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The seaside village Callala Beach, bordering Jervis Bay, has risen to number three in Australia's fastest price growth for small towns.
The village has seen the median price for property rise by 14.1 per cent in the past 12 months (to December 2020) to $730,500.
It only trails Cape Paterson in Victoria which had a 17.9 per cent growth to $625,000 median price and Charlemont, also in Victoria which recorded a 14.7 per cent growth to $535,500.
Small towns are described as areas that have populations of less than 1000.
Ray White South Coast director Craig Hadfield said it was great news for the local area.
"Callala has been a reasonably priced area but now there has been so much activity in sales, including a couple of properties that sold last year for more than $3 million each, driving prices upwards, leading to the increase in massive growth," Mr Hadfield said.
"Callala has probably been a bit behind when it came to steady property growth. It has probably lagged for the last couple of years.
"But since the advent of COVID-19 and lockdowns people have not left the country, or gone on holidays and instead there has been an uptake in people buying holiday homes.
"The sale of those $3 million properties on the water has driven up the prices off the water as well.
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"As waterfront prices go up it pulls everything along with it, so we are seeing the off the water prices also increasing.
"It just drags the whole area up."
He said Callala beach had "traded flat for quite some years".
"It had the opportunity to have good price growth but pretty much hadn't grown in the last five or six years," he said.
"I think we will see similar things happening in other Shoalhaven villages.
"Potentially we could see other Shoalhaven towns also maybe appear on this list in the next 12 to 18 months, which would be on trend for everything that is happening here
"The migration into the area out of places like Wollongong and Western Sydney.
"No town can grow in isolation; it will grow and help grow other areas around it."
He said another reason for the growth could be the fact Callala Beach is "virtually land locked".
"There aren't any other opportunities for more land out there for years and years, if at all," he said.
"Areas that are completely landlocked by national parks and crown land there is no opportunity for further development or any significant growth."
Mr Hadfield said he was actually "surprised" by the price growth recorded.
"I'm getting a lot of surprises lately," he said.
A Ray White South Coast auction of 10 properties recently had a combined sale price of $17.5 million with one waterfront Currarong property alone selling for $4.15 million.
"It's great after 21 years in the business the area is still going ahead and as real estate agents we never know what's around the corner - that's exciting."
Rounding out the top 10 Australia's fastest price growth for small towns are Rosebery, Tasmania (12.2 per cent - median price $96,500); Dundee Beach, Northern Territory (12.2 per cent - median price $230,000); Dundowran, Queensland (11.5 per cent - median price $455,000); Taroomball, Queensland (11 per cent - median price $460,000); Ventnor, Victoria (10.4 per cent - median price $585,000); Renwick, NSW (10.2 per cent - median price $815,500); Venus Bay, Victoria 9.3 per cent - median price $360,000).