A combination of low Covid rates and lifestyle changes are putting more attention on the South Australian capital
5 min
Sandstone villas and opulent mansions in South Australia’s premier inner-city suburbs have become hot property for Adelaide house hunters looking for lifestyle as well as economic security.
While there’s been plenty of activity and attention placed on rural living and lifestyle areas, Adelaide’s inner-city listings too, particularly in blue chip suburbs such as Toorak Gardens and North Adelaide, have also been snapped up for record prices in the past few months.
Several driving factors have helped pique interest and confidence, not least the city’s handling of the pandemic—with less than 600 cases in total and four deaths.
As of December, its unemployment rate of 6.4% was no longer the highest in the country and its relatively affordable median house price of $509,978 and Australia’s historically low interest rates has contributed to its appeal.
Housing is half the price of Sydney, where median house prices have passed $1 million, and more than 60% cheaper than Melbourne’s median house price of $821,904.
Fox Real Estate principal Andrew Fox said there was uncertainty in the market around March and April but confidence returned quickly and activity and prices “went from strength to strength.”
“We were very fortunate in 2020,” he said. “Many generational top-end properties changed hands for excellent prices while low interest rates and low stock levels fueled the market.”
Sotheby’s South Australia director Grant Giordano confirmed that “a lot has been happening in terms of luxury sales” around Adelaide and said it still offers great relative value compared to other cities.
“These prestige properties are incredibly attractive, I always talk about the relative value of Adelaide, when you’re buying one of these properties, you’re buying tomorrow’s value today,” he said.
“It’s a city that goes through a cyclical cycle, once one big sale occurs, they all go and reset the market’s expectations.”
He said South Australians have adjusted their lifestyle habits as a result of the pandemic.
“People have more disposable income and are limiting discretionary buys and instead investing in their day-to-day lifestyle because they’re stuck at home,” he said.
“Many buyers are thinking ‘If I’m stuck at home might as well enjoy the space which I’m currently in’,” he said.
Williams Luxury managing director Stephanie Williams said 2020 brought about a distinct shift among Adelaide’s more affluent buyers, who sought larger properties that are better suited to the current “Covid lifestyle,” that include home offices, gyms, theatre rooms and outdoor areas.
“As we are all spending more time at home our needs have broadened somewhat to require these extra living environments and our high profile clients and professionals are now working from home more than ever before,” Ms Williams said.
“We also have a strong level of international relocations and ex-pats returning to Adelaide—as it offers excellent lifestyle options with very low levels of congestion,” she said. “Extremely low-interest rates, improved lending conditions from the banks, government stimulus and an absolute lack of supply in both sales and rental properties are also key fundamentals in driving the current market.”
“It’s very close to the perfect storm for vendors right now, as everyone wants to buy and only a very low number of people actually want to sell.”
Prestige Properties
Reputable and refined, North Adelaide is known for its stunning mansions and tall terraces on leafy lined streets, where a statue of naval officer and the state’s first surveyor-general Colonel William Light stands atop Montefiore Hill, overlooking the city he planned.
North Adelaide’s charismatic old homes and well-to-do residents have long defined the suburb’s distinct social, cultural and geographic differences.
All but one of Adelaide’s 10 most expensive homes were built in the 1800s and they remain highly sought after as proven in late 2020 when the historic North Adelaide mansion at Molesworth Street went under contract within three days of hitting the market.
Sold through Sotheby’s South Australia, the $4.5 million sale price made it one of North Adelaide’s most expensive transactions on record.
Neighbourhood amenities such as grand old pubs, modern hip cafes, gourmet supermarkets and a diverse range of restaurants contribute greatly to the village atmosphere, while the impressive and revamped Adelaide Oval sporting ground lies between the suburb and the central business district.
A walk along the River Torrens leads to the Adelaide Zoo, the city’s aquatic centre, and the education facilities, such as North Adelaide Primary, are not only among the state’s oldest but with Adelaide High School, among the top performers too.
The rich selection of amenities contributes significantly to the appeal, Mr Giordano said, with buyers eager to get into the area.
