Dylan Berkrey and cavoodle Winnie: Dylan and his fiancée Emma are happy to wait for the right property. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Potential homebuyer Dylan Berkrey isn’t about to rush into a purchase as Canberra property prices continue to edge upwards and the prospect of interest cuts likely draws more people into the market.
Cotality Home Value Index data out today show ACT prices rising 0.5 per cent overall in July, with in-demand detached houses (0.6%) outpacing units and townhouses (0.2%)
The overall median price sits at about $860,000, the third highest behind Sydney and boom town Brisbane. For houses, it’s about $985,000, again in the same order, while for units and townhouses, it’s about $590,000, now the third lowest in the country.
Mr Berkrey, a teacher, and his fiancée Emma Norton, who will also be teaching next year, are renting a townhouse in Oaks Estate but keeping an eye on the market.
With a wedding to plan, they are happy to wait another 12 months if need be, but would take the plunge if a suitable property within budget popped up.
They are looking in South Canberra and Queanbeyan for a house or townhouse under $900,000 with some sort of yard for their cavoodle Winnie.
Saving for a deposit as well as a wedding has been challenging, but Mr Berkrey is lucky to have bought a studio apartment in Cootamundra to gain a rung on the housing ladder.
Still, the prices can still be intimidating. But that’s where compromise will have to be part of the equation.
“It’s going to be impossible to tick all the boxes of what we would like, because we see a couple of things come up in Queanbeyan and then we sort of look at the price of it and then realise that it’s just not achievable,” Mr Berkrey said.
“It’s just trying to figure out what compromises are the best.”
Canberra continues to be in the top tier for house and unit prices. Table: Cotality.
Mr Berkrey finds it hard to gauge prices, especially when most properties are going to auction.
”I look weekly just to sort of see what is out there, but I find it very hard to compare different properties,” he said.
“A lot of the time I think it’s higher than what I would have originally thought.”
It was frustrating to make the effort to inquire about a property, inspect it, and then realise that it was out of their budget anyway.
About eight months ago, they made an offer on a townhouse, but it was probably more than what they could afford.
There had been competition, but only about three to four couples at open homes.
Mr Berkrey said Plan B could be to buy another cheap investment property in country NSW, a growing trend among young homebuyers unable to land their dream home in the capitals.
While the price trajectory, especially for houses, is definitely up, the Canberra market remains patchy.
The Property Collective’s Will Honey said the price increase was partly due to a lack of properties in the seasonal listings downturn.
That should change come spring with a number of new listings on the runway as vendors prepare their properties for sale.
The inflation data this week all but confirmed that interest rates will fall, which should bring both buyers and sellers into the market.
“The buyer demand will probably keep that from being an oversupplied market,” Mr Honey said.
“The other thing that we’ve seen is the auction clearance rates. They’re creeping up towards the 70 per cent mark, where in the first half of the year it was sort of averaging around 50 per cent.
“So that’s another sign that there’s probably fewer properties on the market and the buyer demand is still relatively strong.”
Molonglo still leads the annual price growth in Canberra at 5.5 per cent, way ahead of Tuggeranong at 2.6 per cent.
Mr Honey said this new area furnished an eclectic mix of housing types from house and land packages to townhouses and apartments, so it was no surprise that it was attracting many new buyers.
He said a couple of rate cuts might start a rush, and some people were preempting that, but at present, it was patchy with some properties pulling up to 30 interest buyers but others just single digits.
Nationally, prices rose by 0.6 per cent in July, marking the sixth straight month of gains since the first rate cut in February.
