EPISODE 61 SUBURB SPOTLIGHT ON GLADESVILLE Marcus: Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Sydney property inside podcast, your weekly podcast series that talks about all things property related in the city of Sydney. Michelle, how are you doing this fine morning? Michelle: Good, how are you? Marcus: Very very well. So today, we are going to back to one of our series which is the Suburbs Spotlight series and today, we're focused on Gladesville. Michelle: I know Gladesville. I know it well, I used to live there for a long time, actually. Marcus: Oh did you, I didn't know? Oh wow. Michelle: Yeah, I did. Marcus: 'Cause I personally don't know that much about Gladesville so this was certainly interesting reading for myself. Michelle: Yeah, Gladesville is a really interesting suburb. For those of you who don't know where it is, it's on the lower North Shore, northern suburbs of Sydney although sometimes it's counted as being part of the Inner West now, too. So it's situated on the northern banks of the Parramatta river and it's next to Hunters Hill to the northeast and Boronia Park to the north, with Ryde to the western side of it. It's approximately 10 Ks from the city and it's placed in between the local government area of the City of Ryde and the municipality of Hunters Hill. Michelle: So it's really got a very rich history, most of which I found on the dictionary of Sydney which is a fantastic website with lots of information about the history of different suburbs. But, the Aboriginal history is that the original owners of the area were the Wallumattagal people. And they called the area Wallumatta and the earliest recorded contact was 20 days after the arrival of the first fleet when Captain Arthur Phillips and his Parramatta river exploration party landed and named Looking Glass Bay after giving a looking glass to a local Aboriginal man they met there. So that's the very first recorded history of the European landing there. Michelle: Now, the European settlement began with a land grant being made to a convict artist called John Doody and after a while, the land was subdivided, subdivided and in 1855, the actual name of Gladesville started. And a dividing aspect of the development of Gladesville was the building of the Great North Road which is now called Victoria Road, of course. And it led from the Sydney town to Parramatta. Now, from 1861, the people of the wider district really began petitioning for better access to the area. And money was raised to finance the construction of the Gladesville and the Iron Cove bridges, providing a direct road access to Sydney. So obviously that improved the connection much better there. And the first Gladesville bridge was opened in 1881 with the current concrete archbridge opening in 1964. Marcus: I know the Gladesville bridge quite well because once a year, they have the seven bridge walk in Sydney which I have ended on the Gladesville Bridge. I think there is a photo somewhere in the deep cavities of my photo albums of me passed out on the edge of the bridge. Michelle: It's very steep. Marcus: After doing 32 kilometers of hiking. Michelle: Oh, I'm impressed, Marcus. Marcus: I think it was a very hot day and I was slightly more overweight than I currently am. Michelle: Wow. Marcus: So there is a photo out there, I'd have to go looking for it, though, goodness. Michelle: It's very steep, that bridge. But it's got the most amazing view toward the city when you're driving from Gladesville towards the city. Marcus: It really does, yeah. Michelle: Page 2 of 10 So in 1910, the tramline from the city to Drummoyne was extended across that bridge through Gladesville and eventually through Ryde. And of course, unfortunately, that tramline is no longer there. But yeah, there we go. Marcus: Don't worry, they'll come back. Michelle: Fingers crossed, fingers crossed. Michelle: Now, the other major milestone in the development of this suburb was established of the Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum in 1938. Marcus: 1838. Michelle: Oh, sorry, yes, in 1838. And it was the first purpose-built mental asylum in New South Wales. In 1997, the inpatient services were consolidated at Macquarie hospital in North Ryde and the Gladesville complex includes many buildings that are listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register, still, it's some beautiful buildings there. Michelle: Now, of course, we've got the Cottage Rock End which is another historical landmark there where the poet Banjo Paterson lived in the 1870s to 1880s. It's still preserved and open to the public in Banjo Paterson Park which is on Punt Road and Banjo Paterson lived there in the Sandstone House which is now a restaurant, by the way, whilst he went to Sydney Grammar School and the house- Marcus: He did. Having gone to Sydney Grammar myself, you can still sit in his chair because I don't think they've changed some of those desks. Michelle: Oh really. Marcus: For the past 150 years. And certainly, every assembly that I can remember, there was always mention of Banjo Paterson. Michelle: Oh, there you go. Page 3 of 10 Marcus: It's amazing. If you wanna see his desk, you just have to, sadly, fork out what I think is now $40,000 a year or something for your child to go. Horrifying numbers. Michelle: Yes. Well, private school's a whole another matter. Now, what else do we know about this wonderful suburb? Marcus: So, at the 2016 Census, Gladesville had 11,827 residents. Majority of those people were born in Australia, 64.9% and secondary to that being from China, from England, from Italy, New Zealand, and India. All in that sort of 3 to 2%. Just under 70% of people had English as their primary language at home and following that was Mandarin and Cantonese, both in the threes, followed by Italian at 3.4%, Greek 2.6%, Spanish 1.3%. Marcus: As a community of various religions, Catholicism was the most common affiliation which was followed by no religious affiliation of 27.3% and then Anglican of 11.7%. In terms of actual family makeup, you've got married couples which were 50% of the population which is slightly higher than New South Wales's average of 48% and never married constitutes 34.2% of the locals. Marcus: Really, Gladesville's a white collar suburb and those jobs take over 67% of employment in the area. Hospitals and banking are the two most likely occupations of residents and computer services and IT closely behind. In terms of the actual housing and sales and recent activity in the area, Michelle, what did you find out? Michelle: So when we're looking at houses in the area, it's remarkable to see that, compared to some of the other suburbs we've discussed previously, the average land size of houses in Gladesville is 628 square meters which is really large. And when you're looking at the medium prices, over 2018, 89 houses were sold and the medium was 1.88. That's a downturn of over 10% since the year previous of 2017 when the medium price was 2.1 million. Michelle: Previously, the other recent downturn was in 2012 so prices have gone up significantly since then when the medium price for houses was only a million. I'm saying only a million but you know, you gotta take that in perspective. Marcus: Still good numbers. Michelle: Page 4 of 10 Absolutely. And what we're seeing is that the largest number of houses are sold between the 1.5 to 2 and upwards. Obviously, Gladesville is a lot of proportion on the water so there's some significantly amazing waterside properties there, as you know. 2017, for example, the most expensive house in that suburb was 9.5 million. And last year, 6.5., so you know, you can imagine what kind of a property you get for that. Michelle: Now, when you're looking at units, you need to be thinking actually more than I thought because there's been a high number of developments in recent years. That's partially because, like I said before, the suburb is split in both Ryde council and Hunters Hill council. So when they got the directive to start building, both of the councils sort of dumped their directive in Gladesville and a lot of newer buildings were built either side of Victoria road or closely surrounding that area. Marcus: And you can certainly see that when you drive down Victoria Road. Michelle: The landscape has changed significantly. Marcus: You can see how the landscape has changed in the last few years. Michelle: Absolutely. Yeah, and so with along that, previously Gladesville units were sort of 60s, 70s, red brick, very humble, very simple, clean walk ups, three, four stories. Whereas now, you can see some really quite fairly high, eight, nine stories high, lifts and significant terraces and things like that. So that is reflected in the prices of those units. So, the medium price for units actually was, believe it or not, $1.88 in 2018 which ... Hang on, that doesn't make sense. Michelle: So what we're typically seeing now is that the newer units, obviously very spick and span, very shiny shiny, with mod-cons of modern living, AC, bigger terraces, lifts in the building, they come at a higher price as well.