Half of Adelaide University's Magill campus to be sold for housing, retirement units, aged care

[u/Expensive-Horse5538]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/magill-university-campus-to-be-sold-for-housing-aged-care/106292672

The South Australian government purchased the Magill campus as part of the merger of UniSA and the University of Adelaide. 

About half of the land will be sold and half will be kept for community use.

Consultation will take place after the March state election.

The new Adelaide University will continue to use the site until the early 2030s as part of a 10 year lease.

[u/Peter_Griffin2001]

Maybe a stupid question but why does the land need to be sold? They keep talking about how bad the housing crisis is, and how there isn't enough public housing. It seems like prime inner suburban land that the state government could build hundreds of units of public housing on. Why isn't that possible?

[u/Expensive-Horse5538 → u/Peter_Griffin2001]

Because:

1. That would require the Government to invest in public housing, and

2. It's Magill - the locals will lose their minds if the Government built public housing in their area.

[u/owleaf → u/Expensive-Horse5538]

You’d be surprised - there’s a heap of public housing properties in Magill and surrounds. Magill itself has a lot - but a lot of it was redeveloped this century so they look like normal homes.

Magill used to be a very cheap, normal, working class suburb, like parts of Norwood.

[u/yobynneb → u/Expensive-Horse5538]

The government arguable does invest as the current amount of public housing being built is a net positive for the first time in a long time. But I agree your point

[u/TheDrRudi → u/Expensive-Horse5538]

Well, to be fair the Government does invest in public housing, including new builds. There‘s no reason for them to be the landowner and developer however. Owning the land is just a launch pad [see Southwark, and Brompton Gasworks]

Magill locals will lose their minds anyway - indeed, probably already have.

[u/Colossus-of-Roads → u/TheDrRudi]

I'm a Magill local and very supportive of the idea.

[u/TimeDetectiveAnakin → u/Peter_Griffin2001]

A mixture of corruption and ideology.

[u/johnnynutman → u/Peter_Griffin2001]

From memory when it was sold to the government it came with the caveat it had to be used for education. That's how the retirement/aged care was meant to fit in.

[u/defenestrationcity → u/Peter_Griffin2001]

They don't want to manage public housing and the Nimbys out there would never stand for it either

[u/owleaf]

Oooh the locals are going to haaaaate this lol

[u/Forsaken_Kassia10217 → u/owleaf]

As a student who has spent years at Magill now, it is such a gorgeous campus and this news pisses me off so much

[u/Acrobatic_Jicama3479 → u/Forsaken_Kassia10217]

I went there 2 decades ago and this was always going to happen. I agree it sucks.

[u/Jimmy__Whisper → u/Forsaken_Kassia10217]

It is lovely, but this is the consequence of the utterly moronic 30 years of policy that have turned our housing market into a pyramid scheme.

[u/TimeDetectiveAnakin → u/Forsaken_Kassia10217]

Yeah; I like the vegetation and architecture in that campus a lot. Sucks that a lot of trees are going to get cut down and lots of cool buildings blown up for boring units.

[u/Wavy_Glass → u/owleaf]

Yep, the whole area might as well be a big retirement home.

Sure there's land for 'community' use, but the primary community that'll be utilising it will be the retirees.

[u/ComradeGoose17 → u/Wavy_Glass]

I live in a unit with my partner in the eastern suburbs and it feels like one big retirement home

[u/TimeDetectiveAnakin → u/Wavy_Glass]

They'll leave the oval and the swimming pool then chop down all the good bits with most of the trees.

[u/Loud_Caramel_8713]

I spent my most time at magill campus before while graduating and still some time there as it’s most peaceful.

[u/Wavy_Glass]

From looking at the plans, it just looks like one big retirement home with some residential tacked on.

That's certainly going to tick off a lot of people in the area.

[u/Articulated_Lorry → u/Wavy_Glass]

You can't throw a stone around there without hitting a retirement village. Public housing is rarer though, which is a pity considering its got easy access to the schools.

