Last year was Bathurst's biggest year for residential property sales, with the number sold exceeding 1000 for the first time.

READ MORE: Bathurst surpasses 1000 residential property sales in 2021

That number was achieved through several factors, including low stock availability, high buyer demand, and people generally having more disposable income after being unable to travel.

Sales prices also soared in 2021 as demand outstripped the supply of houses.

Real estate agents expect a similar situation in 2022 unless more homes are listed.

Raine and Horne Bathurst director Grant Maskill-Dowton said he doesn't see "any signs of [the market] slowing down much".

While house prices are unlikely to drop any time soon, it is possible they could at least start to stabilise in 2022.

"I don't think a regional centre can continue to sustain at the rapid rate that it has been," Mr Maskill-Dowton said.

"And with banks looking at slightly tightening lending criteria, maybe adjusting interest rates, all of those factors are always going to have an impact on how fruitful the market is."

The big challenge facing Bathurst is the lack of land available, which is forcing people who would prefer to build into buying established homes instead.

"I think until we actually have land available we're going to see this hold that we have and the market will continue to be tight," Mr Maskill-Dowton said.

READ MORE: No date for next land release in Bathurst as property market tightens

There was a misconception in 2021 that a lot of the buyer activity was coming from metropolitan buyers, but for the vast majority of agents it was the opposite.

Most of the buyers were locals who were selling and either upsizing or downsizing, with some selling acreages and moving closer to the central business district.

Mr Maskill-Dowton said it is possible the interest from metropolitan buyers will increase, but he is more inclined to think that it will continue to be locals competing with locals for property.

"A lot will depend on how the world goes," he said.

"We had an influx of people relocating from metro areas to regional NSW, but I think that influx was happening during COVID, not so much when restrictions got eased.

"I think we will still always have that steady amount of people relocating out here, but I don't think we're going to see a mass influx of people coming to move out here."

David Chapman from Agent Chapman Real Estate doesn't expect 2022 to deliver the same number of sales as was recorded last year, but he does think that the high-demand-low-stock dynamic will continue.

"What is the market likely to do in Bathurst this year? It's a bit of an unknown, but my crystal ball suggests that 2022 is going to continue in the same vein as 2021, which is high prices and lower than usual stock levels, which is contributing to those higher prices," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: