WHEN Ewan McArthur and his wife bought their first home, their options were an apartment in Turner, a house in Gungahlin, or “a townhouse in between”. “For us, five minutes from the city is always going to be five minutes from the city,” Mr McArthur said. “We love live music in Canberra, we like restaurants and bars, so being in stumbling distance is what we opted for.”

Despite loving the location, size and the older build of the apartment, Mr McArthur and his wife are selling in preparation for a move overseas. Their apartment is just one of a growing number now on the market and transacting, as Canberra adopts unit living. The number of homes up for sale in the ACT is up 53 per cent from this time last year, and apartment sales make up 44 per cent of them, according to Hotspotting’s Autumn 2026 Price Predictor Index.

At the same time last year, the proportion of apartment sales was just 34 per cent. Only Sydney had a higher ratio of attached to detached home sales, at 48 per cent. Darwin had the third highest ratio at 36 per cent, followed by Melbourne at 35 per cent and Brisbane at 32 per cent. Hobart had the lowest percentage of apartment sales at 25 per cent.