Unley Sa

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Inner South Adelaide · South Australia

What's Unley made of?

Mostly villas and cottages on 400-800m² blocks, sitting on reactive clay, with low pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Unley.

Who built Unley
Villas and cottages 55%Interwar bungalows 25%Infill townhouses and rebuilds 15%1960s cream brick veneer 5%

The eras, street by street

Villas and cottages

55%
1850s-1910s

Bluestone or sandstone fronts, brick quoins, slate or corrugated-iron roofs, a bullnose verandah and 3.3m ceilings. Rooms off a central hall.

Interwar bungalows

25%
1920s-1940s

Californian and Tudor-style bungalows in red brick or freestone, tiled roofs, deep verandahs, leadlight windows. Many on 700-900m² blocks.

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

15%
2000s-2020s

Two or three homes where one 1960s house stood: Torrens-title courtyard homes, hammerhead battle-axe blocks, occasional two-storey townhouse rows.

1960s cream brick veneer

5%
1960s

Triple-fronted cream brick veneer, low hip tiled roof, aluminium or steel windows, concrete slab, carport on the side. The Adelaide suburb standard.

Typical block
400-800m²
Typical frontage
12-18m
Rebuild pressure
Low

Under the floor

Soil

Reactive clay

Moderately to highly reactive clay (Class M to H). Seasonal movement causes hairline cracking in brickwork and render. Modern slabs are engineered for it; older strip footings were not. Consistent moisture around the house is the whole game.

In the walls

  • •Salt damp and rising damp in stone and early brick (no damp-proof course)
  • •Lead paint on every layer
  • •Lath-and-plaster ceilings that sag
  • •Original wiring may survive behind later additions
  • •Heritage or character overlays limit what you can change at the front
  • •Lead paint
  • •Timber stumps at end of life (VIC) or salt damp (SA)
  • •Rewiring almost always needed
What each of these costs to fix

How the streets are changing

Heritage and character zoning across most of it. Renovation is the only game, and it is expensive.

The thing locals know

Ceiling heights of 3.3m to 3.6m are standard, which is why every Unley renovation costs more per square metre than the same job in the suburbs.

Time machine

What's changed in Unley since Nan bought

House prices in years of wages, decade by decade, what was standing when, and what her block does now.

Open the timeline

Questions about Unley

Do houses in Unley have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 30% of Unley was built between the 1920s and 1980s, the peak asbestos period. Eaves, wet-area sheeting, fences and sheds are the usual places. Test before you drill, sand or demolish.

What soil is under Unley?+

Reactive clay. Moderately to highly reactive clay (Class M to H). Seasonal movement causes hairline cracking in brickwork and render. Modern slabs are engineered for it; older strip footings were not. Consistent moisture around the house is the whole game.

Can I subdivide a block in Unley?+

Low subdivision pressure: Streets look much as they did. Occasional renovation, very little demolition. Typical blocks are 400-800m². Check the zone and minimum site area in the Planning and Design Code for the exact street.

Street-level generalisations from council heritage studies, ABS dwelling-age data, soil classification maps and BuildPilot partner site reports. Every street has exceptions. A soil test, a building inspection and the council's overlay map beat any suburb profile, including this one.

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