EPISODE 36 SUBURB SPOTLIGHT POTTS POINT

Marcus: Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Property Insider podcast, the show where we talk about all things property in the .

Michelle, how're you doing this wet and windy October Wednesday morning?

Michelle: I'm a little bit broken today, Marcus. I have to admit I played my third ever game of netball last night.

Marcus: Did you?

Michelle: Oh my gosh, it's a lot harder than it looks. Let me tell you.

Marcus: It is, I can attest to that as a proud one season member of the corporate netball challenge right next to the art gallery in .

Michelle: Oh, get out of town.

Marcus: No, I was a very brave goal attack; had to suffer through the referees and the umpires that were the most scary women. "They're coming across, do we?" Telling us all how we had done everything wrong and had destroyed their netball careers. So, yes, I am very proud of you because netball's not one of the ones that I could probably play.

Michelle: I tell you what. My daughter's a very keen netball player and I got sort of roped into to doing this women's team. We're called the Zirconias by the way, because we're not quite diamonds.

Marcus: Nice.

Michelle: And I tell you what last night it was so hard. Anyway, let's get back to property shall we? I'm a little bit more experienced with that.

Marcus: Good, so this week we're doing another suburb's spotlight and going back to the East of the city into the lovely area of Potts Point, King's Cross, that garden island area. Just the east of . So, Michelle, you've gone in and had another look at the history of the area. So tell us about it.

Michelle: So the Eora people was the name given to the coastal Aborigines around Sydney and central Sydney's, therefore, often referred to as Eora country. Within the city of Sydney, local government area and the traditional owners are the Cadigal and Wangal of the Eora nations. Now the aboriginals had disappeared from the area after the departure of their patron governor Macquarie and his successor, Governor Brisbane, who had decided on Potts Point as the site for an asylum.

But nothing came of that plan and after the departure of Governor Brisbane, Elizabethtown was granted to important public servants in the colony, who were encouraged to build grand villas. So by 1831, seventeen grants of land had been made on Woolloomooloo Hill to a selection of the most politically and economically powerful men in the colony. And the purpose of the grants was to establish a stylish area of housing and for this reason, there were certain provisos on them. So listen to this, "residences were to be erected within three years, the cost of the houses were to be in excess of a thousand pounds and had to face government house across the bay." So, interesting that.

Now the final name of the area Potts Point comes from its association with Joseph Hyde Potts, who is a clerk with the Bank of New South Wales and who was appointed accountant to the Bank of New South Wales and purchased six and a half acres.

So obviously Potts Point is known for its beautiful apartments and the spread of flats in the 1920s and 1930s was one of the most marked developments in Sydney housing. It was accompanied by large population increases in the municipalities it affected and flats were the antithesis of suburbia and nowhere is that more evident than in Kings Cross. Now, King's Cross and Potts Point precinct are listed on the Australian Heritage Commission Register because it is the only place in Australia with art deco development of that scale and in such high concentration.

Marcus: And you certainly still see that today when you go through the area; just the amount of art deco apartments and so those six story blocks that are in that area is just amazing to see in that concentration.

Michelle: Yeah, it's really quite stunning.

Now one of the biggest wartime construction operations was the Captain Cook Graving Dock at Garden Island and the growing naval strength in expansionist policy of Japan in the 1930s lead to a request from admiralty in 1938 that a graving dock be built in Sydney. The work began in 1940, but wasn't finished until early 1945. During the 20th century, the area evolved into bohemian enclave populated with Sydney's artists, writers, and other like-minded individuals. The Americanisation of the Cross: the growth of night clubs and strip clubs, black market trading, rampant prostitution dates largely back from that second World War era. The unique character of this area was all but lost by the 1960s as the American soldiers and sailors on rest and recreation leave in Australia during World War II and the Vietnam War sowed the seeds of its present character. The area became home to Sydney's sex industry and was populated with gambling venues and was, of course, notorious during the 1980s for its stories of corruption and underworld crime. Now recently the sex industry has mostly moved to the suburbs and the casino and Pyrmont has removed much of the gambling activity.

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Marcus: And, of course, the ban on late night trading has basically destroyed all of King's Cross. That's a brand new development over the last 3 years. For those listening from abroad, King's Cross is very different from what it was even 5, 10 years ago.

Michelle: Yeah, and the lockout laws and it seems that much of that has now moved to areas like New Town where there isn't any lockout laws so the people have just- The partying hasn't stopped, it has just moved.

Marcus: Yeah, so it's moved further afield and certainly the city and the Kings Cross area have taken a hit.

Now, per the 2016 census, the Potts Point area had 9,423 people in the area. As we spoke about the large number of flats and apartments lead to a different, I guess, different type of residents than you would have in the suburbs and as such, married couples are less than 20%; they're only 17.8% of the population of the area, which against the New South Wales average of 48% represents a huge discrepancy between the two areas. Never married residents, constituents are 70.4% of the locals.

