Bathurst surpasses 1000 residential property sales in 2021

The previous record was 888 sales, set in 2017, but the figure was smashed in 2021 when there were 1031 residential properties sold, according to data from realestate.com.

Real estate agent David Chapman said that he hadn't expected more than 1000 sales to be achieved during a pandemic.

"As a real estate agent, when a lot of the states and the nation was starting to shut down and have restrictions, it took me a while to understand that the property market, like a handful of other industries, was actually flourishing during the pandemic," he said.

In addition to more properties selling than ever before, Bathurst broke monthly sales records on seven occasions in 2021 and sold more than 100 properties some months.

Above average prices were also consistently achieved.

Mr Chapman alone saw an average sale price of almost $620,000 in 2021, an increase of 22 per cent from the previous year.

He said there were a number of factors at play that led to the increased sales and prices across Bathurst's residential property market.

"A key factor that contributed was the disposable income. People were not spending as much as they normally would have outside the pandemic and those savings were resulting in people realising they could enter the property market," Mr Chapman said.

A lack of stock impacted the prices.

With more buyers in the market, people were offering above the asking price to secure what few homes were available.

Mr Chapman expects the record of 1031 residential sales in a single year to stand for a long time, not certain that the unique market conditions in 2021 will be replicated.

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"I don't think it will be broken this year. I think it was a perfect storm to achieve those 1000-plus sales," he said.

"The difference between the start of this year and the start of last year is there were a lot of properties on the market this time last year and a lot of old stock as well, which in a normal market was struggling to sell, but the nature of the market caught up with those properties.

"They were able to achieve sales prices that were palatable to the owners.

"That's the only reason why I would suggest that we wouldn't see 1000-plus sales again, simply because we'd need to see a flurry of properties come onto the market in order to do that.

"Conversely, if we do get a flurry of properties onto the market, that is going to put downward pressure on prices that are being achieved."

Mr Chapman said there is still a lack of stock on the market and interest from buyers remains high.

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