DESPITE Canberra now being the second most expensive capital city to buy a house for the first time since 2005, the top end of the market is cooling, says Domain’s September quarter property report. 

Canberra house prices rose 5.7 per cent against the June quarter but units fell back by 2.9 per cent.

“While all regions reached a new record high house price, price growth at the upper end of the market is starting to lose momentum, suggesting price acceleration will begin to ease and suggests the price growth peak has passed,“ says Domain’s Nicola Powell.

“Canberra’s soaring housing prices, reaching $1 million median house price, highlights the booming property market and strong demand present, likely to represent those buyers who had previously been unable to secure a home earlier in the year. In fact, total supply continued to shrink to a multi-year low in September.”

The report says Canberra is another city that has remained resilient despite the lockdown restrictions which had little effect on deterring buyers from securing homes, with house prices hitting an all-time high at $1.07 million. However, unit prices in Canberra dropped by 2.9 per cent over the last quarter as prices in the city have seen softer growth as unit supply and buyer preference towards houses impact.

“Buyers continued to operate in a sellers’ market due to the heightened competition in securing a sale and exaggerated reduction in supply throughout lockdown weeks. The auction market remained phenomenally
strong, extending its historic run of clearance rates above 80 per cent for every month this year into recent lockdown months, hitting 89 per cent in September, the highest monthly result for the year to date,” the report says.

Nationally the report says:

• Median house prices close in on $1 million, rising 3.5 per cent over the September quarter to a new record
  high of $994,579.
• House prices experience the fastest annual rate of growth on record at 21.9 per cent.
• House prices have risen three times faster than units over the past year.
• Price relief is nearing as the rate of house price growth across capital cities halved in the quarter
  compared to last quarter, suggesting the peak pace of growth has passed.