After 18 months of strong seller conditions, property experts say a buyers' market is emerging as Canberra's auction market comes off the heat.
Andrew Wilson, chief economist at My Housing Market, said buyers were "finally getting a look in" and were set to have more power at the negotiating table.
"I guess most buyers are sellers and sellers are buyers, so it's sort of swings and roundabouts in that sense, but there is no doubt that we are clearly seeing a buyer's market emerge in Canberra as we are in Sydney," he said.
"It has been a spectacular ride over the last 18 months in Canberra. Price growth has been extraordinary, clearance rates have been extraordinary, which reflects that strong competition for available property."
Canberra's auction clearance rates have noticeably fallen in the first half of 2022, compared to the same period last year when almost every home taken to auction sold under the hammer.
In March and April 2021, weekly clearance rates often came in above 90 per cent. A clearance rate above 90 per cent has not occurred in Canberra since October.
In the past four weeks, auction clearance rates have not surpassed 70 per cent and have dropped as low as 53 per cent, CoreLogic data showed.
While winter was traditionally a quieter period, this time last year clearance rates were above 83 per cent.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said the data showed auction performance had cooled, along with the rate of capital gain.
"As auction clearance rates have trended lower, so too has the rate of growth in Canberra housing values, slipping from a monthly peak rate of growth of 2.8 per cent in March last year, to a 0.1 per cent reduction in housing values through May," he said.
Mr Lawless said it represented a shift in selling and buying conditions.
"Earlier in the growth cycle, sellers held all the leverage and buyers were confronted with an extremely competitive purchasing environment. With Canberra listings now 16.9 per cent higher than a year ago, buyers have more stock to choose from, less urgency and some leverage at the negotiation table," he said.
Canberra's auction clearance rate has slipped below the 10-year average (63.4 per cent) but remained higher than the clearance rates seen last week in Sydney (52.7 per cent) and Melbourne (55.7 per cent), CoreLogic data shows.
Last week, Canberra's clearance rate was 61.8 per cent, a slight increase on the week prior (53 per cent).
My Housing Market's Andrew Wilson expected a "fear factor" among buyers, brought on by higher interest rates and affordability barriers - coupled with the winter slowdown - to see clearance rates trend lower for the remainder of the year.
"Affordability barriers have, as usual, acted to subdue the market, certainly subdued the capacity for prices growth ... and of course now we have the added factor of higher interest rates and the fear factor as well which will drive the market for some months now particularly given that we will see more interest rate increases," he said.
"It is the winter selling season as well. Of course that means a quieter market, regardless, in terms of the seasonal factors. So I guess we're having a collision between sort of the seasonal factors and the cyclical factors ... and I think that'll mean a quiet period, at least until spring."
Buyers Sareh Rajabi and Dave Vasegh were hopeful the cooling market would give them more negotiating power as they looked to buy an investment property in Canberra.
The pair have been looking to purchase for around two months and said options in their price bracket were limited.
"The number of properties for sale are very, very low at the moment, it could be because people are expecting prices to drop," Ms Rajabi said.
She said she had noticed a shift to more private treaty sales in the last 12 months.
"It is quite interesting for us because when we bought our current property back in April 2021, everything was auction. Everything, basically. So it's quite a bit of a change, I guess," she said.
The pair were among close to 30 attendees at the auction of 5/3 Bural Court, Ngunnawal on Saturday, at which there were two active bidders.
Buyers and curious neighbours watched on as bidding on the two-bedroom townhouse kicked off at $520,000 and reached $558,000 before it was passed in.
It was one of 119 auctions scheduled across the capital for the week to Sunday, compared to 109 auctions held this time last year.
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