He said large mine expansion in and around Muswellbrook has been the catalyst for the town’s latest boom and the introduction to the area of multinational businesses are a sign of bigger and better things to come.

‘‘The town is going ahead with a lot of subdivisions opening up. Maybe it’s not evident with the physical count of people but it is evident when you drive around,’’ Mr Flood said.

He said some people still chose to shop in other Hunter centres such as Maitland, Rutherford and Newcastle, but with the Muswellbrook Showground site before the state government for rezoning, a new range of ‘‘big brand’’ stores were headed for the area, which he hoped would keep the locals shopping locally.

‘‘The rezoning should attract businesses like Hungry Jack’s, Super Cheap Auto, something similar to Rutherford,’’ Mr Flood said.

‘‘Once this goes ahead it will give a sense of growth to the town and attract other leaders to come to the town.’’

As a sign of faith and commitment to Muswellbrook, Mr Flood has knocked down and rebuilt John Flood Estate Agents, opening his $1.5million premises on July 2.

John Flood Estate Agents director and licensee in charge Sandy Warburton said the residential market in Muswellbrook was averaging a yearly 7per cent growth.

‘‘This has been the case over the past decade,’’ he said.

‘‘The investment market has picked up ridiculously and even though it’s a minority of our sales it has jumped between 5 and 6per cent in the past 12 months, particularly with investors from Newcastle, the Central Coast and Sydney,’’ Mr Warburton said.

He said the going price for an average four-bedroom home was in the high-$300,000s to $400,000 with the median price for a 20-year-old three-bedroom home about $300,000 to $320,000.

‘‘Our gross sales volume was the highest for the quarter ended June 30 when comparing the last three years,’’ he said. ‘‘In fact, it was probably the best quarter we’ve had with the volume of transactions.’’