More than 60 blocks of land at a new housing estate in south-west Victoria have sold in days.
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One astounded sales agent has described the land grab as a sign the city's property market is still strong.
It took Harris & Wood Real Estate's Matthew Wood less than a week to sell 61 blocks of land, each valued at about $410,000, at Warrnambool's Hopkins Heights.
Mr Wood said "a perfect storm" of factors had contributed to demand for land in the city.
"I think the appeal was recognised from people far and wide since we obtained the most liveable city title two years ago," he said. "That created a lot of publicity.
"You also can't talk about real estate now without mentioning COVID-19 and I think there are many people looking at a simpler way of life.
"They're also looking for the ability to work from home - we've seen a lot more businesses adapt their sales and work teams to work in a Melbourne environment in a regional city.
"I think all those things collectively have come at once and maybe created the perfect storm for Warrnambool and Hopkins Heights and the rest of the community."
He said buyers were a mix of locals and out-of-towners.
"It's a good mix of buyers," he said.
"Certainly lots of locals have realised how good it would be to have a lifestyle right beside the beach and river there at Hopkins Heights, it will have a lot of bike and walking paths, recreational areas and a city centre in the middle as well.
"You've also got Blue Hole, the river and Logan's Beach basically at your doorstep. That's been reflected in the uptake with how many people have purchased locally. I would say it's about 70 per cent local and 30 per cent out-of-towners."
He said it was rare for there to be such a large area of land remaining in Warrnambool.
"You have to give credit to Warrnambool City Council to have had the foresight going back eight-to-10 years ago," he said.
"They recognised there would be a shortage of residential land in the future so they re-zoned land by asking for permission from state government. They identified certain areas throughout Warrnambool which would enable some residential growth - the Hopkins Heights pocket was one, there was another on Wollaston Road and another in Dennington.
"They identified three areas at the time which were probably taken up by farming land and re-zoned it for future residential use."