The Canberra housing market is starting to heat up with agents saying there is a lot more buyer interest than expected for this time of year and more properties up for sale. It's in contrast to the rental market, which is not seeing its regular early-year boom.
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00:00 As January comes to an end, the annual rush for rental properties in Canberra is on.
00:07 We're all starting our jobs, Laura's starting on Monday, we're starting in about a week.
00:11 So the timing is a bit tight for us.
00:15 Traditionally this period is extremely busy, but 2024 isn't living up to expectations.
00:21 We have found that properties are sitting on the market a bit longer and we don't have people lined up down the street anymore.
00:29 The availability, at least when you look up listings, there's still quite a lot of houses and properties available to rent.
00:35 Real estate agents say the reasons for the quieter start include high rents, improved vacancy rates,
00:41 and people taking up Canberra-based jobs but working remotely from interstate,
00:46 while some people are trying to skip the rental market altogether.
00:49 When COVID happened a lot of younger people moved back home.
00:52 Now they're using that time to save money and perhaps go overseas and travel instead of renting a property
00:57 or they're just going straight into buying a property.
00:59 Canberra's housing market is faring better with plenty of new stock.
01:03 Sales agents are reporting a lot more buyer interest, which is fantastic.
01:06 There's been a lot of properties come on the market towards the end of last year.
01:11 Agents say property prices are at the bottom of the curve and buyers are responding in kind.
01:16 People are not wanting to miss out because if prices do start to rise then obviously that affects their borrowing capacity.
01:23 And with the talk of interest rates coming down and also the tax cuts,
01:27 there'll be a little bit more money in the pocket to actually afford their mortgage payments.
01:30 Experts say buyer interest will see Canberra house prices rise in the first half of the year.
01:36 But with many sellers having held onto their properties in the hope of an increase,
01:40 those price hikes are tipped to be steady and not at the same rate of other capital cities.
01:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]