South Australia Reshapes Housing Laws: Tenants, Landlords, Buyers Face Major Changes

Three pieces of state legislation currently before the South Australian Parliament are set to directly alter the housing circumstances of hundreds of thousands of Adelaide residents. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill, changes to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act, and updated First Home Owner Grant thresholds are progressing through both chambers this sitting fortnight. Each bill targets a different slice of the housing market, meaning some residents stand to benefit quickly while others, particularly those in middle-ring suburbs or on market-rate rents, may see little near-term change.

The legislative push comes against a backdrop of sustained rental stress across metropolitan Adelaide. The Real Estate Institute of South Australia reported Adelaide's residential vacancy rate sitting at approximately 0.5 per cent in the June 2026 quarter, among the tightest in any capital city. Meanwhile, the 2025-26 SA Budget allocated $824 million across a housing supply package, including the land release program targeting 5,000 new allotments in growth corridors north and south of the CBD. Legislators have framed the current bills as the regulatory scaffolding those supply investments require to function.

Tenants and Landlords: The Amended Rules

The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill is the measure most likely to affect ordinary Adelaide households in the short term. The bill, currently at second reading in the Legislative Council, extends notice-to-vacate periods for without-grounds terminations from 90 days to 120 days. It also introduces a cap on rent increases, limiting them to once per 12-month period per tenancy, a rule already in effect in Victoria and the ACT. Tenant advocates note the change addresses a pattern of back-to-back increases some Adelaide renters have experienced under existing law. Landlord groups, including the Property Owners Association of South Australia, have raised concerns that the notice-period extension reduces their flexibility to exit the market or renovate, which they say could suppress new rental supply over time.

Renters in suburbs such as Salisbury, Davoren Park and Mansfield Park, where median weekly rents for three-bedroom houses have risen by more than 18 per cent since 2023 according to CoreLogic data cited in the SA Housing Strategy progress report, are the primary beneficiaries the legislation targets. Longer notice periods give households more time to secure alternative accommodation in a market where finding a suitable rental can take weeks. The rent-increase cap, the government says the policy will reduce the frequency of compounding mid-lease increases that have pushed some households into housing stress or homelessness.

Planning Reforms and First-Home Buyers

Amendments to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act would streamline approval pathways for medium-density housing, townhouses and three-to-four storey apartment blocks, in designated transit corridors, specifically around Gawler train line stations and the Seaford line south of Noarlunga Centre. The changes are expected to reduce assessment timeframes for complying development from the current average of 42 business days to a target of 20 business days, according to the SA Department for Housing and Urban Development's own benchmarking. For Adelaide residents, this matters most if you are a first-home buyer or renter hoping new supply materialises within a reasonable window. Slower approvals have been consistently identified by the Productivity Commission as a structural barrier to housing affordability in capital cities.

The updated First Home Owner Grant thresholds, the third bill in the package, lift the property value cap for the $15,000 grant from $575,000 to $650,000 for newly built homes. The Valuer-General's figures show that median prices for new house-and-land packages in Adelaide's northern and southern growth areas have moved above $575,000 in several estate precincts, rendering the previous cap effectively obsolete for many buyers the grant was designed to help. Raising the ceiling is projected to restore eligibility for an estimated 3,200 additional buyers annually, the government says, though the Treasury costings accompanying the bill have not yet been tabled publicly.

All three bills are expected to pass before the winter recess ends in late July 2026. If the Senate amendments to the tenancy bill proposed by upper-house crossbenchers are adopted, the legislation would also require landlords to provide written reasons for any rent increase above five per cent. That amendment is still subject to negotiation. Residents who want to track the bills' progress can do so through the South Australian Parliament's bill tracker at parliament.sa.gov.au, where committee reports and second-reading speeches are publicly available.