Is Canberra becoming more familiar with seven-digit sales?

Million-dollar homes were once confined to a handful of prestigious suburbs, but houses achieving this hefty price tag are becoming a more common occurrence across the territory.

Almost 600 houses (which includes townhouses) sold for above $1 million in the 12 months to the end of November 2017. Proportionately this equates to 13.1 per cent of the total houses transacted within this period; the year before the proportion was 9.9 per cent and in 2015 it was 7.8 per cent. A decade ago the proportion of sales above one million dollars was a mere 2.1 per cent. Houses achieving a million dollars remain a small segment of the market but figures are rising.

A record number of suburbs have a seven figure median price. The majority of these can be found in the Inner South and Inner North.

Eleven suburbs have a median house price in excess of a million dollars. Of these, six suburbs are in the Inner South, four in the Inner North and one in Woden Valley. It is no great surprise that many of the suburbs are renowned for their tightly held nature helping to create exclusive pockets of real estate.

Forrest is the most expensive suburb with a median house price of $2.95 million. It is the only suburb with a median price above $2 million, and it is only a matter of time before it breaks a $3 million median.

Forrest was the founder of Canberra’s million dollar suburbs back in 2002 and has remained above seven-figures since. It took another seven years before another Canberra suburb joined millionaires’ row. Red Hill hit a million dollar median in 2009. Since then the number of suburbs has continued to grow.

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Reid has the second most expensive median house price at $1.45 million, closely followed by Yarralumla at $1.43 million, Red Hill at $1,417,500 and Griffith at $1.4 million.

The only suburb to achieve a million-dollar median outside of the Inner North and Inner South is O’Malley, with a median of $1,393,750. Closely followed by Kingston at $1,372,500 and Turner at $1,312,500.

Deakin, Campbell and O’Connor complete the Canberra suburbs with a million-dollar median price, at $1.24 million, $1.185 million and $1.03 million respectively.

The next 12 months is certain to bring more suburbs into the million-dollar club with Canberra expected to experience another year of house price growth. Several suburbs are already edging close to this figure.