Meet the Sydneysiders who love living in high-density neighbourhoods

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Residents living in some of Sydney’s highest-density areas say they like living in places with plenty of amenities and services, and think NIMBY locals in suburbs like Mosman and Woollahra could benefit from more apartment development and the facilities that often come with them.

Instead of lashing out and launching legal action to halt more homes being built in their neighbourhoods, some apartment dwellers suggested the residents of low-rise neighbourhoods should consider the advantages to the community and do their bit in helping solve the country’s housing crisis.

Tim Ellis has lived in Potts Point for 22 years.

“I used to live next to Mosman, in Cremorne Point, and I hated it!” said physiotherapist Tim Ellis, 58, who now lives in a high-rise apartment in densely populated Potts Point. “Yes, we were overlooking the harbour and bridge and Opera House, but I was as miserable as sin.

“It felt like a soulless community of corporate people, and everyone ignored each other. So, when I came to Potts Point, it was so different. It felt so full of life and vibrant, and there were lots of people and cafes and great restaurants, and when I walk the dog, I always bump into people I know.”

In bustling Green Square, a masterplanned community in Sydney’s inner south, hotel entrepreneur Dominic Lambrinos, 53, also talks about how much he loves living at one of Sydney’s most heavily populated sites. He grew up in the same area 40 years ago and moved back in 2010, when all the apartment-building was steadily transforming the neighbourhood.

“In the early days it was a really rough place, with a couple of murders in the Zetland Hotel, and full of bikies and homeless people,” he said. “But high density is a great way to have a successful gentrification of an area. It’s the quickest path.

Dominic Lambrinos in his Zetland penthouse.

“And you need high rise to support great infrastructure. Without it, you’d never get the economies of scale that means you can afford all the amenities. I used to live in Darling Point [in the Woollahra Municipal Council area], but it wasn’t me. I felt like a round peg in a square hole.”

Up in the Hills District, Norwest is being regarded as a benchmark for densification. Apartments now account for 53.5 per cent of all dwellings there, surpassing standalone homes – at 37.6 per cent – for the first time, according to data from real estate and construction marketplace Build Sydney.

It reflects the broad national trend with 2.5 million Australians, more than 10.3 per cent of the population, according to the latest Census data, now living in apartments. For many, that move towards unit living is about affordability but for others, it’s convenience and lifestyle.

Semi-retired house designer Carolyn Piggot, in her early 70s, downsized to a high-rise apartment in Norwest from a large house in Glenhaven to be maintenance-free and closer to family. She adores the area.

Carolyn Piggott is a downsizer who is renting an apartment in Norwest, but is moving into another she’s bought once it is built.

“It’s got a really great vibe about it,” she said. “On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, people eat at all the restaurants, and then everybody walks around. It’s quite European. In the city, everything closes down, but here people are out having an ice-cream or a coffee late into the evening. There’s always something going on.

“The apartments are lovely and have attracted quite an upmarket, affluent generation of people. It’s created a great environment, and it’s a beautiful happening place.”

The three high-rise areas are a world away from those more genteel suburbs like Mosman and Woollahra, where the numbers of houses easily dwarf those of apartments. Both have been told by the NSW government that they will be subject to low- and mid-rise housing reforms to take some of the 1.2 million new homes the federal government plans to have built across the country by 2029.

In Mosman, resident Judith Pearson, 89, is willing to spend up to $500,000 in legal costs to challenge the new planning controls in the NSW Land and Environment Court, claiming they will “destroy” the character of the suburb.

Meanwhile, in Woollahra, councillors have voted to obtain legal advice on ways to fight the government’s plans to complete the partially built 1970s train station and rezone land around it for up to 10,000 new homes, saying it would decimate heritage and character.

But none of the apartment residents we talked to have had any issues with their move to units and, for those already living in high-density areas, such blanket opposition to further apartment development is seen as short-sighted. The president of the Norwest Community Association, Adam Flower, says that, he does not know of any residents where he is who have ever argued against further development.

“Each tower that comes brings more services,” said Flower, 36, who grew up on acreage in Dural before moving to an apartment in Norwest. “The one I’ve bought into is mixed use, with a supermarket, additional shops, medical facilities and a commercial gym to be used by the community.

