Stabilising interest rates are giving buyers renewed confidence to embark on their property purchase dreams, with hopes a continued hold will propel the local market.

Mortgage broker and Director at ACT Finance Solutions, Fiona McKinnon, said the uncertainty caused by ongoing interest rate hikes had appeared to have petered.

“I personally believe that rates have peaked and will slowly reduce over this year and next year,” Fiona said.

Many homeowners who have enjoyed strong property price growth were now considering selling up as their fixed interest rate home loans matured.

“The current interest rate position appears to have taken the heat out of the market and is causing some high leverage borrowers to consider selling post the maturity of their fixed rate loans,” she said.

“I am seeing, however, purchasers starting to take advantage of some opportunities that the market is now offering.”

Fiona said prospective buyers were being savvy about how they structured their mortgages and savings that could be made from grants and other benefits.

“People are looking at the affordability of their mortgage and being smart to leverage some benefits available to them,” she said.

“For example, for first home buyers looking into the Home Guarantee Scheme; or for existing homeowners, making sure they take advantage of some interest rate saving approaches like using an offset and paying fortnightly versus monthly to reduce interest cost and the overall loan term.”

The latest CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index, released last week, set a positive scene for Canberra real estate, reflecting 0.7% growth in property prices in February and a 1.6% increase in the past year.

The median dwelling price in Canberra is now $840,103.

In February, the Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates unchanged at its first meeting of the year, holding the cash rate at 4.35%, after inflation fell by more than expected at the end of last year. The Board will next meet on March 18.

The decision to keep rates on hold had been widely anticipated, with very few analysts expecting another rate hike. There has been speculations that the RBA will look to start cutting rates in the second half of this year as inflation continues to moderate.

There have been 13 interest rate rises since May 2022, amid rising, costs of living and an increase in the unemployment rate.