The best property moves in Adelaide happen under the radar, well before a home reaches a listing portal.
Buyers watching Adelaide’s prestige housing market closely will tell you the best opportunities don’t appear on realestate.com.au on a Saturday morning. Instead, they’re part of conversations, long-standing relationships and careful research.
It is the kind of space 28th Street Agency founder, CEO and Lead Buyer’s Agent Kerryn Brownson knows well.
“Adelaide is up 12 per cent year-on-year right now, one of only three capital cities in the country that can say that,” Kerryn said. “But at the top end of the market, the broader numbers only tell part of the story. What really matters is which specific pockets are building the right conditions for the next wave of growth.”
At 28th Street Agency, those areas are described as ‘warm spots’ transitioning to ‘hotspots’.
“We find them through data, looking at everything from how long people hold onto their homes, to how many properties are genuinely on the market at any given moment, to the investment flowing into local infrastructure,” Kerryn said. “The picture it paints is often ahead of what most people are talking about.”
Right now, five Adelaide suburbs are consistently surfacing through that lens.
Medindie
To understand where Adelaide’s prestige market is heading, Kerryn says it helps to first understand where the ceiling already sits.
Medindie remains Adelaide’s prestige benchmark, with grand homes, tree-lined streets and a tightly held owner base that sets the tone for the wider luxury market.
There are only 471 homes in the suburb, owners stay for an average of more than 18 years, and on any given day there are typically just two properties listed for sale across the entire suburb.
House prices sit around $3.45 million and have more than doubled over the past decade.
“Medindie is what genuine scarcity looks like,” Kerryn said. “When something does come up, it moves quietly and quickly, often without ever being publicly advertised.”
“The suburbs we are watching are not trying to become Medindie overnight,” Kerryn said. “But they are beginning to show some of the same fundamentals: long owner hold periods, very limited supply, strong lifestyle appeal and buyers who are prepared to act before the broader market catches on.”
Hazelwood Park
Just five kilometres from the city, Hazelwood Park has the rare combination of lifestyle, space and long-term owner commitment.
More than eight in ten homes are owner-occupied, and people who buy into the suburb tend to stay.
“That kind of community stability is something you cannot manufacture,” Kerryn said. “It tells us people are not just buying a house. They are buying into a lifestyle they want to hold onto.”
The data shows stock moves quickly when it does appear, and there is very little of it. Infrastructure investment per capita sits at $3,668, the highest of any suburb in 28th Street Agency’s current analysis, pointing to a community actively reinvesting in itself.
Typical house prices are around $2.06 million, up 110 per cent over the past decade. Its proximity to Glenunga International High School and Burnside Village also continues to underpin strong family demand.
“The buyers who do well in Hazelwood Park are not the ones who react to listings,” Kerryn said. “They are the ones who are already watching.”
That is where Kerryn says a buyer’s agency can change the outcome.
“Our role is to understand what a client is really looking for, identify where that opportunity is most likely to exist, and then work proactively to find it,” she said. “In suburbs like Hazelwood Park, waiting for the perfect listing can mean waiting too long.”
St Georges
St Georges is one of Adelaide’s most tightly held eastern suburbs, and part of its appeal lies in how little it is likely to change.
The suburb has just 719 homes, 94 per cent of them freestanding houses, and 88 per cent owner-occupied. In the past 12 months, no new dwellings were approved for construction.
No new supply. No subdivision. What is there is, essentially, what there is.
“St Georges is a suburb that has decided not to grow,” Kerryn said. “In practice, that means access becomes the constraint. It is not just about having the budget. It is about knowing when and how an opportunity might become available.”
There are typically only around four listings available at any one time, and when homes do come to market, competition can be intense.
Typical prices sit around $2.12 million, having more than doubled over the past decade. With excellent schools, a location just five kilometres from the GPO and a postcode that consistently holds value, Kerryn says St Georges is one of the clearest examples of structurally tight supply.
“Getting in front of the right opportunity before it reaches the open market is everything here,” she said.
St Peters
St Peters is one of those suburbs that just speaks for itself.
Three kilometres from the CBD, with heritage homes, the River Torrens Linear Park on its doorstep and St Peter’s College nearby, its lifestyle appeal is obvious.
