The ACT is experiencing a once-in-a-decade property boom. Don’t miss out.
Canberra’s property prices continue to run red hot, with the median house price reaching well over $920,000 in the first quarter of 2021.
With record low interest rates, stable employment, government incentives and scarcity of new land to build on, Canberra is experiencing a once-in-a-decade property boom.
Demand for land in newer suburbs like Taylor and Throsby in Gungahlin and Coombs, Wright and Whitlam in the Molonglo Valley, is fast outstripping supply.
Prices of land, freestanding houses, townhouses and apartments have continued to soar despite the current downturn in overseas immigration caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Once overseas migration returns to pre-pandemic levels, it is likely to put further upward pressure on Canberra house prices.
Canberra’s median house prices have soared to a record high of $927,577 in the first three months of the year, recording the strongest quarterly and yearly growth among all Australian capital cities.
According to the Domain House Price Report for the March quarter 2021, released in April, Canberra’s median house prices rose by 9.7 per cent from January to March – the fastest quarterly growth – to the highest median price since Domain began keeping records in 1993.
This represented a yearly growth of 19.5 per cent, the steepest annual rise in 17 years.
This is also the first time that Canberra’s median house price has passed $900,000. If house prices have continued to rise at the same quarterly rate in the June quarter, Canberra’s median house price may have already cracked $1 million.
Domain’s March report said: “Canberra is a breakaway performer compared to the other capital cities, recording the strongest annual and quarterly house price growth.
“Houses at the upper end of the market are leading, with the strongest quarterly gains recorded in North Canberra, South Canberra and Woden Valley. All three areas have a median above $1 million. A higher average wage, job security and low mortgage rates have spurred buyers to upsize.”
Unit prices declined around 5 per cent to $473,304, still 2.8 per cent higher than in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
Canberra’s auction clearance rates continue to hover around a healthy 80 per cent (79 per cent on 17 July, after rising to the nation’s highest rate of 86.8 per cent on the weekend of 3 July and peaking at 97 per cent in April). Canberra houses were on the market for a median of 34 days, the third shortest period of all capital cities in Australia.
Given all the above factors, potential homebuyers should act quickly to get a foothold in the Canberra market, which shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.