“I might go for a walk in Mosman or Vaucluse or Woollahra, and they are nice areas, but everyone should have the ability to live there without it being restricted to those who can afford houses. These areas have to share some of the heavy lifting to beat the housing crisis. Many of those objecting have never lived in apartments and, far from destroying community, apartments actually build community and make it stronger.”

Norwest developer Mulpha is currently developing Norwest Quarter, which will house more than 2000 residents across eight residential towers and 864 apartments, with 6000 square metres of cafes, restaurants, shops and services, when completed. Green space will make up 70 per cent of the 3.8-hectare site.

Andrew Nichols, Mulpha’s director NSW developments, says Norwest should be a lesson in how high density done well can improve an area, by blending buildings into the topography and including amenities, with the recent opening of the metro station further boosting liveability.

“I understand where [the opponents to development in] Mosman and Woollahra are coming from because change is hard for everyone,” Nichols said. “When you’re in established neighbourhoods and used to a certain density it would be unusual not to have some degree of NIMBYism.

“Fear is a natural human response. But if you try to remove yourself from that mindset and look at somewhere like Norwest, you can see that all forms of density can comfortably coexist.”

New data commissioned by Mulpha from planning, design and policy experts Urbis identified the suburb as a standout for liveability. Its market outlook report projects the area, also including Bella Vista and Baulkham Hills, will have 5600 new residents by 2040.

The Hills Shire is predicted to have a population growth rate of 1.8 per cent per annum over the next 15 years, as against Greater Sydney’s projected 1.3 per cent.

Urbis associate director Kylie Newcombe says high density can be masterplanned, as in Norwest, Green Square and Pyrmont, or can grow organically, like in Potts Point. “People complain about density, but it’s not a foreign concept,” she said. “And in all the debate, there’s rarely the mention of the people who live there. These are homes people enjoy living in, but their voices seem to be missing.”

No figures yet exist for Norwest’s population density, but Green Square’s (Waterloo-Zetland) is now at 16,711 residents per square kilometre, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, and Potts Point, on City of Sydney data, is at 9047 a square kilometre. By contrast, Mosman’s is 3380, from the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, and Woollahra’s at 5981, by the Woollahra Municipal Council.

More Sydney neighbourhoods are set to have new apartment projects.

When residents’ views of their own area’s liveability are measured in the different suburbs, the highest-rated LGAs and suburbs tend to be the inner urban, higher-density established neighbourhoods, reports Kylie Legge, founder and CEO of Place Score.

These are highly walkable places with a diverse mix of housing and population, good infrastructure, and trains or trams, with Lane Cove currently topping the charts – after The Canopy development with community spaces, retail and new dwellings that locals campaigned against on an anti-density ticket.

“I personally believe that density-clustered amenity is much healthier for a community,” said Legge, who lives in Potts Point. “Clustering people with good things and good infrastructure means everyone gets access to amenity.”

Good high density also brings reduced travel times to work, as well as parks, cycling and walking paths, believes Professor Chris Pettit, director of the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre.

“We all get the great Australian dream of the backyard barbecue, but we have some of the lowest-density cities in the world,” he said. “Now in Australia, there’s a mind shift that’s slowly occurring as we have more people who are used to medium and high density coming to live here.

“What would help, from my perspective, is having well-articulated, consistent strategic plans with long-term vision that take the community on the journey, so everyone understands what’s happening. Politicians need to respect the trajectory of cities well beyond the political cycles and not turn them into political handballs.”

CEO of state-owned land development corporation Landcom, Alexander Wendler, says he’s a big fan of density done well. “Green Square and Victoria Park are a great success with residents, and we shouldn’t be surprised because these projects follow well-understood urban design principles, inspired by Europe,” he said.

“We’re moving away from a city that’s centred on cars and moving towards walkability, where you can walk to shops, to schools, to cinemas round the corner. Green Square showcases a place full of amenity and convenience.

“I think NIMBYism is rooted in the idea that people have the right to exclude other people from their neighbourhoods, but we want to expand their benefits to a greater number of people.”