5 May 2017

Gungahlin the hotspot for Canberra house price growth

| Glynis Quinlan
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Gungahlin house prices

The Gungahlin region is proving to be Canberra’s property hotspot with data consistently showing it has the city’s highest growth in house prices.

In the first three months of this year, Gungahlin was Canberra’s top performer with the median house price increasing 7.7 per cent to $670,500 according to Domain Group data.

Gungahlin also recorded the strongest house price growth over the past year with an increase of 15.6 per cent.

Capping this off, the three Gungahlin suburbs of Harrison, Crace and Bonner have recorded Canberra’s highest growth in house prices over the past five years.

According to data recently released by Domain Group, Harrison’s house prices have more than doubled – growing a massive 104.6 per cent to $628,000 in the five years to December 2016.

During that period, the Crace median house price grew by 66.7 per cent to $690,000 and Bonner’s median house price grew by 62.5 per cent to $585,000.

Overall ACT house prices increased by 19.6 per cent over the same period with the growth aided by falling interest rates.

In the March 2017 quarter, the Canberra housing market has also done well, recording the strongest price growth of all capital cities.

The median house price grew to a record high of $705,059 – an increase of 5.3 per cent.

According to Domain Group chief economist, Andrew Wilson, the Gungahlin suburbs of Harrison, Crace and Bonner are still relatively affordable despite their dramatic house price growth.

“I think that reflects the value as Gungahlin’s development progresses over the period,” Mr Wilson said.

Allhomes data scientist, Nicola Powell, said the rise of Gungahlin house prices is in keeping with Australian Bureau of Statistics data which shows that the suburbs of Harrison, Crace and Bonner are in the ACT’s top 10 in terms of population growth.

Dr Powell said that first home buyers and ‘upsizers’ have contributed to the house price growth.

“They quite like purchasing a new home and these three suburbs have seen a lot of development occurring,” she said.

Other Canberra suburbs to perform strongly over the past five years include Yarralumla and Weston.

Yarralumla recorded the ACT’s fourth-highest growth in house prices during this period with the median house price rising by 42.1 per cent to $1,442,500.

The fifth-biggest growth rate was recorded by Weston, where the median house price rose by 32.1 per cent to $700,000.

All ACT suburbs recorded house price growth over the past five years, with the exception of Bonython, which saw a 0.7 per cent decrease, and Florey, which saw a 1.2 per cent decrease.

Why do you think Gungahlin house prices have been growing so much? Do you think this trend will continue? What are your tips for areas which will go ahead? Please share them in the comments section.

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JC said :

o2bidle said :

I think ‘house prices’ in those suburbs have grown so much because the data from 5 years ago includes land sales. The price of a block of land tends to increase quite a bit when you put a big shiny new house on it.

Yes and no. This is median house price not land. What you are saying is what leads to rates rises after 5 years or so.

But this news is just really reflective of what happens in newer areas as people move in and suburbs get established and become less building sites.

I mean the median house price data is wrong. If Bonner’s median house price rose 62.5% to $585,000 over the last 5 years that means it was $360,000 in 2011. I remember you could buy a block of land or a handful of ‘affordable’ units or townhouses in Bonner for that much back then, but not an ordinary house. Most house and land packages were over $500K then. I reckon the ‘data scientists’ must have neglected to take land sales out of the dataset.

JC said :

dungfungus said :

It’s ironic that the highest price increases are in the suburbs with the smallest block sizes and the smallest streets plus the most limited access to the rest of Canberra.

That’s a pretty Tuggeranong centric view of Gungahlin there dungers. Ever stop to think those that live there might like it? As for connections to rest of Canberra it is no better or worse than anywhere in Canberra. And of course has a massive advantage over Tuggeranong that it is closer to everywhere worse in Canberra except Tuggeranong. Tuggeranong is a double hope to everywhere except Woden!

I know a lot of people who live in the Gungahlin area. Some that moved there 15 years ago now have their children in late teens / early 20s and all have cars. The same thing has happened to every other family in the street / cul-de-sac the result being there is no where to park. The blocks and street widths then were small with no space to park extra vehicles off street but compared to the micro blocks being released now they were large.

You moved there recently so you will experience the same problem in 10 years time. Good luck with that.

You say I am Tuggers-centric? Maybe, I mean I am only 10 minutes from Woden or TCH, 25 minutes from Canberra City, 10 minutes from Tuggers Town Centre etc.
I used to be able to drive to the top of Gungahlin and return in one hour; now it takes one and a half hours minutes so don’t try and tell me entrance and exit to Gungahlin is no worse than anywhere else in Canberra.

The truth is that people who are settling there have little choice due to the market being controlled. Nevertheless they are happy to get established anywhere.

People who are moving there will be happy twice, the day they move in and the day they move out.

dungfungus said :

It’s ironic that the highest price increases are in the suburbs with the smallest block sizes and the smallest streets plus the most limited access to the rest of Canberra.

That’s a pretty Tuggeranong centric view of Gungahlin there dungers. Ever stop to think those that live there might like it? As for connections to rest of Canberra it is no better or worse than anywhere in Canberra. And of course has a massive advantage over Tuggeranong that it is closer to everywhere worse in Canberra except Tuggeranong. Tuggeranong is a double hope to everywhere except Woden!

dungfungus said :

JC said :

o2bidle said :

I think ‘house prices’ in those suburbs have grown so much because the data from 5 years ago includes land sales. The price of a block of land tends to increase quite a bit when you put a big shiny new house on it.

Yes and no. This is median house price not land. What you are saying is what leads to rates rises after 5 years or so.

But this news is just really reflective of what happens in newer areas as people move in and suburbs get established and become less building sites.

I thought rates were calculated against the unimproved capital value so they will be the same whether the land is vacant or built on.

You are of course technically right. But the point I was making is as a suburb develops the cost of the property (which includes the land) also goes up more than more established areas. So it is no surprise that gungahlin has the highest rises in the ACT. Soon it will be Molongolos time.

JC said :

o2bidle said :

I think ‘house prices’ in those suburbs have grown so much because the data from 5 years ago includes land sales. The price of a block of land tends to increase quite a bit when you put a big shiny new house on it.

Yes and no. This is median house price not land. What you are saying is what leads to rates rises after 5 years or so.

But this news is just really reflective of what happens in newer areas as people move in and suburbs get established and become less building sites.

I thought rates were calculated against the unimproved capital value so they will be the same whether the land is vacant or built on.

devils_advocate10:18 am 08 May 17

Gungahlin house prices have grown because of: cheap credit (low interest rates); lax lending standards that don’t take into account future ability to repay; and drip-feeding of land release in the ACT.

It’s ironic that the highest price increases are in the suburbs with the smallest block sizes and the smallest streets plus the most limited access to the rest of Canberra.

o2bidle said :

I think ‘house prices’ in those suburbs have grown so much because the data from 5 years ago includes land sales. The price of a block of land tends to increase quite a bit when you put a big shiny new house on it.

Yes and no. This is median house price not land. What you are saying is what leads to rates rises after 5 years or so.

But this news is just really reflective of what happens in newer areas as people move in and suburbs get established and become less building sites.

I think ‘house prices’ in those suburbs have grown so much because the data from 5 years ago includes land sales. The price of a block of land tends to increase quite a bit when you put a big shiny new house on it.

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