The Canberra region where the median house price ticked over $2 million

A Canberra region recorded an eye-watering median house price of over $2 million despite the annual pace of growth in the ACT slowing to an 18-month low, according to a new report. 

The Domain House Price Report, released on Thursday for the June quarter, reveals that the Inner South’s median house price increased over the quarter by 5.1 per cent to $2.05 million, up 13.9 per cent year-on-year.

It is Canberra’s most expensive region in which to purchase a house and recorded the biggest quarterly change. It is the only district with a median house price of more than $2 million. 

This comes after the ACT median hit $1,154,535, growing by 1.8 per cent over the quarter and 14.3 per cent year-on-year. 

Across the Canberra regions, all but Weston Creek and Woden Valley continued to grow over the quarter. The median house price fell by 1.6 per cent in Weston Creek and by 1.3 per cent Woden Valley. 

Despite the quarterly decline, every region recorded double-digit annual growth over the full year.

Even though the Inner South recorded the highest median price and the most growth over the quarter, it was being impacted by the changing market just as the other regions are, according to Samuel Thompson of LJ Hooker Manuka. 

“The Inner South will always be top-of-the-line real estate in Canberra, but we have seen price adjustments starting to happen more often in the past three months,” he said. 

“The area itself is not untouched in the changing market, but it will always continue to be highly sought-after in the Canberra region.” 

The popularity and quality of houses in the area had caused the Inner South to maintain its value, despite the shifting market, Thompson added. 

“I believe this will remain the case long-term; Canberra’s Inner South suburbs are always going to be the place [in which] to buy,” he said. 

“What we are seeing now is that the urgency among buyers to find a property has slowed, and the patterns that we were seeing in the marketplace months ago are different to the trends now.

“[Buyers across Canberra] are being a lot more cautious and are taking more time when making purchasing decisions in the current market.”

When Lorena Orp moved from Sydney to Canberra, changing market conditions provided the perfect opportunity for finding a home in Canberra in July, after looking and renting since February. 

“We were trying to get a feel for where we wanted to live and how much we were willing to spend,” she said.

It took five months for Orp to scope out Canberra’s regions for properties within her price range, but she ended up finding her dream home. 

“We found a bit of a shift in the market as we were looking,” she said. “During COVID, especially here in Canberra, prices were extremely high, and then we started noticing it was following Sydney’s trend where prices were starting to drop slightly.

“We weren’t in a rush, and if we happened to find the right home, we would just go for it – at the right price, of course.” 

Wanting to keep to the budget as much as possible, Orp ensured she found the perfect house before making a commitment. The shift in the market helped her do so.

Domain’s data from the June quarter reveals that conditions are easing from what was a very extreme period of growth in the market during the pandemic despite the Inner South’s record median house price, Domain’s chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said. 

“While [house prices] did jump over the quarter – 5 per cent in the Inner South is definitely a robust amount – I think what we are seeing now is growth slowing,” she said. 

“While house prices overall grew over the quarter, they did decline in the previous one, and overall they still remain below those record highs.

“Demand is still high, we’ve still got robust levels of home loans being financed, it’s just at a lower rate and has eased from what we were seeing.”