“Very rarely on the city fringe do you have such green and private living so conveniently laid out. When you’re talking about the Adelaide Hills or beach lifestyle, they’re lifestyle choices at the expense of convenience,” he said. “In North Adelaide, you make no compromise. It’s the closest suburb to the city and it has some of the grandest and most historically resonant properties in Adelaide.”
The exclusive location and quality of housing are what attracts the suburb’s two main demographics, Ms Williams said, with families attracted to the lifestyle and close proximity to elite schools while professional couples appreciate the cosmopolitan lifestyle, golf courses, parklands and close proximity to the Adelaide Oval.
Outlook 2021
Buyer interest in Adelaide is widespread. The number of eyeballs per online listing city-wide increased dramatically between 2019 and 2020, and according to CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless, the city received minimal disruption during the pandemic.
“Adelaide housing values reached a new record high in November after recording five consecutive months of growth,” Mr Lawless said in his review of the 2020 market.
“Adelaide’s housing market has seen minimal disruption through the Covid period so far, only recording one month where values dipped lower—a drop of only 0.2% in June.”
Figures released by realestate.com.au also show suburbs such as North Adelaide are among the most sought-after by online house hunters, recording a 92% increase in views per listing in 2020 compared to 2019.
One of 2020’s hottest listings was an 1878-built sandstone villa on Mills Terrace, North Adelaide, which attracted almost 18,000 views in the leadup to its Dec. 20 auction through Williams Luxury.
Six registered bidders took part in the auction of 52 Mills Terrace, North Adelaide, which sold for $3.3million on December 20.
Williams Luxury
The grand and imposing four-bedroom home occupying a 1200 square metre landscaped block on one of North Adelaide’s most prestigious streets sold at auction for $3.3million and attracted six registered local and interstate-based bidders.
“North Adelaide generally has a very low level of luxury homes available to the market and the most prestigious properties can be tightly held by the same family for generations,” Ms Williams said.
“The market conditions at the end of 2020 were very unusual for the area with several luxury homes coming onto the market around the same time,” she said. “All of these properties have now sold and we are back to experiencing traditional very low levels of new properties coming onto the market.“
CoreLogic figures for North Adelaide show the suburb’s median house price first broke the $1 million barrier in October 2020, while SQM Research listing data highlights the shortage of property available for sale, with 28 houses available in January, the lowest since June 2020.
Mr Fox remains confident about Adelaide’s outlook, particularly given its reputation as a “safe haven” when it comes to health and the economy, two contributing factors that had lured many expats back from overseas as well as new residents from interstate.
“Our inner-city, hills, regional and beachside locations have seen significant growth and are always sought-after, but we have seen demand and growth pretty much across the board,” he said.
“The prestige market is extremely strong and it’s probably the most opportune time to sell in years. Stock levels are relatively low and it’s not unusual to receive a dozen or so offers on a prestige property, and we can’t see it slowing down this year,” he added.
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Georgetown agent Jamie Peva blends history and real estate on Instagram, turning local stories into a powerful sales strategy.
5 min
On a recent morning in Georgetown—Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood—real-estate agent Jamie Peva strode down leafy N Street, brimming with historical tidbits.
Jackie Kennedy once lived on the street, he said. So did Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post, along with a former Miss America and a powerful U.S. Senator. Bradlee’s widow, author Sally Quinn, and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, own stately homes there.
“I’ve seen a picture of Lyndon Johnson coming out of this house,” said Peva, passing a Federal-style brick mansion. “Also, the Beatles went to a lawn party here.”
Peva, a 60-year-old agent with Washington Fine Properties, has sold Georgetown real estate for over three decades, often traversing the neighborhood by bicycle. Of the roughly 2,500 houses in the historic neighborhood, he has been involved in the sale of 460, he estimated. A self-styled historian of the neighborhood, he knows stories behind its houses and their owners going back generations.
With a knack for lively storytelling, he shares his knowledge with some 37,500 Instagram followers, who have made Peva—sporting the bow ties he has worn since boarding school—an unlikely social-media influencer. Many of his followers are locals, and most have no plans to buy or sell real estate—until they do. It is then, according to Peva, that his spirited reels bring him to mind.
“It’s the digital version of a refrigerator magnet,” he said.
