'One of the busiest winter markets in Canberra': Agents expect market activity to increase

With winter upon us, Canberra’s property market typically enters hibernation, but the cold season may have come early this year for the property market.

The federal election and a late Easter long weekend paired with falling prices and tighter lending conditions have caused the recent lull in the market, according to agents.

While the winter slowdown started early, agents were confident the market would experience the spring heat earlier as the new ACT Home Buyer Concession Scheme came into effect from July.

“It looks like the perfect storm is brewing for a warm [market] despite cold temperatures,” Agent Team Belconnen director Steve Lowe said.

“In the wake of the federal election, we have certainty moving forward – there’s the news about APRA relaxing restrictions, first-home buyers are poised to enter the market [and] the expected rate cuts.

“You bring all that together and it’s all good signs for the property market.”

Mr Lowe said he has a number of sellers who are waiting until the next financial year to put their properties on the market. From July 1, stamp duty will be exempt on all properties for first-home buyers in the ACT who earn less than $160,000 per year. 

Signs also point to first-home buyers in the territory holding off until the new changes take effect. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, released last month, found first-home buyer lending is at its lowest level in more than two and a half years.

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It will be the busiest winter for Canberra real estate in about 20 years, according to Impact Properties principal Shaun Iqbal.

“This season, on the back of the federal election and the banking royal commission, we’ll have one of the busiest winter markets in Canberra,” he said.

“Sellers are starting to come back into the market – they were holding off in the March quarter but since May we have started to list a lot of properties.” 

The volume of new listings typically drops over the winter months. In 2018, 2227 properties were put up for sale over autumn, but only 1810 properties were listed over winter. In spring the number of new listings was 2828.

But this year, autumn was much slower. Year-on-year, auction volume in March and April was down 12.3 per cent and 28.9 per cent, respectively. The volume in May dropped by almost half, down 45 per cent.

While total supply was up, over May, average days on market for houses in Canberra was up 51 per cent year to 71 days. Despite this, the clearance rate of 51 per cent was the highest monthly clearance rate in more than six months. 

Mr Iqbal said appraisals at his agency have doubled over the past two weeks.

Since the federal election, there’s been a 6 per cent increase in appraisals in the ACT, according to Domain data, lower than the 11 per cent lift nationally.

The number of attendees at open homes in Canberra has also increased but only marginally at 2 per cent – nationally this has risen by 10 per cent.