Canberra's median house price has hit another record high. Photo: Graham Tidy The Canberra housing market has continued its strong performance of the past year into 2017 with buyer and seller activity clearly on the rise.
The median asking price for a Canberra house surged by 4.7 per cent over the March quarter to a new record high $589,000. Canberra asking prices for houses were 10.1 percent higher than the $535,000 recorded over the March quarter last year.
Unit asking prices also increased over the March quarter – rising by 1.2 percent to $399,000 and an annual increase of 2.0 per cent.
Other measure of housing market activity were also clearly positive for Canberra with newly listed houses increasing by 75 over the March quarter to 1178 compared to the same period last year – an increase of 6.8 per cent.
Newly listed units also increased sharply over the March quarter compared to the March quarter of 2016 – up by 17.8 per cent to 629 and reflecting the recent surge in new apartment development.
The average days on market for a privately sold house in Canberra has fallen from 66 to 63 over the past year with the average discount rate still low at just 4.4 per cent over the March quarter.
The average selling time for a privately sold unit in Canberra over the March quarter remained significantly higher than houses at 105 days but similar to the 106 recorded over the March quarter, 2016. The average discount rate for privately sold units in Canberra has however fallen over the past year down from 4.8 per cent to 4.3 per cent.
Low interest rates are a key ingredient of a strengthening Canberra housing market over the past year.
Although rates remain on hold, latest economic data remains mixed with the national unemployment rate now at a year high 5.9 per cent and latest retail sales data disappointing. A number of capitals have unemployment rates significantly higher than a year ago. A continued deterioration in the jobless rate and weak retail spending will likely result in official rate cuts sooner rather than later.
Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group chief economist. Twitter@DocAndrewWilson Join on LinkedIn and Facebook at MyHousingMarket.