WHILE lots of Shoalhaven businesses have suffered during the COVID-19 lockdown, the real estate industry is certainly on the up, with two record sales recorded by the Ray White South Coast Group in the past week.
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Two waterfront properties at Callala Beach have smashed the previous record sales for that area, while another home on Penguin Head Road, Culburra Beach has also reached a record price.
Ray White South Coast director Craig Hadfield said it was an amazing week where the business recorded more than $8 million in sales from the three properties.
Mr Hadfield said the company sold a property at 93 Quay Road at Callala Beach for more than $3 million, while a property next door at 95 Quay Road sold the following day for $2.92 million, which would have also beaten the previous best price for the area of $2.35 million just on 12 months ago.
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Over at Culburra Beach, a property on the southern side of Penguin Head Road, overlooking Warrain Beach, at 179, sold for more than $2 million.
"Pretty incredible prices," Mr Hadfield said "especially at a time when the world is supposedly caving in due to the coronavirus.
"We have seen a real uptake in the property market - from April 1 we have sold more than 40 properties in the area, which is exceptional when you consider we have been in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly when we really didn't have an Easter break at all."
Mr Hadfield said the three big sales were all purchased by people from Sydney.
"That is an ongoing trend at the moment," he said.
"People from Sydney are looking to relocate.
"If anything the coronavirus has shown people they don't have to live and work in a capital city like Sydney.
"People are longing to get out of the cities and now they know they can.
"It's not surprising. Having spoken to a number of clients during the virus lockdown, many have actually moved down south to their properties and worked from here. They are now looking to downsize their Sydney properties, move down here and work remotely.
"They simply want to get out of the cities and live, in particular, on the South Coast,"
He believes such moves will fuel the local property market and that's shown by theses three record sales.
"This time last year we had elections going on and the market was down," he said.
"But the transactions this year, even through the coronavirus, has been more than double what we recorded last year.
"The expectations are with still record-low interest rates, spending although being slow, is still flowing well into the South Coast.
"Our market is definitely benefiting from people wanting to move out of the city.
"We expect a rocky road once the economy settles down and we see what we get at the back end of COVID-19 but at the moment, the market is running very strongly."
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