The Spring Buyer’s Guide recently released by national real estate industry experts RP Data, shows that Adelaide has the mainland’s second highest proportion of affordable suburbs, with 14.4 per cent of local suburbs with a median house value of less $300,000 or $500,000.

At the same time the organisation said data shows that real estate values across Australia’s combined capital cities have risen by 8.7 per cent since the market reached a recent low point at the end of May last year.

“Most encouraging is the fact that the rise in home values is being accompanied by a rise in transaction numbers,’’ it said.

“Over the three months to May 2013, capital city house and unit sales were 19.3 per cent higher than over the same period a year ago. The fact that values are rising in line with transaction numbers suggests that the current increase in values is likely to be more sustainable.’’

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While the local market is still “sluggish’’ compared to some cities, there are signs that it’s on the move with properties spending less time on the market.

Homes are taking a shorter length of time to sell across Adelaide than they were at the same time last year, RP Data shows. A year ago, houses took an average of 70 days to sell and units 74 days. In June 2013 houses took an average of 56 days to sell and units took 54 days.

However, nationally the amount of stock for sale across Australia has shown a substantial reduction compared with the number of advertised properties a year ago. RP Data estimates that there are about 255,400 properties currently on the market; a 6.2 per cent reduction from a year ago.

While the number of homes available for sale is lower, the number of active buyers is higher. Over the past year RP Data estimates that the number of house and unit sales has increased by about 22 per cent nationally and by about 23 per cent across the capital cities.

The strong market conditions are also evidenced by auction clearance rates which are close to the highs last recorded in 2009/10.

Now is an ideal time to get into the property market and BankSA can help whether you’re buying your first home, upgrading or investing.

At BankSA, our great home loan rates mean you can get into your new home sooner than you think. Plus, we have flexible loan options, so you can pay your home off faster, too. At BankSA, we’ve been helping South Australians own their own home for 165 years, so we know how to help.

If you want flexibility, we offer variable rate home loans. For certainty in your repayment amounts, you can choose a fixed rate home loan, or if you want the best of both worlds, you can split your loan between the two.

Speak to us about how we can help you or use our home loan calculators and tools to find out how much you could borrow and what your repayments would be, just visit one of our branches or start with a visit to our website http://info.banksa.com.au/homeloans/