Why Canberra property stands out: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder

Why Canberra property stands out: Hotspotting's Terry Ryder
Terry RyderDecember 17, 2020

EXPERT OBSERVER

It’s timely that I will be speaking at the Canberra Property Investment Summit on Saturday.

The Canberra market continues to get stronger. The trend in the past 12 months has been steady improvement in the national capital, quarter by quarter - and there have been further advances recently.

And while the Belconnen District remains the market leader in Canberra, challenges are emerging from other sectors.

Hotspotting’s quarterly surveys of sales activity shows a pattern of steadily rising demand in the Canberra market.

Following our Winter survey three months ago, we commented that the Canberra market was “the busiest it’s been since the Price Predictor Index surveys started three years ago”. In this latest (Spring) survey, it’s got even busier.

This reflects other statistics depicting a strong Canberra market. Vacancies remain below 1% (only Hobart has lower vacancies among the capital cities), rents are rising strongly (more so than in any other capital city) and there is evidence of solid price growth in some sectors in the market.

This is particularly so at the top end of the market. Canberra currently has seven suburbs with median house prices above $1 million and all but one has recorded significant growth in their median prices in the past 12 months.

The median price for O’Connor has risen 20% to $1.17 million, Red Hill is up 15% to $1.45 million, Garran has jumped 17% to reach $1.05 million, Deakin is up 11% to $1.32 million and Griffith has grown 10% to $1.52 million.

In addition the suburb of Lyneham, with a median price in the $900,000s, has increased 14%.

Only Yarralumla among the millionaire suburbs has failed to record major median price growth in the past year.

This strong Canberra performance has been built on a local economy that is always solid, underpinned by high average incomes and low unemployment levels.

The ACT consistently ranks in CommSec’s State of the States report as the nation’s third strongest economy behind New South Wales and Victoria.

Hotspotting’s latest quarterly survey indicates that the Belconnen District is still the market leader. It has six suburbs with rising sales activity and others with steady sales performance.

Growth markets in the Belconnen District include Bruce, Belconnen, Flynn, Hawker, Higgins and Macgregor.

The Belconnen District has become an increasingly active market in the past three years.

Throughout both 2013 and 2014, dwelling sales were between 420 and 460 in most quarters, but in 2017 and 2018 all quarters have recorded more than 500 sales, including several with over 600 sales.

But there are now growth clusters right across the Canberra metropolitan area.

The Tuggeranong District has emerged as a challenger to Belconnen’s status as market leader. There are now five suburbs in Tuggeranong with growth trajectories, including Banks, Calwell, Condor, Gordon and Kambah.

The Districts of Gungahlin and Weston Creek both have multiple suburbs with upwardly-mobile sales activity.

Overall, the data adds to the perception that Canberra is a market on the rise, with good prospects for solid price growth in the next 1-2 years.

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au
ryder@hotspotting.com.au
twitter.com/hotspotting

Terry Ryder

Terry Ryder is the founder of hotspotting.com.au.

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