The property market remains hot, despite an up-and-down year. Photo: Independent Property Group.
Canberra’s property prices have experienced their strongest upswing in history over the last 12 months, seeing the median house price exceed $1 million. According to industry experts, there’s no reason to believe the growth won’t continue in 2022, albeit at a slower rate.
Data from the latest Allhomes quarterly property price report outlines market growth for each region since September last year. The Inner South immediately presents as a clear winner, with house prices up a whopping 42.2 per cent.
Allhomes Quarterly Housing Price Report – houses (September 2021). Image: Screenshot.
The second-fastest house price growth was experienced in Woden Valley (36.6 per cent), followed by the Inner North, Weston Creek, Belconnen and Tuggeranong. But even the region with the lowest growth rate, Molonglo, is up 18 per cent.
Unit prices across the board have stayed relatively consistent with last year. The fastest growth – 15.3 per cent – was in Tuggeranong.
Allhomes Quarterly Housing Price Report – units (September 2021).
CoreLogic Head of Residential Research Australia Eliza Owen says the rises broadly follow the traditional growth pattern where the higher end of a market sees higher growth rates.
She says at least two factors are at play, one responsible for the lift in property values across Australia and the other specific to Canberra.
“The broad-based factors would be things like record low-interest rates, a lot of the savings that were pent up during lockdowns, and earlier on in the cycle, some of the incentives that were in place for home purchases, such as the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme,” Ms Owen said.
The Canberra region also has relatively high incomes.
“Affordability isn’t as stretched as it is in Sydney and Melbourne because property prices were initially quite low compared to income in Canberra anyway.”
At the moment, the perfect recipe for increasing prices is still in place: high demand and low supply.
Independent Property Group CEO Kylie Dennis says that the past year has been hectic for real estate agents.
“It’s very common to have up to 100 groups of people coming through a property that’s for sale,” she said.
She says all the indicators point to growth continuing over the coming year, even if it slows down.
“If you listen to the doomsayers, they say that it can’t keep going up and up like this and that sooner or later, the bottom of the market will drop out. No one has a crystal ball, but all the indicators are pointing to this not happening anytime soon.”
COVID-19 was expected to bring about the beginning of the end for the housing market, and although it presented some logistic difficulties for both sellers and buyers, the opposite occurred.
Ms Dennis has more reassuring news for anyone waiting for the opportune moment to invest or buy.
“There has never been a downturn in the Canberra housing market that has gone beyond the previous low. If you’ve got a deposit ready, the time is now.”
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