When John Cross bought a family home two decades ago, he knew he had found a place he would not want to leave.
He and his wife Marina bought into Nicholls in 2005 with two kids in tow. Despite their house being in poor condition, it was just what they had been searching for.
"We saw past the overgrown bushes and the cobwebs. It was really the neighbourhood and the style of houses that did it for us," he said.
The couple had put an offer in on another suburb, but they quicky did away with that and snapped up the Nicholls property.
"It felt airy - like you could really breath around here," Mr Cross said.
They are amongst dozens of families who have not wanted to move from Canberra's most tightly held suburb.
Nicholls, in the Gungahlin region, had the highest hold periods for houses sold in the territory in the year to October 2024, according to CoreLogic data.
The median house in Nicholls had been owned for 16.9 years before being sold.
This was closely followed by the Belconnen suburbs of Macquarie at 16.8 years, Melba at 16.7, and Hawker and Weetangera, both at fifteen years.
CoreLogic's head of research Eliza Owen said most places where people loved living for long periods had things in common: they were popular to buy into during the 90s and 2000s, often making them empty nester homes now.
Mr Cross is one such owner. His children have left home and after almost two decades, he is planning a move closer to the sea.
His house is being sold by owner of the Irwin Property, Jonathan Irwin, who said many long-term owners in Nicholls had seriously considered the now-tightly-held areas of Belconnen when they first moved.
The Gungahlin suburb stood on its own against other outer regions of Canberra.
"Buyers might be looking in places like Hawker and Aranda, and then they will come specifically to Nicholls and Nicholls alone in that whole region," Mr Irwin said.
"It is a very unique suburbs. it has got big, wide nature strips, large blocks, elevation and two golf courses," he said.
This "look and feel" was what made Mr Cross want to raise his children in the area.
But of the suburbs once lorded as long-term family homes were now going through their "second cycle", according to LJ Hooker agent Kathy Komar.
"A lot of older people are moving out and younger families are moving in," she said.
Ms Owen said in many of these suburbs, desirability was driving up price.
"Part of the reason homes are expensive is because not a lot comes on the market in these areas, given they are so desirable. That desirability reinforces the high price," she said.
According to Ms Komar, those price points were part of what kept long-held suburbs family oriented.
"It is still very slow, but that is largely what is happening. These are not first time type of suburbs. They are being [bought into] by families hoping to make them their forever home," Ms Komar said.
Mr Cross hoped another family would love the house and have children grow up in it just as his had.
"You've got restaurants, the Gold Creek Village, the gold course, school," Mr Cross said.
"If we could take the house and the neighbourhood with us, we would. But that would be very expensive," he said.
