Canberra has recorded its highest median house price following an improvement in the local economy and renewed buyer interest, according to a new report.
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Australian Property Monitors' quarterly housing report, issued on Thursday, shows the Canberra housing market staging a revival in recent months to record growth of 1.8 per cent for the June quarter and 4.2 per cent for the past year.
Canberra recorded a median house price of $576,248 for the June quarter, compared with $553,138 in the same quarter last year.
This gives Canberra the fourth highest price nationwide at $12,000 more than the national median house price.
The previous price peak for the capital was recorded in December 2010 with a median of $571,000.
The data, which is based on house sales, also shows that five suburbs in the ACT recorded a house price growth of more than 10 per cent during the 12 months to June.
These were Griffith (17.5 per cent), Forde (14.7 per cent), Fadden (13.7 per cent), Bonner (13.6 per cent) and Weston (10.6 per cent). Griffith had the highest median house price at $1,200,000, up from $1,030,000 last year.
Australian Property Monitors senior economist Andrew Wilson said Canberra had followed a national trend of growth, with Sydney and Perth also recording record prices.
He said the market was now back up and running following the fall in prices in the first quarter of this year, which was attributed to the flow-through effect of public service job cuts at the end of last year.
"Certainly the buyer momentum is there now, confidence is back in the market, a lot of that negativity that characterised the atmosphere of the market a year ago has now disappeared," said Dr Wilson.
"There's a lot more confidence in the market from both buyers and sellers. We're also seeing a lot of interest from investors as well."
The economist also expects the ACT to record almost 5 per cent growth for the year. But he said this would depend on what happened to the local economy during the September quarter, particularly in relation to large-scale job cuts and the impact on the Canberra-based public service.
Nationally, house prices grew 2.8 per cent over the June quarter to record the best result since March 2010.
Sydney recorded the highest median house price of $690,064, which was an increase of 2.7 per cent over the quarter and 6.7 per cent for the year.
