Property owners fearing a downturn in the market had some reprieve last month as Canberra's dwelling prices remained relatively steady.
There was just a 0.3 per cent decline in territory home values across September 2024, according to CoreLogic data released on Tuesday.
CoreLogic's research director Tim Lawless said the ACT's dwelling values were almost unchanged when averaged out across the first nine months of the year, giving some hope to those wanting to sell in a subdued market.
But from a region-by-region perspective, Canberra's outer areas experienced value changes.
Despite the suburb of Gungahlin entering Canberra's million-dollar club last month, the region itself was down in value by 1.6 per cent.
That was the largest decrease in any of the eight Canberra areas measured by CoreLogic.
Molonglo closely followed with a downturn of 1.3 per cent; a figure Mr Lawless said was expected for one of the territory's fastest growing areas.
Tuggeranong had the largest jump in value across September, with a growth of 2.7 per cent.
Mr Lawless said the value difference in Canberra's far north and far south could be attributed to steady construction in the Gungahlin area.
"There is a real contrast here in fairly similar markets," he said.
"You can put the weakness in Gungahlin and Molonglo down to supply."
He warned, however, that there was not a lot of difference in the areas compared with two-speed markets in other capital cities.
Gungahlin's median value of $891,000 still eclipsed that of Tuggeranong by almost $50,000.
"Wherever you look across Canberra, the growth trends are fairly mild in contrast to somewhere like Perth," he said.
"That means for [the ACT], buyers are probably in the driver's seat."
Values across Western Australia's capital were up by about 24.1 per cent in the last 12 months and in some suburbs, that figure was as large as 35 per cent.
In the territory, the percentage decline for houses was at 0.2 per cent in September.
Canberra unit values - including apartments and townhouses - took a dive in value across the last 12 months, but Mr Lawless said these were beginning to come on par with free-standing houses.
Values in the unit sector were down 0.3 per cent across September, compared with 2.7 per cent across the year.
But those figures were still well below a national rise of 0.6 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively.
Mr Lawless attributed this difference to a steady supply of large Canberra units despite waning demand.
This could also be the case for the rental sector, Mr Lawless said.
Canberra's annual change in unit rental prices was 1.8 per cent, compared with Perth's 11.5 per cent Adelaide's 9.3 per cent.
The ACT is one of the only jurisdictions with rental increase caps, which may contribute to steadying the rental market in comparison with surrounding states.
