Antonia and Ryan Young have relocated from Sydney and spent the Christmas and New Year period searching for their new family home in Canberra.

"We have been looking in the Canberra market for the last two to three months," Ms Young said.

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"We were on a tight schedule because we had to come and make a life here."

Initially, the pair considered buying a house in the outskirts of Canberra before deciding an apartment closer to the city would be better suited to their budget and lifestyle.

"The houses we were looking at, that in my opinion were knock-down houses, were going for close to $700,000. Then you'd have to put a whole lot of money into doing that up so I thought well, we wouldn't be able to afford that," Ms Young said.

The median house price in Canberra is now $1,032,331. It's the second most expensive capital city following Sydney, where the median is $1,389,948 according to CoreLogic.

This time last year, the median house price in Canberra was $770,232.

Ms Young said she had always thought of Canberra as more affordable than Sydney's "red hot" property market, but said the capital is now catching up.

"[Canberra] has skyrocketed in terms of price and it looks like it's happened very quickly. We did have a look [for property] in August knowing that we might be moving and even from August 2021 to now, that exponential growth has been huge in Canberra," she said.

The pair had even considered renting but said the cost of rent in the Canberra, which is now the most expensive in Australia, steered them towards purchasing.

The latest ABS data shows ACT recorded the third highest interstate migration numbers across the capital cities, with 851 people arriving in the capital during the 2020-2021 financial year. The Centre for Population has forecast interstate migration to the ACT will reach 900 arrivals during the 2021-2022 financial year.

Buyer's agent Claire Corby of Capital Buyers Agency said interstate buyers have mixed reactions when arriving in the ACT.

For some, Canberra still offers value for money but for others the housing prices come as a surprise, especially for those who have previously lived in or visited the ACT.

"For the ones that know Canberra, a lot of them come to me and say, 'I've got X dollars for a house, this is what I want'," Ms Corby says.

"Then it's that reality-check conversation to say, 'Well, you can't get what it is you want, those days are gone.' Having to reframe their expectations is sometimes a difficult conversation to have but it really helps them in the longer term to get what they want rather than chasing after something that no longer exists."

After months on the home hunt, Antonia and Ryan purchased a two-bedroom apartment in Griffith from agent Peter Baum of Total Property Sales. They plan to move into their new home with their 15-month-old daughter once they complete some minor renovations.

Ms Young said there was less competition for slightly older units around the inner south.

"We ended up finding something that was more on the older side that we are doing a little bit of work to, a few renovations, and that was less competitive as compared to something similar that might have had a little bit more work done," she said.

While Canberra's dwelling prices, which includes units and houses, rose 1.7 per cent last month, research analysts say price growth is softening.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said housing markets across Australia are broadly rising but not as fast as the growth seen in 2021.

He attributed this to "less government stimulus, worsening affordability, rising fixed-term mortgage rates and, more recently, a slight tightening in credit conditions". A surge in new listings late last year was also a factor.

Anecdotally, Ms Corby has already seen a change in the Canberra market.

"The number of people bidding at auction is stabilising, there's more opportunities to negotiate and buy well, there are more properties being passed in," she said.

"It seems like there's a lot still to come on to the market for auction in February and March and I think that will really help buyers to see that there's more choice and not to put all your eggs in one basket.

"As we know, there's always three certainties in life: death, taxes and another property for sale."

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