Canberra’s median auction price for houses hits record high: Domain data

Canberra’s auction market has continued to show strength in recent months with clearance rates bucking the downward trend seen in other capital cities and the median auction price for houses hitting a record high of $829,167 in July.

According to Domain data, for the month of July the ACT had a 75.5 per cent clearance rate. Meanwhile, Sydney was 58.2 per cent and Melbourne was 47.3 per cent.

Ryan Thomas of Blackshaw Woden, Weston Creek & Molonglo attributed the high result to the low stock coupled with the high demand for houses from buyers.

Mr Thomas recently sold a four-bedroom property in Monash for $850,000 at auction, which brought 120 groups through the property over a shorter-than-usual campaign period.

“Not long ago we sold a property in Wanniassa that brought in 23 bidders and since then, we’ve noticed that there are a lot of buyers on the market who are pre-approved and ready to go,” Mr Thomas said.

“So we decided that instead of wasting time, we’ll just do a short two-and-a-half-week campaign, as opposed to a normal four-week campaign, to get more buyers.

“This strategy put a lot of urgency on our buyers and it worked in our favour.”

A lot of parties were also making strong pre-auction offers in a bid to secure the keys to a home sooner rather than later, Mr Thomas said.

“We had a lot of pre-auction offers for the Monash home but wanted to give everyone a chance to bid on it,” he said.

“I think there are a lot of people out there who keep missing out on auction and are trying their luck to get in first.”

Domain senior research analyst Dr Nicola Powell noted the proportion of scheduled auctions selling prior to their auction dates had lifted since February.

“The rising trend of selling prior to auction is something that unites the three major auction-centric markets; Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra,” Dr Powell said. 

“It could signal the buyer pool is not deep enough for a competitive auction, or vendors are being attracted to a quick sale given the changing health and economic outlook, or it could be a new hybrid method of selling hinging on a strong auction marketing campaign.”

Alisa Lawrence of Michael Potters Real Estate decided to bring the auction of a four-bedroom property in Duffy forward by 11 days after multiple pre-auction offers.

“It’s not something we did lightly because some buyers will miss out, or if you let the auction campaign run its course there’s a chance you’ll miss out on other buyers too,” Ms Lawrence said.

“It’s risky but it paid off in the end.”

Ms Lawrence said she had a lot of buyers who had been ready and eager to purchase since before the pandemic.

“We have a pool of buyers who are still waiting for the right house to come on the market,” Ms Lawrence said.