Ballarat will soon need a new high school to keep up with the massive residential growth, real estate agents say.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
More than 1000 houses are being built each year in Ballarat, according to Buxton Ballarat directors Mark Nunn and Peter Burley.
The agents, who are busy in the heart of this growth and who recently took out a major national industry award, say they expected the growth to continue.
Delacombe is projected to grow at a rate of 2.7 per cent until 2036, according to Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning statistics, the fastest growing suburb in Victoria.
Delacombe and Alfredton could double in size within 20 years, and there are several new housing estates under construction across the city.
The City of Ballarat recently announced new growth areas - further to the west between Lucas and Smythes Creek, and north of the Western Highway towards Mount Rowan.
When asked about priorities for the region, Mr Burley said making sure there was enough infrastructure to support the growth was essential, and that included a new public high school.
"The key criteria for any family, or investors, is schools, shops, and transport," he said.
"I think our government and local city council has been pretty good in providing the connectivity through public transport and schooling.
"Right throughout that western growth corridor, you've got all of those estates - Lucas, Winter Valley Rise, Alfredton Grove - then the Delacombe Town Centre's been a good story for that side of town, but it's now sort of lacking in a public secondary school."
He added Buxton had sold 310 blocks in the past 12 months, which indicated how attractive Ballarat was to investors and people looking to build.
"I think personally there's still enormous room for growth, and hence we're seeing that out in the western growth corridor," he said.
"It's huge in terms of land sales, and about 40 per cent of those are coming from Melbourne, and about half of that are moving here to live for affordability, the other half just pure investing."
Buxton Ballarat was recently named the number one sales office in Australia for 2020 by Real Estate Business, with 720 listings and 756 sales.
The ranking was determined by the number of properties sold, the total dollar value of properties sold, and an efficiency rating determined by the ratio of sales to support staff, according to REB's report.
Mr Nunn said the win was a surprise.
"We were pretty blown away to be recognised as the number one office in the country," he said.
"A lot of external buyers are coming into Ballarat, and particularly we've seen that in the past year, I think as the metropolitan real estate continues to get dearer and dearer, people are looking out broader, regional Victoria.
"The price point is the big thing that drives people to come and relocate their family to Ballarat - (the) schools, medical (services), the traffic volumes aren't hectic like Melbourne, the train's really good, there's a lot going for Ballarat."
Mr Nunn and Mr Burley said the recognition was a team effort.
"You don't win these awards unless you have a great team and people that work for the organisation," Mr Nunn said.
"We think we have the strongest team in Ballarat for real estate."
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.