Some city-dwelling millennials are investing in property in rural locations for an ominous reason: in case their urban homes are ravaged by disasters related to climate change.

They're buying up land in places such as Vermont, Oregon, and New York's Catskill Mountains to have refuge if (or rather when, in their view) the coastal cities where they live are overwhelmed by rising sea levels and extreme, destructive weather as a result of climate change, The New York Times reports.

These young professionals are building homes to be self-sufficient and sustainable, and some are betting that the land they buy now will grow astronomically in value in the future.

Mark Dalski, a 33-year-old who lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, and owns a company that builds green roofs in New York City, told The Times he bought 4 acres of land in the Catskills in upstate New York. He's building a small home there that The Times says will have its own well, power lines, and septic system as well as a vegetable garden.

If his home city of Greenwich, a coastal city just north of New York City, is ever rendered uninhabitable, "I'll have a safe space," Dalski told The Times.

Read more: A 15-story underground doomsday shelter for the 1% has luxury homes, guns, and armored trucks

Buying real estate in remote areas as a backup plan in case of an apocalyptic catastrophe isn't a new idea, but it seems to be becoming more mainstream. Silicon Valley's ultrawealthy have been buying up underground doomsday bunkers in New Zealand that cost up to $8 million, Business Insider previously reported. The Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel bought a $4.8 million home there in 2011 and recently had a panic room installed.

And a group in Kansas is building an elaborate doomsday shelter — complete with a gym, an indoor dog park, and a climbing wall — that will cost $20 million to build and could support a dozen families.

Dalski predicted that others would follow in his footsteps, ultimately making him money for his land in the Catskills.

If "I can pick up a few acres, it is going to triple in value," Dalski told The Times. "In 100 years' time, it will be worth something. People are going to have to move north at some point."