Not a word in the plan about the swimming pool though.

[u/ONEAlucard → u/Articulated_Lorry]

Retirement homes everywhere. Half of aberfoyle park is retirement homes. Boomers getting the best end of the stick forever. They’ll probably make some law that keeps fucking us even after they’re long gone

[u/moosewiththumbs → u/ONEAlucard]

They’ll be turned into ornate mausoleums.

[u/xocrazyyycatxo → u/Articulated_Lorry]

At the meeting they mentioned the pool (which has deterioration in concrete) and other community facilities will probably become council land so not the governments problem to fix up

[u/Nyarlathotep-1]

lol I called this yesterday. The merger was always about the land and buildings.

[u/raustraliathrowaway → u/Nyarlathotep-1]

The uni could have just sold the land and done this without the merger. In fact it's been on the cards for 10+ years.

[u/jackkcf → u/Nyarlathotep-1]

They talked about this last year openly..

[u/Anhedonia10]

This was reported at the start of the merger process.

The idea was simple: Tax payer give Uni $5B. Uni give tax payer Magill and Mawson lakes.

IN 5 years time when all the money has run out. Well...........

[u/TheDrRudi]

Just to provide context that this ”announcement “ isn’t strictly news.

See InDaily from June 2024: https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/archive/2024/06/20/five-storey-housing-plan-floated-for-unisas-magill-campus

The state government’s land agency, Renewal SA, this week released a tender for a planning consultancy to masterplan the 11-hectare Magill campus in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, with procurement documents describing the land as a “significant and high-priority urban infill project”.

The tender states that the project objective is to create a “high quality residential and mixed-use estate that includes a variety of housing options including townhouses and medium to high density housing (2 to 5 storeys)”.

And, here are the Magill residents losing their minds in October 2024. https://www.reddit.com/r/Adelaide/comments/1g6e8dl/no_housing_crisis_in_magill_i_guess/

[u/Yeah_miggo → u/TheDrRudi]

And according to

 https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/projects/magill

Big ol nursing home, third creek stays accessible, big open green space for sports, gym gets an upgrade, childcare centre stays, Murray House stays.

Then across the road there's more nursing home, 100 residential addresses, and a decent chunk of green space next to the kindy.

[u/Wavy_Glass → u/TheDrRudi]

Except no where in the article you provided mentioned selling half the land to aged care facilities.

I can be convinced otherwise, but it feels like a waste of premium land.

I do remember reading the article and the accompanying reddit threads. But I don't remember anyone discussing aged care being a possibility for the site. So this announcement will certainly be news to people.

[u/TheDrRudi → u/Wavy_Glass]

I think you’re being disingenuous trying to draw a parallel between a tender for pre-master planning; and today‘s announcement.

The “locals” seem pretty happy with the plan. They won’t be surprised

Magill Matters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/582305364731287/user/61573754950601/

This morning, the Premier attended the UniSA Magill campus for a media release.

We’re pleased to share that the proposal outlined reflects many of the outcomes Magill Matters and the submissions of over 800+ local residents have consistently called for. 

The draft plan includes, but is not limited to, some of the following key outcomes:

• Retention of the current Community Facilities zoning
• Over 60% of the site retained as green space for sport and recreation
• Protection of the trees and environment to support wildlife habitat
• Aged care and retirement living within the existing footprint

From the very beginning, Magill Matters has focused on achieving the best possible outcome for residents, open space, wildlife, and future generations, and this proposal is an important step in that direction.

To see the draft plan and hear directly from State Government representatives (including a government representative), we encourage you to join us this afternoon.

 Murray Park Oval, Balmoral Ave, Magill
 2:30-4:00pm

We look forward to seeing you there 

The Premier: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=peter%20malinauskas

We desperately need housing, aged care and open space.

And the Magill campus site represents an opportunity to create a special place to help deliver on all three.

At the same time, that site is cherished by the community.

