First home buyers are rushing to the ACT because it is one of the nation’s most accessible property markets.

Nearly a fifth of the territory’s property market is made up of buyers entering the home ownership game, new data revealed.

A report compiled by Bankwest found a whopping 25 per cent growth in first home buyers in the ACT in the last year, the ABC reported on Thursday.

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“[Canberra is] very affordable for first home buyers, along with Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide,” Bankwest’s Andrew Whitechurch told the ABC.

“They’re the affordable capitals.”

The average first home buyer in the ACT spent just over four years saving the $110,000 required for a 20 per cent deposit. 

In contrast, a similar deposit in NSW was $200,000. It could take prospective home owners 16 years to save for some Sydney suburbs, the Bankwest spokesman claimed.

Mr Whitechurch said Canberra was going against the trend of booming Australian house prices.

While property prices were creeping up slowly in Canberra, they were still affordable for those entering the market, he said.

“Average house prices are going up slightly, but fortunately wage growth has kept pace with that,” he said.

“So it means that affordability hasn’t changed too much for first home buyers in the ACT.”

South Canberra is still the priciest ACT area. Weston Creek, Belconnen and Tuggeranong were the cheapest.