South Australia leads the nation on first home buyers
South Australian first home buyers are growing at the fastest rate of any state, as the Malinauskas Labor Government's housing reforms continue to deliver tangible housing outcomes for South Australians.
According to the latest ABS Lending Indicators data released last week, 2,181 owner occupier first home buyer loans were committed in South Australia in the June quarter 2026, up 20.3 per cent on the March quarter and 23.0 per cent higher than a year earlier (in seasonally adjusted terms).
It is the strongest annual growth of any state in the nation, with South Australia the only mainland state to record an increase in the number of first home buyer loans on the previous quarter.
Nationally, first home buyer numbers went in the opposite direction, falling 2.9 per cent over the quarter and remaining flat over the year.
South Australia’s performance follows tax incentives for first homebuyers moving into newly built homes and a concerted housing policy effort that has seen more homes built in the last year in South Australia than in any other year in history.
The suite of Malinauskas Government measures aimed squarely at first home buyers include scrapping stamp duty entirely for first home buyers purchasing new builds, $15,000 First Home Owner Grants, low-deposit lending through HomeStart and the nation's first neighbourhood built exclusively for first home buyers at Playford Alive.
South Australia also remains one of the most lowest priced places in the country to buy a first home. The average South Australian first home buyer loan was $578,450 in the June quarter, almost $50,000 less than the national average of $627,000.
Thanks to the significant housing policy initiatives of the Premier’s Housing Roadmap, a record 14,130 homes completed in the year to March 2026, with a forty-year-high of 15,211 homes approved in the year to June 2026.
Quotes
Attributable to Peter Malinauskas
We are making the Australian dream of home ownership achievable again for young South Australian families.
We scrapped stamp duty for first home buyers building new. This data shows exactly where that money went and that is into the hands of South Australians buying their first home.
Every measure shows our housing policy agenda is working. More homes completed and, in the pipeline, than at any other time in our state’s history.
And first home buyers getting into homes at a rate that is completely outpacing the rest of the country.
Attributable to Tom Koutsantonis
The Malinauskas Government is carrying out perhaps the most concerted and targeted policy agenda to stimulate new housing growth this state has seen in the modern era.
Our tailored abolition of stamp duty for first home buyers for new rather than established homes is geared towards incentivising new supply, and despite predictable calls for it to be expanded to existing properties it is clear that this approach is working to get first home buyers into homes while driving housing growth.
Attributable to Nick Champion
Record approvals, record completions and record first home buyer numbers all in the same year.
That is not a coincidence, it's a pipeline generated by the Premier’s Housing Roadmap and the Treasurer’s tax cuts for first home buyers.
We have scrapped stamp duty on new builds, we are building homes at record rates and we are building the country's first neighbourhood just for first home buyers.
These measures are ensuring even more South Australian families than ever before can get the keys to their first home.