Property prices could rise up to 6 per cent in a handful of tightly held Canberra suburbs, a financial expert says.
Home owners in five suburbs are "positively placed" for house price increases in the next 12 months, analysis by mortgage brokerage Shore Financial has revealed.
House prices are forecast to increase 6 per cent in Macarthur and Nicholls, where the current house price medians are $949,000 and $1.2 million respectively.
Three suburbs were forecast for price growth of 4 per cent: Latham, where the house price median is $799,000, Spence, where the median is $910,000, and Aranda, with a median of $1.36 million.
Shore Financial CEO Theo Chambers said the five suburbs he identified all had one thing in common: very few homes available for sale.
"That's creating competitive tension for buyers," he said.
"Unlike in many other parts of Canberra, buyers in those five suburbs are having to fight hard and make strong offers."
Shore Financial's analysis found all five suburbs had inventory levels of less than two months.
Inventory levels refer to the estimated time it would take to sell all the houses in that suburb if they continued selling at the current rate and no more were added to the market.
'Very difficult market' to forecast
At the time of publishing, there were just two homes for sale in Macarthur, in the Tuggeranong district.
One is a four-bedroom family home on an 800-square-metre block, while the other is a three-bedroom house on a larger, 1092-square-metre parcel of land.
Kate Coultas of Ray White Canberra is the selling agent for both properties. She said Macarthur is well sought after by families, as well young first home buyers.
"We tend to find that a lot of people like to stay in the Macarthur area if they're upsizing or downsizing," she said.
On whether she thought 6 per cent growth in house prices was plausible, Ms Coultas said it would depend on how many more interest rate rises were ahead.
"It's not beyond the realms of possibility but it's a very difficult market to be able to tell," she said.
Ms Coultas said it would also depend on what types of properties sold in the next 12 months, as a greater portion of large homes versus entry level houses would influence the figures.
After a period of decline Canberra property values increased slightly in May, driven by a 0.6 per cent rise in house values.
Data from property firm CoreLogic shows Canberra homes were taking longer to sell compared to last year.
For the four weeks to June 4, the total number of Canberra properties for sale was 7.2 per cent higher than last year. However new listings were down 14.5 per cent.
Mr Chambers said there was still no sign of a substantial increase in new listings for Canberra.
"It's possible that as prices rise in those five suburbs, more vendors will be tempted into the market, but there's no sign of supply increasing in any meaningful way in the foreseeable future," he said.
"As a result, we can expect prices to trend upwards over the next year."
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