What is less obvious, until you look closely at the numbers, is just how rarely homes actually change hands.
At the time of 28th Street Agency’s analysis, there was just one house listed for sale in St Peters. Across the whole suburb.
Owners hold for an average of nearly 14 years, and typical house prices sit around $2.60 million, up 103 per cent over the past decade.
“St Peters is not a suburb you stumble across on a Saturday browse,” Kerryn said. “You need to be watching it, and you need to be well-connected, long before the right property surfaces.”
For Kerryn, this is where the agency’s independence and network are particularly important.
“People are trusting us with one of the biggest purchases of their life,” she said. “Our job is to give them unbiased advice, do the work behind the scenes and help them make a decision based on evidence, not emotion or pressure.”
It is also a key part of the agency’s ethical model. As Kerryn has previously explained, 28th Street Agency does not take referral fees or kickbacks, meaning its recommendations are guided by the client’s best interests.
“If we recommend a property or even another professional, it is because they are the best fit for the client,” she said. “It is not because we benefit in any way.”
Somerton Park
Every so often, Kerryn says the data points to a suburb the broader conversation has quietly underestimated.
Right now, that suburb is Somerton Park.
Sitting 11 kilometres from the GPO in the City of Holdfast Bay, Somerton Park offers coastal living, strong lifestyle fundamentals and relative value when compared with some of Adelaide’s established eastern suburbs.
“Somerton Park tends to be overlooked in favour of the eastern suburbs, and that gap in attention has created a genuine opportunity,” Kerryn said.
Over the past decade, Somerton Park has delivered house price growth of 124 per cent, the strongest figure of any suburb in 28th Street Agency’s current analysis, including the established prestige names.
Typical house prices sit around $2.11 million, and unlike some of the more tightly held suburbs on the list, Somerton Park is more liquid, meaning buyers may have more opportunity to transact without waiting indefinitely.
Waterfront and near-waterfront stock is also being absorbed steadily and quietly.
“The beach is on the doorstep, Glenelg is minutes away, and the data says the market still has not fully priced what Somerton Park actually offers,” Kerryn said.
The suburb still on the watch list
While some suburbs have made 28th Street Agency’s confirmed list, others are still being monitored.
Walkerville is one of them.
The early signals are strong, with tight supply, heritage streets, proximity to the Torrens and a position right next to Medindie. Kerryn says the suburb has the kind of fundamentals that naturally attract attention.
“The instinct is there with Walkerville,” Kerryn said. “But the sales volume is not yet high enough for us to feel fully confident. We have not seen enough transactions to build the evidence base we need before making a firm call.”
For Kerryn, knowing when not to act is just as important as knowing when to move.
“We would rather be straight with clients about what the data is telling us, and what it is not telling us yet,” she said. “That is a big part of how we work.”
Across the suburbs 28th Street Agency is watching, the common thread is clear. Owners tend to stay. Supply remains structurally tight. Demand is consistent. And when properties do become available, many move before the broader market knows they were ever an option.
“The people who own in these suburbs are not chasing yields or timing cycles,” Kerryn said. “They bought somewhere they wanted to live for a long time, and they did.”
That creates a very specific market dynamic, particularly for buyers seeking prestige owner-occupier homes in Adelaide.
The opportunity is there, but it is rarely obvious.
“The most meaningful transactions often happen off-market, before a sign goes up, and often before anyone outside a small circle knows a home might be available,” Kerryn said.
That is where 28th Street Agency’s work begins.
The agency combines data-led suburb analysis with direct buyer representation, helping clients identify the right suburbs, assess the right properties and negotiate from a position of clarity.
Kerryn describes the role simply.
“I am there to find the right property, guide where to invest, and secure it for the client,” she said. “I am essentially a personal shopper for houses.”
In a market where competition is strong and prestige stock is limited, Kerryn says waiting for a suburb to be publicly declared a hotspot is often waiting too long.
“The data does not lie. But you need someone reading it early enough, and connected enough, to actually do something about it.”
28th Street Agency is a Certified B Corp™ premium buyer’s agency based in Norwood and operating nationally across Australia. The agency specialises in independent, data-led property acquisition, with a growing focus on Adelaide’s prestige owner-occupier market.
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