Hughes, ACT 2605Home loan and property guide

Hughes location and character

Hughes covers 1.81 square kilometres in the northern part of Woden Valley, approximately eight kilometres south-west of Canberra's central business district. Construction commenced on Hughes and Curtin in late 1962, making them the first two suburbs of the district, and Hughes officially opened on 9 May 1964.

The suburb was gazetted on 20 September 1962, at which point it had just nine residents. Construction began in earnest in 1963, and the population had reached 4,050 by 1974.

Hughes is named after the Right Honourable William Morris Hughes, Australia's seventh Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923. Streets in the suburb are named with the theme of First World War armed services personnel and contemporaries of William Hughes, which is characteristic of the way Canberra suburbs were laid out.

Transport and amenity in Hughes

Canberra's light rail does not serve Woden Valley, so public transport is the Transport Canberra bus network, connecting Hughes to the Woden Town Centre interchange and the city.

Road access is by the district arterials. Hindmarsh Drive opened in December 1966, connecting Woden with Fyshwick and South Canberra, and Yarra Glen opened in November 1967, linking Woden to central Canberra.

The suburb has a small shopping centre with a chemist, bakery, supermarket and post office. Other facilities include the North Woden Tennis Club and Clarrie Hermes Park, known as Hughes Oval, Hughes Primary School and pre-school, three churches, and the St Andrews retirement village. Walking trails connect the suburb to the Red Hill Nature Reserve. This guide does not describe school catchments, which the ACT Education Directorate can confirm.

Housing stock in Hughes

Hughes is built of detached houses from the 1963 to 1974 development period, with a townhouse and apartment component added since, each accounting for a similar share of the stock.

At the 2021 Census, 831 of the 1,131 occupied private dwellings were separate houses, with 149 semi-detached or townhouse dwellings and 149 flats or apartments, so houses made up 73.5 per cent of occupied homes against 72.3 per cent nationally, and attached dwellings and apartments each accounted for 13.2 per cent. Three-bedroom homes numbered 408 and four-bedroom homes 385, with 120 having five or more.

The Census also recorded 92 unoccupied private dwellings out of 1,223 on Census night. Inspections on 1960s Canberra housing commonly consider roof and ceiling condition, original wiring and plumbing, window and insulation performance given the cold winters, and asbestos-containing materials, addressed further below.

Who lives and buys in Hughes

The 2021 Census counted 3,210 residents in Hughes, with a median age of 43 against 38 for Australia and an average household size of 2.6 people compared with 2.5 nationally. Children aged 5 to 14 were the largest group at 448, followed by 426 adults aged 45 to 54 and 417 aged 35 to 44, with 207 residents aged 85 and over, a figure reflecting the retirement village.

Outright and mortgaged ownership are almost exactly level. The Census recorded 413 dwellings owned outright, 407 owned with a mortgage and 272 rented, so 36.5 per cent of households with a stated tenure owned outright, 36.0 per cent held a mortgage and 24.0 per cent rented, against 31.0, 35.0 and 30.6 per cent nationally.

Median weekly household income was $2,797 against $1,746, median monthly mortgage repayments were $2,700 against $1,863 and median weekly rent was $400 against $375. For a buyer, this is an established inner Woden market with limited turnover and a small rental pool.

Leasehold title and planning in Hughes

Land in the ACT is not freehold. It is granted under a Crown lease, and most residential Crown leases run for 99 years, with a buyer taking on the remaining term. Every Crown lease contains a purpose clause specifying the permitted use of the land, which in practice defines what can be built on it.

Varying that purpose clause, most commonly to permit higher density, requires permission from the Territory Planning Authority and attracts the Lease Variation Charge on the resulting uplift in value. A further lease can be applied for at any time during the term, for an administrative fee rather than a payment for the land.

Retirement village accommodation such as that at St Andrews is governed separately under retirement villages legislation and commonly involves a lease or licence rather than an ordinary Crown lease transfer. It works quite differently from a conventional purchase and is addressed in the lending section below. Development is otherwise controlled by the Territory Plan.

Buying in Hughes under ACT contract law

Under the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003, a seller must attach a required set of documents to the contract before the property is advertised. Those include building and compliance inspection reports, from an inspection carried out not earlier than three months before the property was first advertised, building conveyancing inquiry documents, an energy efficiency rating statement, copies of all interests and encumbrances, an extract of the title, and the Crown lease and deposited plan.

A buyer therefore receives a building report before making an offer rather than commissioning one afterwards, which changes how due diligence is sequenced compared with most other states. A buyer is entitled to a cooling-off period of five business days, ending at 5pm on the fifth working day after it begins, and forfeits 0.25 per cent of the purchase price to withdraw during that period.

Home loan considerations for Hughes property

Leasehold title is accepted by lenders as security in the ACT and is the normal position across the Territory. What matters is the purpose clause and the remaining term, both of which appear in the contract documents.

Loose-fill asbestos insulation deserves particular attention in Hughes. Between 1968 and 1978 the Canberra company D. Jansen and Co, later trading as Asbestosfluf Insulations and known since the 1990s as Mr Fluffy, blew loose-fill amphibole asbestos into the roof spaces of Canberra homes. In 2015 the ACT Government released a list of 1,022 affected properties, and the contamination was concentrated in certain suburbs, including parts of Hughes. Buyers should check the Affected Residential Premises Register for a specific address, because insurers and lenders treat a known affected property differently.

Retirement village accommodation is the other consideration here. It is commonly held under a lease or licence rather than a conventional title, and many lenders will not accept that tenure as security at all, while those that do apply materially lower maximum loan-to-value ratios. Anyone considering such a dwelling should confirm the tenure and the lender's position before proceeding.

Lending considerations for Hughes

• Loose-fill asbestos insulation was concentrated in parts of Hughes, so the register should be checked.
• Retirement village lease or licence tenure is specialised security many lenders will not accept.
• Title is a Crown lease with a purpose clause, not freehold, so permitted use must be confirmed.
• Median monthly mortgage repayments of $2,700 mean serviceability usually binds before deposit.
• At 1,131 occupied dwellings, comparable evidence is limited for valuation.

Lender policy differs between institutions and changes over time. The guide to Australian lenders explains how credit policy varies, and the home loan guide sets out the main loan structures.