Michelle: And of course being Potts Point being a very gay friendly area, very popular with professional people they'll be lots of people there in a relationship, but have just never chosen to marry or until recently couldn't marry.

Marcus: Until recently could marry. Absolutely.

No religious affiliation constitutes 35.1% of the population which is a larger proportion against 25% of the state-wide average and the largest group of background are Australian and English heritage by far. If you're looking at then the religious backgrounds of people you've got Catholicism coming in 14%, with Anglicans slightly below that and then Buddhism at 2.1% of the population in the area. Besides your English spoken at home, Spanish, Italian, and French are almost identical in the numbers of people speaking those languages as primary language at home followed by Mandarin and Thai.

Michelle: Alright, interesting.

Marcus: In terms of the suburb itself, so Potts Point and that Kings Cross area, it is a white collar, you could say it's a white collar suburb-75% of the employment roles that people take are in white collar industries, but in a very sharp contrast from prior suburbs that we've spoken about, because you have Garden Island in the area, the Defence Force represents the biggest employer of the entire suburb so the Defence Force actually represents 13% of employees that reside in the area. Because you do have that Garden Island within Potts Point borders. Outside that, hospitality's going to be your next largest, I guess, occupation. That still certainly makes sense when you look at the large number of people

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that would be renting, living centrally, perhaps and share accommodation. Being relatively central to the city and surrounds.

Michelle: Yep. So looking then at the method of travel to work going on from what they do for a living, I found this amazing, well not amazing, it confirms, obviously, walking to work was the largest that I've seen so far in all of the suburbs we've done, over 25% of people walk to work and then if you combine that with train and bus and took the total public transport over 61% of Potts Point inhabitants contribute to lowering gas house emissions. So, good for you, Potts Point people.

Marcus: Which also makes sense when you think about the types of residences that are in the area being these art deco homes where not everyone would have had cars in the '20s or '30s. So, in fact, you've got just over 55% of the residents in the area do not own a car. So-

Michelle: And being so close to the city why would you-

Marcus: -You do have that walking, riding to work ability and you do have a train station in King's Cross up the road and you do have bus links if you're looking at buses, you could take the 311 which would go to either Central toward Barangaroo or you could further up to King's Cross and go from either to Central all the way over to, say, Watsons Bay. So you've trains, you've got buses, you've got walking, you've got riding to work, you do have a whole range of things and worse comes to worse if you're running late you could potentially catch an Uber which wouldn't be a $60 journey.

Michelle: And unlike Paddington, when we reviewed Paddington, I didn't see many people who have a driver to work.

Marcus: Yes, yes, we don't have the chauffeurs in Potts Point that I can see.

Michelle: No, and also to be honest with you when I'm looking to buy in Potts Point, I tell you the cost of car spots in the area is phenomenal and the number of times these things break down is really worth not having.

And so you mentioned home ownership is mostly of apartments, but when it comes to renting versus purchasing an overwhelming 65.9% actually rent in the area versus-

So when we're looking at the cost of buying into the area; looking at houses there's been very few sales, of course, of houses in the area because 88% of properties in Potts Points are units, the remainders being semis or terraces and very few, even fewer are freestanding houses. So the houses, they range anywhere from $6 mil to $30 mil to one and half million so there's a huge variable there and you can't really come up with a median because the stock is just too few, but of the 2 sales that there were in 2018, the median was

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$2,362,500. When it comes to units, amazing-2017, 214 units were sold. This year, given that we're in the middle of October, only 91 units were sold.

Marcus: Hmm.

Michelle: Yeah, but contrary to popular belief that the house prices are coming down, the median house price, a unit price, has actually gone up in Potts Point. It's actually risen by 12.9% and of course, that's also due because of the lack of stock. So the median price, at the moment there, for a unit is $825,000 and again that has a huge variance because you've got the bed sits, the studio apartments too. For example, here is a sale of note which is a 3 bedroom apartment, 511 square meters on title which is huge, located in Tirana which is the original heritage listed 1889 grand home at the most northern tip of Potts Point on one Wylde Street which sold for 8 1/2 mil. Hello.

Marcus: Wow.

Michelle: I bet that's just amazing-I've seen the photos-it's just-Google it. Apartment 2 of 1A Wylde Street, Potts Point, so if you've got a bit of spare cash, that's the type of property to go for, I reckon.

So, there's a huge variance of what you can buy there, but those are the sort of numbers that are going at the moment.

Marcus: If you were going to look at purchasing or even renting in the Potts Point area, some of the things that you might be interested in are things such as, so where's the local Woolworth's, the Coles, and so forth. Now Woolworth's, you do have one located on MacLeay Street and if you're after a Coles, it's going to be a slightly longer walk into King's Cross. There is a Harris Farm market on Springfield Avenue if you want something more upmarket for those of you out there that use Harris Farms. We don't. It's, Coles Sunday $0.79 specials for me, unfortunately.

Michelle: Have you been to the new Harris Farm in Leichhardt.

Marcus: I'm not allowed out. I'm not allowed out in public, Michelle, I'm really sorry.

