Two of SA’s wine regions have been identified among four in the nation as being “outstanding performers” – offering value buying in tried-and-tested areas with sure futures.
Wine production is big business in Australia – the 2025 grape crush of 1.57 million tonnes produced enough wine to fill over 400 Olympic swimming pools, the bottles of which, if you lined them up end to end, would circle the earth 13 times.
In order to produce this much wine you need workers, and these workers need to live somewhere.
Ray White’s Regional Report data highlighted two prized SA wine production regions as among four “outstanding performers” across the nation – Penola and the Barossa Valley.
Harvesting Coonawarra Picture: Supplied
Ray White head of research Vanessa Rader said Penola, which serves as the commercial hub for the famous Coonawarra wine region was renowned for premium cabernet sauvignon.
House prices here have risen by 44.4 per cent over the past three years and 89.4 per cent over the past year to $357,500.
“The town benefits from the economic activity generated by one of Australia’s most respected wine areas without commanding vineyard-adjacent pricing,” she said.
“Coonawarra’s focus on premium reds has benefited significantly from the resumption of China trade, where exports grew from virtually zero to 59 million litres in six months following duty removal.”
Vanessa Rader head of research. Picture: Supplied
Selling agent for Thomas DeGaris & Clarkson Karly Honner said interest in the region had surged.
“Pre-Covid about one in 30 calls would be from someone in either Adelaide or Melbourne and now about 50 per cent of my calls are coming from a city market,” she said.
“We bat above our average in terms of the amenities we can supply, so we have excellent restaurants, cellar doors and cafes.
“Wine growing here is exceptional – they call it Australia’s other red centre.
“Whenever a Coonawarra red is put on the table you know it’s going to be high quality.
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She said interest in the region was not solely driven by the wine industry.
“There are a lot of other industries supporting it like agriculture, forestry and for a small town of 1600 people, we’ve got a hospital, three schools and a childcare centre,” she said.
“We do property management for over 100 properties and in my lifetime our vacancy rate has always been about 1 per cent. It’s really hard to get a rental because there are jobs here.”
Karly Honner
The Barossa Valley, perhaps the jewel in the crown of the nation’s wine regions, was identified in the report as was identified in the report as a solid market performer – it represents 3.7 per cent of the national crush – with economic activity beyond wine production and tourism.
“This volume creates employment across logistics, processing, and support industries, underpinning consistent property demand,” Ms Rader said.
“The region’s combination of volume production and premium export positioning has benefited strongly from renewed Asian market access.”
– with Lydia Kellner
English (US) · 