EPISODE 28 SUBURB SPOTLIGHT – PADDINGTON Marcus: Hi, and Welcome to Sydney Property Insider, the Podcast That Talks About
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EPISODE 28 SUBURB SPOTLIGHT – PADDINGTON Marcus: Hi, and welcome to Sydney Property Insider, the podcast that talks about all things property in the City of Sydney. Michelle and I are pleased to present our next in a line of suburb spotlights, focusing on Paddington this week. Michelle, how are you going this week? Michelle: Good, how are you? Marcus: Very, very well. So, Paddington, we were just talking earlier, it's amazing how much is actually there that, you know, I guess you take for granted until you start digging into a bit more. But, you know, what have you found in terms of the history that you started with? Michelle: Oh, there's so much there, and Paddington's probably best known today for its streets of beautifully restored terraced houses with their, you know, distinctive cast iron balcony railings sloping down in waves from Oxford Street, you know, to the Harbor Shores below. But the area was originally inhabited Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, and the development of the suburb was largely due to changes to transport availability along the ridge. Originally there was the Maroo, which is a path used by the local aboriginal people, and a road of some form was built by Governor Hunter along this track to the South Head as early as 1803. That's quite a while ago. So, the first land grant in the Paddington area, of 100 acres, which is 40.4 hectares, was made to three gentlemen, Robert Cooper, James Underwood, and Francis Forbes, and it was first promised by Governor Brisbane in 1823. The suburb's name came about when James Underwood subdivided 50 of his 97 acres, and he called his subdivision the Paddington Estate after the London Borough of that name. It covered the land from Oxford Street down to present day Paddington Street. Now, early developments in the area followed soon after the commencement in 1841 with the construction of the Victoria Barracks, built to accommodate members of the New South Wales Corps formally housed in the town of Sydney. Now, the Village of Paddington soon emerged, and much of it around the cottages of the many artisans, like stonemasons, quarrymen, carpenters and laborers who were working on the construction of the barracks, along with the dwellings of the small community that grew up to supply goods and services to the military establishment. So, what emerged in that suburb was a really clear class distinction. You had the working class population, and then there was a small group of gentlemen, you know, professional men and merchants, many of whom built their imposing villas on the slopes leading down to the harbor. So, the height of ridge made an ideal location for a reservoir holding water for the surrounding, lower down suburbs, and working on the Paddington Reservoir was completed in 1866. It operated until 1899, so not that long, and it was sold to the Paddington Municipal Council, and part of it was used as a service station until the roof collapsed in 1990. Following major renovation and landscaping, it was reopened as Paddington Reservoir Gardens, and is not a major tourist attraction. Marcus: That's certainly a lovely place to go visit if you've got a Sunday afternoon- Michelle: Beautiful. Marcus: ... or a Saturday afternoon and it's sunny out, take a walk through the Reservoir Gardens. It's certainly a lovely spot to go visit since its renovation, or since its opening a few years back. Michelle: So, the Victorian suburb of Paddington grew into its present form largely due to a 30-year boom that began in sort of the mid 1870s, particularly with developments in public transport. Initially with horse drawn buses, which travelled to the city and back from a terminus at Glenmore Road, and then with the introduction of steam trams going through to Bondi in 1884. All of this facilitated the growth of the local high street, along the Old South Head Road, and with the section between Boundary Street and Jersey Road being renamed as Oxford Street by the council in 1885. So, there you go, Oxford Street started in 1885, both to reflect its upgraded status, and to bring it into line with the already renamed lower section from Hyde Park. The boom saw both the building of the Paddington Town Hall and the breakup of many of the early 19th century gentlemen estates that had previously occupied the valley along Rushcutters Bay. So, much of the building activity in the late 19th century, in Paddington, was the work of so-called 'spec' builders, so they work ... the way they work is they finance the construction of each new house that they do from the sale of the last. And the terrace form of development typically found in Paddington Suited this, you know, modus operandi whilst also allowing economies of land use and building materials. So, the resulting housing was nearly always tenanted and occupied, with landlords all often holding onto their investments for decades. I think there's quite a few that still do that now. After World War II, at a time when the Anglo-Celtic Australian dream was for the quarter-acre block in the suburbs, and while Paddington still remained home to many working class families who lived there for generations, it also Page 2 of 8 became home to migrant workers and their families, who had no problems living in close proximity to their neighbours. These residents were joined, from the early '60s, 1960s, that is, by hippies and students attracted by the cheap rents. Marcus: Which no long exist. Michelle: No. There's no such thing as cheap rent. Marcus: And what's interesting is having moved from that working class background that was present after World War II that you've mentioned, Michelle, you know, per the 2016 census, it's gone completely the other way. So, it's gone from a very working class blue collar type area to almost exclusively white collar. So, per 2016, you know, jobs in white collar, either admin, managerial, professional type services, now make up 80% of the employment in the area. Michelle: Yeah. Marcus: So, it's been a complete shift on its head from blue collar over to white collar. Paddington itself has just over 12,000 people from 2016, which is just double over what we spoke about a few weeks back with Naremburn, and married couples were about 35% of the population, which is a much lower proportion than it would be across New Sales Wales at about 48%. So, outside of that, the never married constitutes about 52% of the locals in Paddington. Two other really interesting tidbits that I found were that people in the legal industry are over three and a half times more likely to live in Paddington than the rest of New South Wales. Michelle: Really? Marcus: So, if you do want to get hit by a car for that sweet, sweet insurance money, someone's going to be there, right? Represent you, and throwing business cards at you, so- Michelle: That's interesting. Interesting indeed. Marcus: And, you know, speaking about housing, getting back onto property and the housing themselves, townhouses and terrace houses are about 64% of the residences in the area of Paddington, which you can certainly appreciate when you walk through it and take a walk on the city streets. Michelle: Yeah, there's only 2.8% is separate house, so, a freestanding home. So, if you're in the market for a freestanding home, it's like hens teeth in Paddington. Marcus: Get ready to pay. Page 3 of 8 Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Marcus: Hopefully you were born very, very wealthy. Michelle: Well, that's it, yes, or had that golden ticket. And when we're looking at houses in the numbers, let's talk dollars. Paddington hasn't seen any negative growth since 2012, which is the same for units also. Today's median price stands at $2.59 million dollars, and interestingly, this year only 52 ... In 2018, 52 houses have sold, and if you look at last year, when 222 houses sold, 2017, there's still quite a few to beat- Marcus: It's a whole less stock. Michelle: Yeah. Marcus: Whole less amount of stock that's on the market. Michelle: And, you know, that tends to drive up price, where there's no supply and still demand. Now, with units, prices still going up, as I said. Again, also much lack of stock there, only 23 units in 2018, and the median price there is a million and 50. So, when you're looking at price segmentation, where were the most properties sold, in which price bracket? In the last 12 months houses was two to two and a half million and up. There were a few cheaper ones, but most of them are in the two to two and a half million mark. With apartments, interestingly, so, there's two peaks there, seven to 800,000, and one and a half to two million. So, I would suggest, from those numbers, you could see the seven to 800 is obviously the one-bedders, one and a half to two, two bedders or the really swanky one-bedders. Marcus: Absolutely, yes. It's terrifying to think of a two million dollar one bedroom. Michelle: Yeah, oh, gosh, but, you know, nice if you have it. In terms of home ownership, 45.5% rent in the suburb, and the rest is either mortgaged or fully owned.