.

The Core Logic daily home value index shows the rate of decline has been levelling since early July, with a recovery trend in dwelling values commencing from late October.

While South Australian home values soar, listing and sales volumes remain at lower-than-expected levels.

Adelaide (-1.2%), Melbourne (-6.2%) and Hobart (-14.3%) are the only capital cities to register a drop in annual sales volumes. Nationally, there’s been a 5.4 per cent rise, with Sydney (12.5%) and Canberra (13.3%) the strongest performers.

Listing levels in Adelaide are particularly sparse. New listings are down 36.1 per cent compared with the same time last year, while total listing levels sit 32.3 per cent lower year-on-year.

The downturn is slightly less dramatic at a national level – but well down on usual Spring volumes.

Nationally, total listings are still around 20 per cent below the equivalent period in 2019, with new listings down almost 18 per cent.

Given the sparsity of listings – and the eagerness of buyers – we’re expecting activity to remain strong deep into December.

We are therefore advising homeowners thinking about listing their properties early in the new year to consider bringing forward their plans, allowing them to access the particularly buoyant market conditions we’re currently experiencing.