Ever wondered where your landlord lives?
New analysis of Australian Taxation Office data has shone a light on the SA postcodes with the greatest number of people claiming income from rent.
And you might be surprised to find they’re not all in our blue chip locales.
In South Australia, it’s postcode 5159 in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, home to Aberfoyle Park, Chandlers Hill, Flagstaff Hill, and Happy Valley.
According to ATO data, the suburb has 2526 investors.
That’s 471 more than in postcode 5085 in Adelaide’s north, which features Clearview, Enfield, Enfield Plaza, Lightsview, Northfield, and Northgate.
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Third place went to 5022 with 1959 investors living across Grange, Henley Beach, Henley Beach South, and Tennyson.
All up, the data, from the 2022/23 financial year, showed there were 134,469 SA investors claiming income from rent across the state.
Of these, 60 per cent had their investments positively geared, while the remaining 40 per cent were negatively geared.
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Leanne Pilkington
Real Estate Institute of Australia president Leanne Pilkington said what stood out the most about the biggest postcodes for property investor numbers was that few of them would be considered overly affluent.
“I’m surprised by the areas, they are just not high-net worth areas,” Ms Pilkington said.
“The conversation is always around rich landlords and this data is demonstrating that the landlords really are just mum and dads.”
Property Investment Professionals of Australia chair Lachlan Vidler said the data was surprising, not just because it showed a different view of who investors were – but because it also showed who was really using negative gearing.
Property Investment Professionals of Australia chair Lachlan Vidler. Picture: Supplied.
Mr Vidler added that with rents having risen substantially across most of the rest of the nation since 2022, there clearly were not enough mum and dad investors to support the nation’s tenants – meaning more needed to be done to encourage them.
While mum and dad investors had done a lot of the heavy lifting, he said it was becoming very clear governments would have to play a bigger role in providing social and affordable housing.
“They do have a huge obligation as they can physically provide some of that accommodation, but they can also create policies that make things better, or worse, and that may influence other groups to make their decisions,” Mr Vidler said.
Property investor Zach Hristodoulopoulos Picture: Supplied
One of these investors is buyer’s advocate Zach Hristodoulopoulos, who, at the age of 29, already has a multimillion-dollar property portfolio of SA homes.
His best advice to buyers was to look at the bigger picture and shut out the “noise”.
“It just delays them taking action … if you’re going to buy and hold a property for five, 10, 15 years, does it really matter what happens in the next month or two?” he said.
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“Partner up if you can, be it by getting help from Mum and Dad as maybe your guarantors or with a partner or a friend.
“All it really means is that parents are helping their kids with the deposit side of things, which can be one of the hardest parts – to save up for a deposit. So use the help if you can. Don’t frown upon that as it’s pretty common these days.”
– with Nathan Mawby and Lydia Kellner
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