Canberra house prices fall over past three months but still higher than last year

House prices in Canberra have fallen over the past three months but over the year the median remains marginally higher, new data shows.

Canberra’s median house price of $738,864 dropped 0.7 per cent over the September quarter, the Domain House Price Report found, but it is 0.6 per cent higher than this time last year.

This is the third consecutive quarter that house prices have experienced a quarterly fall, says Domain senior research analyst Nicola Powell.

“This is the first time house prices have weakened now for three quarters since 2011, but again these moderations in price are only minor,” she said.

“Canberra is one of only three capital cities to record annual house price growth, so there is still strength in Canberra compared to the other capital cities.”

Canberra house prices reached their highest point in December 2018, and Dr Powell said the median was 1.2 per cent lower than the peak.

On a district level, only one region experienced a decline in its median house price with the Inner North falling 6.4 per cent to $880,000. The median is only $30,000 more than Woden Valley.

While the median has fallen, Peter Blackshaw Real Estate managing director Andrew Chamberlain said that was likely a reflection of the stock being offered to market rather than a decline in the value.

“I would not say the actual values have declined, that’s a statistical anomaly, I would venture there have perhaps been higher sales in the year before that pushed the value up,” he said.

“The activity in the Inner North is strong, auction clearance rates are strong – the change would not translate to individual stock.” 

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The highest growth was in Weston Creek where the median of $713,500 was up 6.5 per cent.

While house prices have remained relatively steady, the median unit price of $432,252 is down 4.4 per cent over the past three months and is 3.4 per cent lower than the same time last year.

The Inner North and Woden Valley have borne the brunt of the unit declines. Inner North’s unit median of $465,000 is down 2.1 per cent over the quarter at 1.5 per cent over the year.

Woden Valley’s median of $430,000 is down 5.9 per cent over the quarter and 3.4 per cent over the year.

“What is interesting about units is we have mixed results across our districts and that is what I anticipated to see,” said Dr Powell.

“We have seen a heightened level of development across Canberra and that’s been happening for a number of years now and that’s been concentrated in certain pockets.”

But Dr Powell said entry-level units were showing greater weakness than those in the upper-level.

“The entry-level prices for units have fallen more than the upper – both have fallen but entry-level prices are down 6.7 per cent whereas the upper end of the market is down only 0.9 per cent over the year,” said Dr Powell. 

“On the flip side, it may be a compositional change of what is being offered on the market.

“We have a lot of apartments now that are specifically targeted at first-home buyers and what that means is it’s a property type of a lower-price point.”

While the medians for houses and units were not showing great improvement on last year, Mr Chamberlain said buyer inquiry was up across the board.

“There is a significantly higher inquiry rate on properties from this point last year to today – at least a 20 per cent increase on houses,” he added, 

“It’s an interesting time in the market, it’s been pretty much a steady improvement since the election, and rather than it being a bounce it’s been a steady improvement that is sustainable in my view.”

Auction clearance rates are also up year-on-year. Last Saturday 69 per cent of auctioned properties sold on the day, compared with 45 per cent on the same Saturday last year, according to Domain data.