Real estate agent Daniel Nestor sees Ballarat developing into a city with a number of town centres.
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"We're going to see Ballarat almost split into two and have a couple of centres, you'll have the traditional Ballarat central area, but then we'll see another city centre in the heart of the West Growth Zone," he said.
Mr Nestor said this was an exciting time for Ballarat, and there are other opportunities coming our way.
"Council at the moment are looking into opening the north on the other side of the freeway," he said.
"That'll be the next Lucas in my opinion, that was the boom suburb going back eight or nine years ago."
Mr Nestor views this as the "next significant move" for Ballarat real estate.
The McGrath director has been in real estate for most of his adult life.
He said he was the kind of person that did not have to work too hard at school.
"I did fairly well in Year 12 and my teachers were absolutely flabbergasted that I wasn't going to apply at all for university," Mr Nestor said.
He worked at Big W as well as completing his real estate course by correspondence.
"Just shy of my 19th birthday I started in real estate," Mr Nestor said.
"What I like about it is what you put into it is what you get out of it.
"That resonated with me because I felt if I worked hard then I'll get rewarded for that."
Coming back to property
Mr Nestor started in property management as a trainee but eventually moved into a sales role with well-known Ballarat real estate leader Ross Titheridge.
He then took a break from real estate and worked in sales at The Courier for 18 months.
"I probably always had the idea that I was going to go back to real estate at some point. I just needed a mental break from it," he said.
Knowing he wanted to get back into property he reached out to Andrew Ferguson, who at the time was a director at Ballarat Property Group.
"He was a really accomplished agent in town ... one I wanted to work for," Mr Nestor said.
When Mr Ferguson left the group in 2016, Mr Nestor became a director.
In 2019, Mr Nestor and business partner Sean Toohey wanted to have their own real estate business, and opened McGrath Ballarat in March.
"Real estate's a really tough industry and we respect those that have succeeded in their journey," Mr Nestor said.
"We respect what they've gone through, knowing what we've been through to get to where we have."
Supporting each other's values
Mr Nestor said the luxury of having a number of real estate businesses in Ballarat is that they are able to work with people who fit with their business.
"Whether you're a real estate agent, or an accountant or a bakery, at the end of the day, you're always going to have competitors," he said.
"There's enough business out there ... and you don't have to win them all.
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"We don't want to win everyone's business, because I find that we end up doing business with people that align with our values."
While having community connections is important in the housing business, it is also personally key for Mr Nestor.
"We love meeting people and creating circles around us with networks of people that support each other."