The median house price in South Australia has reached $700,000, rising by 5.2 per cent in the past year. 

The latest data published by the Office of the Valuer-General shows the median sale price of houses in metropolitan Adelaide has increased by $25,000 over the past three months and by $35,000 over the past year. 

The median sale price of houses in major towns outside the metropolitan area decreased from $375,000 in the March quarter to $365,000. 

Hadia Khan and Imran Ehmed have been looking to upgrade to a bigger home. 

Ms Khan said it has been difficult trying to achieve their goal with the lack of wage growth, the ever-rising cost of living and soaring interest rates.  

“It’s frustrating,” she said. 

“The house we are looking for — and what we’re happy with — we are not getting it in the price that we can afford.” 

Mr Ehmed said they have had to increase how much they are willing to spend. 

“Two years ago for the same $700,000 you could get a very nice house in the eastern suburbs or a reasonable house, but now even if you’re looking in the far north or in those suburbs that are very far, you wouldn’t find a house for $700,000,” he said. 

“Now even using the equity part, we couldn’t think of buying any house less than $850,000 that we would like to buy.” 

Chris Alexradis and Tanya Bratis said they delayed looking for a new home due to the rising prices. 

“We were going to do it at probably the end of the last year and then we had to wait  and we probably shouldn’t have waited because now it’s getting worse, it’s getting crazy,” Ms Bratis said. 

“It’s nerve-wracking, it’s frustrating … with all of the cost of living rising.

“I think we will be more selective with what we go for. Whereas before we were like, ‘We can renovate that, we can change that,’ now we probably wouldn’t do that straight away. It has to have the main things.” 

Clinton Nguyen from Harris Real Estate said demand remained strong, with attendance at open inspections and auctions high. 

“Supply and demand is the issue we are experiencing at the moment,” he said. 

“[There are] plenty of buyers out there but there’s just not enough stock in the marketplace.

“People are having to stretch that little bit more as well or possibly even borrow money from mum or dad.” 

Mr Nguyen recommended potential buyers have their home loan pre-approved before seriously looking for a new property. 

“My advice for buyers is to get your pre-approval in order, especially if it is in private sale auction [so] you put your best foot forward,” he said.

“It gives you a better chance rather than having an offer that’s subject to finance, which most owners, as well as real estate agents, sometimes can be reluctant to push forward for.” 

Heading into the second half of the year, Mr Nguyen says more properties are expected to come onto the market. 

“Towards the spring market we tend to see a lot more properties coming onto the market,” he said. 

“A lot more home owners are getting out of their fixed-interest rates, possibly forcing them to put their property on the market, or some of their investment properties on the market, which may give buyers a little bit more hope with that supply and demand factor.”

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said the government was working to increase supply into the market. 

“As a state government we are doing everything we can to inject more supply into the system, the biggest land release in the history of South Australia but also the abolition of stamp duty for people building a new home for the first time,” he said.  

Four suburbs in Adelaide’s north recently made the national top 10 list for areas experiencing the largest AVM (automated valuation model) growth over the past six months, according to data from PropTrack.

Smithfield Plains experienced a 13.1 per cent jump in AVM over the past six months to $378,000 and property prices in Andrews Farm went up by 12.4 per cent to an average of $470,000. 

Elizabeth North and Davoren Park had a 12.3 per cent increase in AVM this year to $353,000 and $360,000 respectively.