Demand may be easing for housing blocks in the capital, but Nicole Lawes said initial sales at Molonglo were a harrowing experience.
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Ms Lawes and her husband, Quang Tu, bought their Wright block at auction in June 2010 in a debut bidding experience she described as stressful.
''The ballot is probably easier. We were competing against builders and developers, it was quite hard,'' Ms Lawes, currently living in Richardson with her husband and one-year-old daughter Savannah, said. She was also surprised by the $300,000 plus price tag.
''We were expecting less than that,'' she said. ''We did it spontaneously. We just went to the auction thinking we'd like [the block] and we just got carried away because we really wanted it.''
With the four-bedroom home set to be completed by the time her second child arrives in September, Ms Lawes said she had no regrets about bypassing the ballot process and bidding for her block.
''My husband proposed during a hot-air balloon flight over this land,'' she said.
''That's why we wanted to buy here. We went to the auction for a rather sentimental reason.''
Shane Radnell, of Colliers International, said 100 blocks were up for auction at the first land release in 2010.
''Because that was the first land to be released out there, the auction gave people the chance to bid for the block they wanted,'' he said.
''We probably had about 7000 to 8000 people there on the day to pick up those blocks.''
The remaining 343 blocks released in stages one and two of Wright went through the ballot process, and the first release for Coombs was to go to ballot by June.
