![\"Suburban](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2024-09-03-Apartments-6-1200x800.jpg\")
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Value for money: The Molonglo Valley is leading the field in price growth. Photo: Michelle Kroll.<\/p>\n
The median price of a Canberra detached house is back over the million-dollar mark as the residential market continued its rise in August.<\/p>\n
The Cotality Home Value Index showed that prices overall increased 0.4 per cent in August, contributing to a 1.5 per cent rise for the quarter, a 2.1 per cent rise for the year to date, and a 1.6 per cent rise for the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
However, the big mover has been in demand for detached houses, which rose 0.6 per cent in August, driving the median price to $1,008,291.<\/p>\n
Prices for detached houses have now risen by 2.6 per cent in 2025 and are up 2.1 per cent over the past year.<\/p>\n
Prices for units and townhouses actually slipped marginally by -0.2 per cent during August. The sector has remained flat over the past year, but they up in 2025 by 0.5 per cent, with a median of $595,000<\/p>\n
The market has been edging upwards since January, encouraged by falling interest rates and the prospect of further cuts, with the overall median now at $873,000.<\/p>\n
The bringing forward of the Federal Government\u2019s expanded first-home buyer\u2019s scheme to 1 October is also expected to add impetus to the market as the spring selling season gathers pace and more stock becomes available.<\/p>\n
The scheme\u2019s 5 per cent deposit requirement, new property price cap of $1 million, and removal of lender\u2019s mortgage insurance should open up the market to new entrants, particularly those seeking detached houses in outer areas.<\/p>\n
![\"house](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cotality-home-values-August2025.jpg\")
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The market has been edging upwards since January, encouraged by falling interest rates and the prospect of further cuts. Table: Cotality.<\/p>\n
Cotality research director Tim Lawless said first-home buyers generally preferred detached houses, probably as they\u2019re looking to start families, so he expected whatever new stock became available to be absorbed quickly in a sellers\u2019 market.<\/p>\n
Mr Lawless said that about 715 houses were listed for sale during August, which is about 22 per cent below the five-year average and 24 per cent lower than a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe improvement through spring in the new listings flow will definitely be well received, but it strikes me that it\u2019s coming from a fairly low base, and if buyers become more active, it just means that the stock\u2019s being snapped up more quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In contrast, in the unit sector, more than 1000 homes were advertised for sale over the same period, about the same as a year ago, and about 12 per cent above the previous five-year average.<\/p>\n
Mr Lawless said Canberra\u2019s two-speed market showed the difference supply made to prices.<\/p>\n
He said there were still a lot of units and townhouses to be built, whereas house construction had been constrained in the last decade or so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about three-quarters of new completions have been in the multi-unit sector across the ACT,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good lesson in just how high levels of supply can keep a lid on value growth and support affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, for those seeking capital gains in the unit sector, Canberra had not been attractive.<\/p>\n
All districts except North Canberra experienced price gains over the past 12 months, with this negative result skewed by the number of units in that area.<\/p>\n
Mr Lawless said the trend for North Canberra was positive this year, so he would be surprised if it stayed in the negative for too long.<\/p>\n
Molonglo stretched its lead in the annual growth figures to 7.1 per cent, assisted by lower prices, followed by South Canberra (3.7%), Tuggeranong (2.8%), Belconnen (2.4%), Weston Creek (1.1%), Woden (.07%), Gungahlin (0.3%), and North Canberra (-1.4%).<\/p>\n
Mr Lawless said that while he expected the market to continue rising, he did not foresee another boom due to fairly tight lending policies and the first-home buyer guarantee price caps keeping a lid on that exuberance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we should be expecting is a moderate, reasonably sustainable level of growth going forward, with the ACT having those high supply levels in the apartment sector, still seeing those two-tier conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nationally, Cotality\u2019s Home Value Index rose 0.7 per cent in August, the strongest month-on-month gain since May last year, pushing the annual change higher for the second month in a row, to 4.1 per cent.<\/p>\n
Mr Lawless said the growth cycle had been gradually building momentum since the February rate cut, with buyer demand spurred by a lift in borrowing capacity, real wages growth, rising confidence and what is likely to be a growing sense of urgency as advertised stock levels remain tight.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, we are seeing a clear mismatch between available supply and demonstrated demand, placing upward pressure on housing values,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Value for money: The Molonglo Valley is leading the field in price growth. Photo: Michelle Kroll. The median…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,63,99,171],"class_list":["post-111729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-markets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}