Australian Bureau of Statistics figures issued on Tuesday showed that established house prices rose just 0.4 per cent in the December quarter and attached dwellings by only 0.1 per cent.

These small rises contributed to a national rise in home prices of 3.4 per cent during the quarter.

The Residential Property Price Index, which includes houses and attached dwellings, indicates Canberra homes increased by 0.3 per cent over the quarter but fell 0.3 per cent compared with a year ago.

Property experts say that despite the relatively small growth in ACT prices the market is beginning to turn around because of an increase in loan approvals last year.

Nationally home prices rose by 9.3 per cent during the year.

According to the ABS this is the largest through-the-year rise since the September quarter in 2010.

Established house prices rose 3.5 per cent and attached dwellings by 3 per cent during the December quarter.

Attached dwellings include flats, apartments, semi-detached, row and terrace houses.

Sydney led the capital cities' growth for the third consecutive quarter with a house price rise of 4.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent for attached dwellings.

Housing Industry Association senior economist Shane Garrett said house prices were unexpectedly weak because of uncertainty in the market at the end of the year.

He said the federal public service job cuts meant fewer people were travelling to the ACT for work, which would lead to less demand for houses.

But Mr Garrett expected prices to steady before replicating the growth seen in other slow-moving areas in recent times.

"I think given what's happening in the rest of the country it will be a matter of time before Canberra will start to see growth," he said.

Mr Garrett said a clear turnaround was happening in the ACT with the increase in the number of loans although price growth still remained slow.

According to additional ABS data issued on Tuesday housing finance provided to owner-occupiers in the territory rose by 1.8 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in December.

This followed a much larger increase of 12.9 per cent the month before.

The value of home loans during December totalled $289 million, which was just $4 million less than loan values for November.

Real Estate Institute of the ACT president Michael Kumm said all the signs were looking positive for growth in the territory and Canberra usually followed the trends in the Sydney and Melbourne markets.

He said there were a lot of buyers around Canberra with large numbers of people coming to open inspections and investors from Sydney were also showing interest in properties.

The ABS data also shows the total value of residential properties in Australia rose to $5.02 trillion in the December quarter, up from $4.38 trillion.

The average price of Australia's 9.3 million residential properties is now $539,400, which is an increase of $17,700 over the past quarter.

The ACT has the third-highest-price residential dwellings with an average of $568,300 behind NSW ($633,200) and Western Australia ($593,200).