Is Canberra becoming more familiar with $1 million median

Canberra achieved its first million dollar residential property sale in 1988 and for the next ten years, homes that could attract a million dollar price tag were limited to a few prestigious suburbs.
Fast forward to today’s property market, where 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. This equates to 13.1% of the total houses transacted within this period; the year before the proportion was 9.9% and in 2015 it was 7.8%. A decade ago the proportion of sales above one million dollars was a mere 2.1%.

A record number of suburbs have a seven figure median price. Currently, eleven suburbs have a median house price in excess of one million dollars, with six located in the inner south, four located in the inner north and one in the 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 undisputed leader of the million dollar suburbs club, with a median house price of $2.95 million and it is the only Canberra suburb with a median price above $2 million and is close to cracking a $3 million median.

Reid has the second most expensive median house price at $1.45 million, closely followed by Yarralumla at $1.43 million, Red Hill at $1.42 million 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 $1.39 million.

Kingston, Turner, Deakin, Campbell and O’Connor complete the Canberra suburbs with a million-dollar median price, at $1,37 million, $1.31 million, $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.