Michelle: I'll take you out. I'll take you out. The Leichhardt-

Marcus: If I go to a supermarket on a Sunday afternoon, my eyes are so dead that my wife just says, “No, I'll just go myself”.

Michelle: It is particularly heinous, isn't it? I mean I have to do most of the shopping on Sundays because working Saturdays, it doesn't let me out of the house, but honestly, I completely agree with you, but the Harris Farm in Leichhardt, I'm just giving them a plug here, is well worth a visit.

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Marcus: Really?

Michelle: It's awesome. It's really good.

Marcus: Okay. So the dead look in men's eyes, is slightly less.

Michelle: Trust me, it's not just men. I'm exactly the same, just get what you need, grab and go.

Marcus: So if you're looking at cafes and places to eat, certainly, your cafes, you've got a load of choices in King's Cross, in Potts Point or closer to the Harbour, you would have Gypsy Espresso, you'd have Glider, Zinc Café, Coffee Tea & Me in the local area. Again, if you extend that out to King's Cross, you have a plethora of choices.

Michelle: Ah, there's so much, so many places to eat and drink.

Marcus: Similar with pubs in the area. Potts Point itself, you've The Roosevelt, The Old Fitzroy Hotel, and the Potts Point Hotel. And then King's Cross take your pick of 50-80 different places, just don't go in after 8PM because you'll be locked in or you won't be able to go in. So, thank you city of Sydney. Shopping, if you're looking at stores similar to what we've spoken about in either Paddington or Balmain, shops would probably be closer to the King's Cross area. Potts Point itself, or down some of those streets close to the Harbor are going to be much more stacked with those art deco apartments and flats. So if you are looking for a Sunday afternoon stroll through the shops, it would be much closer either to King's Cross or going further afield to, into the city even.

Dog parks in the area, not as many, based on how densely populated the area is, but you do have Embarkation Park in Potts Point which allows dogs off-leash from sunrise to sunset and further away you've got Macleay Reserve in Elizabeth Bay and Bear Park.

Potts Point itself is a really easy suburb to walk through; it's the 12th most walkable in all Sydney and gets a score of 94 from Walk Score which I think is our highest yet and what that means if you haven't heard of Walk Score before is daily errands don't need a car and as mentioned you do have loads of opportunities for fairly flat and steady footpaths.

Last, famous people or residents that you might see in the area are Indira Naidoo, as well as David Wenham, or Venham, or Wenham, I don't know.

Michelle: I don't know.

Marcus: I forget. Listeners out there will know right away who I'm speaking of, but most importantly, the woman, the myth, the legend, Lee Lin Chin does live in Potts Point.

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Michelle: Really?

Marcus: So I'm going to go off and try to find her on a Sunday morning; she's so wonderful

Michelle: I love her.

I'm going to go listen to her actually.

Marcus: Are you? I've got her book.

Michelle: Ah, she's amazing.

Marcus: Just seeing her fashion choices over the years; growing up in Australia watching SBS News. It's sad, but she's left SBS News for the time being so we hope to see her as Prime Minister very soon.

Michelle: Let's go vote, people.

Alright, well this was our Potts Point suburb spotlight, I hope you've learned some more about Potts Point today. Now if you want to learn more about Potts Point, I recommend you sign up to Jason Boon's website. Now Jason Boon is one of Richardson Wrench top selling agent and every week he discusses a different aspect of Potts Point and the surrounding suburbs like Rushcutters Bay, for example. So he discusses things like the ICON building, a very well-known building within the area, Elizabeth Bay House, too, the best bars or how much does a car space add to a Potts Point property so I would recommend you sign up to his emails and of course, if you're in the area, go and have a wander around or you can't go to Potts Point without visiting the Butler Stairs which are located east of Woolloomooloo Bay and are one of three significant stairways that connect Woolloomooloo to Potts Point and just as an interesting note that the introduction of the stairways provided easy access between the higher and wealthier suburb of Potts Point and of course the lower end, poorer neighbourhood of Woolloomooloo and it's quite interesting that it's both high in stature as well as in social grandeur, but, otherwise, there are many self-guided historical walking tours that you can check out online. We'll put a few links in our transcript.

Marcus: Yes, that's what it's called. That's the professional word for it.

If the lower status, economic prosperity is Woolloomooloo, then I'm happy to sign myself up as a resident of one of those Finger Wharfs out there at Woolloomooloo.

Michelle: I know.

Marcus: Goodness.

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Michelle: Maybe we should cover those next time.

Marcus: Yeah, I don't know if we can even afford to speak about them.

So, thank you all for listening. If you do have any questions for Michelle or myself or any questions or topics you'd like us to cover on our podcast, please send them in to [email protected] and we will be with you same time, same place next week.

Have a great week, everyone.

Michelle: Thanks for listening.

Please note that any views or opinions presented in this podcast are solely those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent those of any business. These views and opinions are general in nature, and do not take account of your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. Please consider whether it applies in your circumstances and seek professional advice wherever appropriate.

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