Bars open, property up: arise the 'new Paddington'

This was published 10 years ago

Bars open, property up: arise the 'new Paddington'


Last month property analysts, predicting a doubling of returns in the next six years, declared the multicultural enclave of the inner west was ''the new Paddington'', provoking a mix of delight and unease, but little surprise.

Property prices and rents are rising at a higher rate than the rest of the city and new businesses in the suburb read like a list from Christian Lander's popular blog ''Stuff White People Like'', which comically details the proclivities of the white, Western middle-class: an organic farmers market, artist warehouses, Thai restaurants and coffee shops.

The bohemian-style cafe, 2204, will soon operate on weekends as a wine and tapas bar.

''A lot of people have said we're adding to their property value by being here,'' said its owner, Ricardo Martins.


The transition is bringing real benefits. Enrolments in local primary schools are up between 10 and 50 per cent over the past five years, thanks to a baby boom among young professionals.

Crime rates have also dropped significantly since the 1990s when the suburb made headlines for heroin-related crime and a series of stabbings at Marrickville High School. Home break-ins are now at a lower rate per head of population than they are in Woollahra or North Sydney.

''A lot of that is due to the heroin shortage, the booming economy and gentrification,'' said Dr Don Weatherburn, the director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.

But for established low and middle-income communities, the changes are not all good news. Though still strongly multicultural, the percentage of people born overseas dropped by 5 per cent between 2001 and 2006, with reductions in the Vietnamese, Greek and Portuguese populations.

Harry Tzivanopoulos, the president of the Marrickville Greek Macedonian Club, said his organisation was struggling for new members. ''Once you would walk down the street and hear Greek music and Greek language; you thought you were in Athens,'' he said.

But the children and grandchildren of Greek migrants, who settled during the postwar period, could not afford to buy their own properties.

''Even with $600,000 you can hardly find a house in Marrickville,'' he said, ''but in the western suburbs you can still find a big home.''

Worse-off, though, are the refugees and migrants from Africa and the subcontinent. Community workers say overcrowding is common as they struggle to find housing in Marrickville, which has a rental vacancy rate of less than 1 per cent.

''Even if people can afford to pay there's such a demand landlords can pick and choose,'' said Violet Roumeliotis, from the Metro Migrant Resource Centre.

Ms Roumeliotis, who also worked with Greek migrants decades ago in Paddington, said the comparison between the two suburbs was a fraught one.

''People have no issue with gentrification or rejuvenation - they're good things. The problem is when people feel they can't be part of that community any more,'' she said.

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