After Peva’s first video in November 2023, his eponymous Instagram account sparked a 10% increase in sales volume in the first year, and another 20% the next, he estimated. “It’s been very good for business, there is no question about it,” he said.
But Peva’s posts have also made him a local celebrity. As he walked down N street, the driver of a Mercedes station wagon slowed down to honk and wave. A lady walking a large dark gray dog stopped to ask what he was filming that day (a reel about a Colonial-era bottling plant.) Peva knew the dog from walking his two springers, Jumpy and Peggy-O, in the neighborhood.
“I need to make a video about the pooches of Georgetown,” he mused.
A growing number of real-estate agents now use social media to sell, and some have millions of followers with reels featuring ultraluxury pads, selling tips or reality TV-style reports on their daily lives. While Peva posts about his listings—and sometimes those of other agents—he mostly focuses on Georgetown history, local businesses and community events, saying his goal is to benefit both his business and the neighborhood.
“If we don’t find something genuinely interesting and worth sharing, we won’t do it,” said Peva’s daughter, Violet Peva, a New York social-media strategist who films, edits and posts his reels. “We cover many topics, not just real-estate information.”
Peva is originally from Connecticut, but has lived in Georgetown for over 30 years, currently in a cottage-style house with a white picket fence. Over the years, Georgetown has changed. The Georgetown Set, a powerful group of Cold War-era residents whose Sunday-night potluck dinners are said to have swayed U.S. policy, has long faded away. The community is still home to high-profile Washingtonians, including a Republican senator and several cabinet members. But it increasingly also attracts technology and finance executives, according to Peva. He now routinely signs nondisclosure agreements, ensuring privacy for wealthy clients. The shift has made him rethink his marketing approach.
“For years, a big part of our Georgetown business was made up of people who maintained a low profile,” he said. Real-estate agents were similarly low-key. Today, curb appeal is more important, he said, and agents are promoting themselves more. “As this change was underfoot, I was thinking that I needed to evolve myself too,” he said.
Though his own social-media use is mostly limited to following sailing accounts, he asked his daughter to help him post his listings online. Violet, now 26, started coming to D.C. once a month to film his reels. After an early video, on a condominium building called the Elliott, her sister Fern called her to report: “Daddy’s blowing up on Instagram,” Violet recalled. The reel got over 50,000 views. The next two each drew over 300,000. Peva’s most popular post ever, with over 838,000 views, was about the Grateful Dead playing in Georgetown. Sometimes, Peva interviews Georgetowners such as Quinn, the author, or Jamie Stachowski, the owner of a local butcher shop.
Peva, who majored in history in college, now spends up to two hours a day on research, usually in the morning while on his stationery bike. Online, he pores over old newspapers or the Library of Congress website, and he has a collection of articles and books—in and out of print—about Georgetown.
Companies often approach Peva for promotional posts, he said, but he turns them down, feeling that followers would lose interest in constant commercials. One exception is a recent paid post on Mount Vernon, the former home of George Washington. Peva wanted to share its history, he said, and didn’t want to lose the opportunity to another Instagrammer.
Anthony Arend, a professor at Georgetown University, has lived in his current home for 19 years without any plans to sell or buy real estate. But he follows Peva and often likes his posts.
“He is very charismatic, he is energetic, and he obviously knows a lot about the community,” said Arend, who has referred house-hunting friends to Peva.
One of Peva’s biggest deals—the $10.5 million sale of a 19th-century Italianate mansion—came after he made two 2024 reels featuring the property. In March, he sold the longtime O Street home of Tim and Jane Matz for $5.8 million after featuring it on his Instagram. Peva had showed them the home 25 years earlier, with Violet in a baby carrier on his back.
Last year, Kate Watts, 49, a digital consultant, called Peva to sell her late father’s three-bedroom house on Q Street; her husband had seen Peva on Instagram. In an October reel, Peva praised the architecture of the house, designed by modernist Hugh Newell Jacobsen. Halfway through, he mentioned an open house the next day, ending with an upbeat: “Did I also mention this house is for sale? $3.75 million!” The reel got 27,000 views, the open house was packed, and the buyers made an offer at the list price on the same day.
