Among the hotly contested auctions was the sale of 'Serenity Ridge' subdivision, a former dairy and cattle farm located at 510 Beach Road, Berry.

Co-selling agent Kate Morgan of Ray White Gerringong said the land blocks were "a very rare find".

Read more: 154 Wallaby Hill Road, Jamberoo sells for $452,500 more than the reserve price

The newly subdivided farm set on rolling land offers 28 lots ranging from one hectare to 4.4 hectare blocks.

Ten selected lots were auctioned on Sunday.

During the initial marketing, prices were listed as starting at $1 million for the one-hectare blocks.

Ms Morgan said there were 93 registered bidders on the day, with nine of the 10 blocks selling under the hammer.

The other is under negotiation.

Sale prices (for the blocks only) ranged from $1.51 million to $1.892 million, with buyers from the Illawarra, South Coast and Sydney.

"What we thought was going to be more of the entry-level, some of the lower (priced) blocks, ended up getting way over reserve," Ms Morgan said.

"We thought there would be a larger gap between the biggest, highest lots to the lowest lots.

"But the lowest lots were really fought over ... A few hundred thousand over reserve."

Ms Morgan said there were many Sydneysiders looking to buy in the South Coast to use as a holiday home initially, before relocating permanently.

"A lot of people are missing out on properties at the moment, so the next one they're just fighting that bit harder for," she said.

"And there's never a lot of properties around here, and even less at the moment.

"So for the amount of buyers looking, there's just not enough properties for them."

A five-bedroom home at 29 Holden Avenue, Kiama sold for $1,975,000 at auction on Saturday.

Selling agent, Robert Perea from Raine & Horne Kiama said the property had a reserve price of $1.8 million.

He said it sold to a Sydney buyer who had been looking for a sea change.

Another hard-fought auction was 27 O'Brien Street, Bulli, which sold for $1,950,000 on Saturday.

A renovated former Department of Housing property, the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home had a price guide of $1.7 million.

According to Pricefinder, the previous owners had bought the property for $760,000 in 2014.

Selling agent, McGrath Thirroul's Vanessa Denison-Pender said there were three registered bidders, with the successful buyer a young family from Sydney wanting to relocate to the Illawarra.

"That street is a really popular lifestyle location," Mrs Denison-Pender said.

"It's close to the beach, and a really lovely, family-friendly street."

Ms Denison-Pender said they had seen a number of properties recently selling well above reserve at auction.

"The market seems to be driven a lot by young families at the moment, wanting to bring up their kids out of the city and into lifestyle locations," she said.

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