Two suburbs, one name, about sixty thousand dollars between them. The interesting difference isn't the price though — it's that one of them is carved up between four different high schools.
The prices
| Measure | Modbury | Modbury Heights |
|---|---|---|
| Median, June quarter 2026 Valuer-General SA |
$880,000 21 sales, +13.6% |
$939,000 23 sales, +11.1% |
| Median, 12 months to June 2026 Cotality |
$857,250 90 sales, +11.0% |
$902,000 97 sales, +10.3% |
Modbury Heights is the dearer of the two on both measures — about $59,000 on the quarter, $45,000 over twelve months. And unusually for these comparisons, both sources agree on the ranking and roughly on the growth. That consistency matters: where two independent sources line up, you can lean on the number.
Growth is near enough to identical — around 10–11% over twelve months for both. Neither is pulling away from the other. The gap between them is a level, not a trend.
Sources kept apart deliberately: the Valuer-General publishes a single quarter, Cotality a rolling twelve months. See the Redwood Park breakdown for why blending them misleads.
Modbury Heights is the most divided suburb around here
This is the one worth knowing before you make an offer, and almost nobody mentions it.
Modbury Heights — four high schools
Parts of the suburb fall to The Heights School, parts to Para Hills High School, parts to Golden Grove High School and parts to Valley View Secondary School. Four different zones inside one suburb name. There is no sensible way to guess which one applies to a given house.
Modbury — essentially one
Almost all of Modbury sits with Modbury High School, with a smaller part falling to Valley View Secondary. Far more predictable.
If schooling is part of the decision, that difference is worth more than the sixty grand. A house in Modbury Heights could be zoned to any one of four schools, and you will not find that out from the listing. Check the address, every time — the school zones guide has the thirty-second check.
On primary, both are mostly unzoned, so placement comes down to the closest unzoned school by road. Modbury School P-6 and Modbury West School are two different schools, and Modbury School P-6 is actually in Modbury North.
One oddity: Modbury Heights isn't entirely in Tea Tree Gully
Worth a line because it trips people up when they're looking things up. Modbury Heights straddles two councils — it appears in the Valuer-General's own data under both Salisbury and Tea Tree Gully. So "Modbury Heights is a Tea Tree Gully suburb" is only partly true, and council-level rates, services and planning rules may not be the ones you assumed.
What you actually get
Similar stock to most of the north-east — predominantly three and four bedroom homes on generous allotments, largely 1970s and 80s, heavily owner-occupied.
- Modbury is the more central of the two, closest to Tea Tree Plaza and the O-Bahn interchange. If convenience is the priority, it wins easily.
- Modbury Heights sits higher and further out, generally quieter, and the price reflects that rather than anything about the houses themselves.
That's the honest read on the price gap: you're paying for position and quiet, not for a materially better house. Which is fine — just know that's what you're buying.
Which one?
Modbury if you want the interchange and the shops close, if you want the cheaper entry point, or if you want school zoning you can actually predict.
Modbury Heights if you want quieter and higher and the extra fifty-odd thousand doesn't change your plans — but check the zone on the specific address before you fall in love with anything.
And as always: the spread between individual houses inside either suburb is wider than the gap between the two. Buy the house.
How I worked this out
Prices are the Office of the Valuer-General's published quarterly sales data, free via data.sa.gov.au, and Cotality's rolling twelve-month figures, each shown with its period. Zoning is the Department for Education's live zone service for the 2026 enrolment year. The council point comes from the Valuer-General's own file, where Modbury Heights appears under two councils with identical figures.
I've said which schools each suburb falls across without putting a percentage on it. The only number that counts is what the department's finder says about your address.
The bottom line
Modbury Heights is dearer by roughly $45,000 to $59,000 depending which measure you use, and both sources agree on that. Growth is near enough identical.
Modbury Heights is split across four high school zones — the most divided suburb in the area. Modbury is essentially one. That's the difference that should actually move your decision.
Want the number for a specific house in either? That's a short conversation and I'll show you the evidence behind it.