Median house prices in the valley rise by an average of 20 per cent in the past 12 months

But the charming verandah-post town of Bowraville is being considered a dark horse after it experienced the steepest increase in housing prices on the Coffs Coast since the latest boom kicked off.

The CoreLogic Market Trends report for January shows that Bowraville recorded the strongest growth across all three council areas (Coffs, Bellingen and Nambucca) with a staggering rise in prices of 28.9 per cent in 12 months, and 85.1 per cent growth over the past five years. 

“You wouldn’t think it would keep up with the coastal towns, but it has,” @realty’s Craig Bellamy said.

“But some people don’t want to buy on the coast, and you can still get good bang for your buck in Bowraville.

“And the new highway has made a difference – even in Bowraville the commute has been made a lot easier.”

With the median house price registering at $274,000 in the report, Bowraville is still incredibly affordable to buy into.

Craig said the figures from the report should be taken with a grain of salt; sales data can be distorted when extrapolated from areas with smaller demographics.

With housing prices at crisis levels in the big smoke, many people have been opting for a piece of affordable acreage on the coast as a smarter investment.

“I’ve just had one Sydney client who sold up his Sydney property for $1.2 million and bought into Bowraville for $240,000,” he said.

But it’s not just Bowra that’s been feeling the love, the Nambucca Valley has been labelled a ‘high-growth area’ across the board.

In fact, Craig said that sellers should expect to make a sale within two to three weeks of putting their property on the market.

The northern ‘golden triangle’ of the Nambucca Shire – Valla rural, Newee Creek and Valla Beach attracts the highest median sale prices, which is largely due to its proximity to Coffs, said Glenn Mitcham of Valla Real Estate.

Valla earns the reputation of having Nambucca Shire's highest median house price at $580,000, with Valla Beach second by a nose at $520,000 to Newee Creek’s $517,000.

Hyland Park clocked in at a 24.5 per cent increase in the past 12 months, and 43.4 per cent over five years, while Newee Creek’s prices rose by a quarter throughout the year to date.

The team at Nambucca Valley Property (NVP) said that the market is currently stabilising after a longer-than-normal boom period over the last three years.

They haven’t yet noticed a flow-on effect from Macksville’s recent bypass, however.

But they are quietly chuffed at recently achieving the record residential sale in the Macksville area on River St at a massive $610,000.

And Lyndal Butler said there is no shortage of buyers from down south.

Craig Bellamy said he’s even had a few come down from Northern Rivers after being out-priced up there.

NVP’s David Winton said it was the bottom end of the market which has seen the greatest increase in housing price averages, with an estimated 40 per cent rise over four years.

“Having said that I think the whole Nambucca Valley is still quite affordable,” Lyndal said.

Glenn Mitcham said there are new estates and land releases popping up in key areas across the Shire: “There’s developments in the pipeline at Nambucca which will give people the opportunity to build their dream home in town,” he said.

Around 300 lots near Palmwood Estate, Nambucca Heads, are waiting to be drip-fed into the market.

Barry Kerr is also ready to release some of his 500-600 sites located up past the new St Pat’s school.

Craig Bellamy is very pleased the option to develop has suddenly become possible again.

“We’ve had a lack of residential listings,” Craig said.

“But council contributions have gone up again meaning it’s actually become viable to cut blocks up.

“We’ve seen Woolgoolga riding the wave of price rises coinciding with the highway upgrade up there.

“It was once considered Coffs’ poor cousin – not any more. Nambucca should follow very soon.”