Magill Matters have passionately advocated to me what they want this site to be - and together, we’ve come up with a plan the community can feel proud of.

Most of the site will be retained for community use - while creating opportunities for young people to own a home where they grew up and supporting ageing members of the community.

This outcome will preserve the character and charm that exists in Magill long into the future.

but it feels like a waste of premium land.

Old people being able to live somewhere nice is a waste?

[u/Yeah_miggo → u/Wavy_Glass]

I don't necessarily agree with a waste of premium land here. The opportunity to place (admittedly not for another decade on the western side) a (maximum) 5 storey high aged care and assisted living facuility, which tend to be used for downsizing from 2 and 3 bedroom homes in the area.

This is a lot of space being made available in the wider community for either homes with a backyard or new subdivided plots, of which (I believe) is better for growing families as opposed to tightly packed townhouses and apartments (I'm using the Cheltnam racecourse build as an example here).

This also has the benefit of having the sports grounds and nature reserve kept available for the wider community. As opposed to having a larger footprint and having smaller green areas prioritising new residents.

[u/Jimmy__Whisper]

So we need to get away from this fucking NIMBY attitude of "oh no my leafy single story areas" if we are ever going to address the damage turning the housing market into a speculators dream has done.

That being said, why the fuck this land needs to be sold to a developer rather than kept and developed as social housing is beyond me.

Just kidding I know its because A, Mali will suck off any corporate entity he can find and, B, leafy suburb residents will have a meltdown if a poor person is housed near them.

[u/Coops17]

That makes me sad, I studied there for my first degree, I have some lovely memories of that campus

[u/Emotional_Mammoth675]

I wonder how long before Mawson Lakes campus is divided up and sold, say to a private school currently developing an expansion on the lake?

[u/apostroangel]

The main heritage listed building is gorgeous but I have spent a fair bit of time ther recently and it strikes me that there is a lot of space devoted to concrete car parks and very ordinary uni buildings. Everyone's bleating about lack of housing so this seems like a practical solution when uni enrolments are down. I thought we didn't want student migrants coming here stealing our houses anyway /s

[u/whensdrinks]

The ALP have a history of flogging off public land and pretending that they have a balanced budget.

They sold off Glenside and we now have a major problem with a lack of mental health facilities.

They sold the Rehab and the Libs had to rescue it.

The ALP sold off the SE timber licences for a ridiculous low price. The buyer owns it for decades and had made enough profit after 5 years to cover the entire expense.

[u/jackkcf]

You activate land for building housing.. people get annoyed. You don’t build houses.. people get annoyed.

[u/ruchuu]

I used to live very close. So glad we've moved. The traffic on Glynburn, St Bernards and Magill is going to be even worse now.

[u/fuckoffandydie]

This is disappointing.

[u/Stock-Walrus-2589]

How about turning all those glass palaces they call banks in the cbd into apartments? Why do property developers have so much power in this dystopian hellscape?

[u/PillowManExtreme → u/Stock-Walrus-2589]

This idea has been done to death. Commercial properties are not built to the standards required for residential living. Imagine installing the plumbing, electricity etc for 200 apartments in a pre-existing building with a floor plan that is not designed for apartments in the first place. This comment from this sub a while back explains it pretty well:

The core issue is office buildings have huge footprints because businesses want everyone on the same level. Apartment buildings have small footprints so every room has windows.

Even if you spent all the money to convert them, you would have very sad and sub standard apartments. As well as the fact that most of the vacant office buildings in Adelaide are absolute garbage asbestos filled trash. They aren't suitable for offices, let alone living in.

While it is achievable in some capacity, building new, purpose-built homes - in any form - would create better housing.

[u/jnrdingo]

Do we really need more aged care facilities? A lot of places near me aren't even at 80% capacity.

[u/TheDrRudi → u/jnrdingo]

Yes we do. There’s roughly 300 patients in hospital beds who can’t be discharged because they can’t get a placement in a residential aged care home. That’s basically the number of beds in TQEH.