Agent view: Buyer activity high despite cooler market

Canberra has just entered what is a traditionally a quiet period for real estate, with fewer transactions on average than at other times during the year.

Some sellers are taking advantage of this period, as the decrease in transactions is a symptom of supply and not demand.

Buyer activity in Canberra is still high, and housing prices continue to rise.

Across nearly all established suburbs we have seen a drop in sales volume compared with last year, but at the same time an increase (in some cases substantially) in median house prices over the same period.

There is also a tendency for buyers to favour the more central suburbs, particularly for family homes, with some Canberrans paying more than $1 million to secure a house they will then knock down and rebuild.

Nic Salter-Harding is an agent and auctioneer at LJ Hooker Dickson