Canberra market bounces back as spring rises

The Canberra home auction market bounced back at the weekend with a robust result for sellers following the previous weekend’s relatively subdued result that heralded the beginning of the spring selling season.

Canberra recorded a clearance rate of 72.5 percent on the weekend which was well ahead of the 65.9 per cent reported over the previous weekend but lower than the 78.4 per cent recorded over the same Saturday last year.

57 homes were listed for auction on the weekend in Canberra which was just ahead of the 55 auctioned the previous weekend and well ahead of the 44 listed over the same weekend last year. Canberra will host 54 auctions next weekend.

Weston Creek reported the highest regional clearance rate at the weekend with a 100 per cent result from the 3 reported auctions. Next highest was Canberra Central with 91.7 per cent followed by Belconnen 88.9 per cent, Woden Valley 60.0 per cent, Gungahlin 55.6 per cent and Tuggeranong with  clearance rate of just 36.4 per cent.

Notable sales reported at the weekend included a  4  bedroom home at 70 Hicks  Street Red Hill sold for  $1,550,000 by Luton Properties – Manuka, another  4  bedroom home at 11 Turner  Place Yarralumla sold for  $1,415,000 by Peter Blackshaw Real Estate, a  4  bedroom home at 30 Swinden  Street Downer sold by Belle Property Kingston for  $1,385,000, a  3  bedroom unit at 54/47 Blackall  Street Barton sold for  $1,360,000 by Philip Kouvelis Real estate and another  3  bedroom home at 13 Bates  Street Dickson sold by LJ Hooker Dickson for  $1,009,000.

The most expensive property reported sold at auction was a  5  bedroom home at 36 Norman  Place Deakin sold for  $1,675,000 by Peter Blackshaw Real Estate. The most affordable property reported sold at the weekend was a  2  bedroom home at 22 Disney  Court Belconnen sold for  $384,000 also by Peter Blackshaw Real Estate.

For a list of Canberra auction results click here Canberra auction results September 9.

Canberra recorded a median auction price of $673,750 on Saturday which was well below the $710,000 reported over the previous weekend but 4.5 per cent higher than the $645,000 recorded over the same weekend last year. A total of $26.8m was reported sold at auction in Canberra at the weekend.

Low and falling interest rates have been a key catalyst that has driven the Canberra home auction market over the past five years. Official rates however have now remained at current levels for over a year with the Reserve Bank deciding predictably to continue its recent stance of steady rates over September.

Despite the recently steady official interest rate policy, the national economy continues to produce modest results.

The ABS has released the latest GDP economic growth data for the June quarter which revealed a national increase of 0.8 per cent over the quarter and a rise of 1.8 per cent over the year.

Although the quarterly result was an improvement on the 0.3 per cent recorded over the previous quarter, the annual growth rate together with the previous March quarter result remain the lowest reported for any quarter since the 1.2 per cent recorded over the September quarter 2009 which was clearly impacted by the GFC.

The ACT was an economic growth underperformer over the June quarter with state final demand decreasing by 0.2 per cent following an increase of 0.6 per cent over the previous March quarter and increased by just 1.2 per cent over the year.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket.