First Home Buyer Checklist: South Australia

Buying a first home in South Australia is exciting, but the process has enough moving parts that it pays to work through it methodically. This checklist sets out the practical steps in the order most buyers encounter them, from getting your finance sorted to what to do once you have the keys, so you know what to expect and when to bring in a conveyancer.

Get Your Finance in Order

Before you seriously start inspecting properties, work out what you can realistically borrow. A conditional pre-approval gives you a defined budget and shows agents and vendors you are ready to act. MoneySmart's guide to saving for a house deposit is a useful starting point if you are still building up savings or working out how lenders mortgage insurance might affect your numbers.

• Get conditional finance pre-approval before making offers.
• Confirm your deposit amount and whether lenders mortgage insurance applies.
• Ask about first home buyer loan products your lender offers.
• Budget separately for conveyancing fees, inspections and moving costs.

Check Your Eligibility for SA First Home Buyer Concessions

South Australia offers assistance for eligible first home buyers, but the rules around property value caps, whether the home is new or established, and residency requirements can change from year to year. Confirm current eligibility directly through RevenueSA's stamp duty information before you sign a contract, since some concessions need to be applied for at a specific point in the transaction rather than after settlement. Because these settings are reviewed periodically, treat anything you read online, including this article, as a starting point for questions rather than a final answer, and confirm the current position with your conveyancer or RevenueSA directly.

Narrow Down Location and Property Type

With your budget confirmed, focus your search on areas that suit your lifestyle and offer reasonable long-term resale prospects. If you are considering Adelaide and its surrounding suburbs, compare more than list price, including transport links, school zones and any planned rezoning that could affect the area. Attending several open inspections before making an offer helps you calibrate what fair value looks like in your target suburbs. Take note of how many other buyers are attending each open inspection, since consistently crowded inspections in a suburb are often a sign that competition, and therefore final sale prices, will run above the advertised price guide.

Engage a Conveyancer Before You Make an Offer

In South Australia, conveyancing is typically carried out by a registered conveyancer or solicitor. Engaging one before you find a property, rather than after you have already signed something, means they can review a contract quickly the moment you want to move on a home. A first home buyer specialist conveyancer will check special conditions, run title and encumbrance searches, and flag anything that needs negotiating. You can confirm a practitioner's registration through Consumer and Business Services SA's licence register. Ask upfront what their fixed fee includes and whether disbursements such as search fees are charged separately, so there are no surprises once the transaction is underway.

Arrange Building and Pest Inspections

A building inspection identifies structural problems, damp, and pest activity that are not visible during a normal walkthrough. It is not worth skipping this step to make your offer more competitive unless you fully understand the risk you are taking on. If the report raises issues, discuss with your conveyancer whether they affect your negotiating position or justify walking away, particularly where the contract includes a cooling-off or finance condition. Book your inspector as soon as you have a property in mind, since a good inspector's availability can be the limiting factor on how quickly you are able to make an informed offer.

Review the Contract of Sale in Detail

Before signing, have your conveyancer go through the full contract of sale, including the vendor's statement and any special conditions attached. Pay close attention to the settlement date, deposit terms, and any conditions relating to finance or building inspections. If you are purchasing a off-the-plan unit or townhouse, the contract will include construction timeframes and variation clauses that deserve careful review. Ask your conveyancer to walk you through any special condition in plain language rather than assuming standard wording applies, since sellers and agents can and do add their own terms to a contract.

Prepare for Settlement Day

In the lead-up to settlement, your conveyancer coordinates with your lender, completes final searches, and calculates settlement figures including rates and any strata adjustments. Confirm your finance is unconditional well before settlement, arrange building insurance from the settlement date, and do a final walkthrough shortly beforehand to confirm the property matches what you agreed to buy. Keep a simple checklist of these tasks and their target dates as settlement approaches, since several of them fall due in the same short window and are easy to overlook when you are also organising a move.

• Confirm unconditional finance approval with your lender.
• Arrange building insurance effective from settlement.
• Complete a final pre-settlement inspection.
• Organise utility connections for your move-in date.

After Settlement

Once settlement is confirmed you will receive the keys and become the registered owner. Keep your settlement statement and contract documents somewhere safe, since you may need them for future reference, including if you sell or renovate down the track. If a family member is likely to be added to the title later, or you are thinking ahead to a future property transfer, it is worth raising this with your conveyancer while the transaction is still fresh in mind.