Canberra home prices have increased by the highest amount in more than a year but the longer term trend remains subdued, new data shows.
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Residential Property Price Index for the June quarter shows growth in value of 0.8 per cent.
This is the highest increase in value since the December quarter of 2012, when home prices jumped 2.3 per cent.
The index, which was released on Tuesday, shows Canberra home prices have increased by 2.2 per cent since the June quarter of last year. This is the lowest growth compared to all other capital cities.
The index shows house prices and attached dwellings – including apartments, townhouses and semi-detached houses – in the ACT have both increased 0.7 per cent over the quarter.
House prices have grown by 2.2 per cent over the previous year and attached dwellings by 1.8 per cent.
Canberra was the fifth best performed jurisdiction for the June quarter ahead of Darwin (0.7 per cent), Hobart (0.3 per cent) and Perth (-0.2 per cent).
The Residential Property Price Index showed the weighted average of the eight capital cities increased by 1.8 per cent in the June quarter and 10.1 per cent in the previous year.
Sydney was the strongest performer, recording growth in home prices of 3.1 per cent for the quarter and 15.6 per cent over the past year.
The ACT had the third highest mean price in the country of $581,000 behind NSW ($664,700) and Western Australia ($590,700).
The value of residential dwellings in the ACT for the June quarter was $90.356 million.
Domain Group senior economist Andrew Wilson said it was a positive result for the capital and there was a general sense that the market had picked up.
But he said it would take consecutive quarters of house price growth before it could be confirmed the market had started to consistently revive.
Dr Wilson said issues to do with the budget had likely been washed through the system by now, particularly in relation to sentiment.
“I think there’s a little more confidence in the market place generally and that might be helping to lift buyer activity,” he said.
“There’s plenty of upside potential for growth in the Canberra market and for locals it must start looking like there’s some good value opportunities there for buying in Canberra, particularly for changeover buyers.”
Housing Industry Association economist Diwa Hopkins said while it was too early to call it a trend, signs were mounting that national price growth was easing back to a more sustainable pace.
The ABS data shows that nationally the increase in home prices has contributed to the increase in the total value of residential dwellings to $5.2 trillion in June.
The mean price of dwellings is $554,800, an increase of $45,000 over the year.
