We have only one butcher in the Bay and perhaps two barbers - and not even one bookshop! - but we have fourteen real estate agents: Raine & Horne, Elders, First National, LJ Hooker, Blackshaw Coastal, Ray White, South Coast Property Specialists, Batemans Bay Real Estate, Adore Residential, Harcourts, Sadil Quinlan & Associates, Professionals, Bayside Real Estate, and My Agent* (listed in no particular order since they are all pretty much the same, and I may even have missed some).
Housing has become, rather than a place of security and a roof over one's head, something to create wealth from and speculate on. That's why there are many more real estate agents than butchers and barbers. Whether they are all open and honest is perhaps open for discussion.
*) And that's just the ones with offices in Batemans Bay; there are several more who are active here but whose offices are elsewhere.
