Residents of Potts Point flats to be kicked out for single residential building

Tenants in a block of seven flats in Potts Point will be turfed out in a plan to make the building one luxury home complete with library, gym, plunge pool and a lift to reach all four storeys.

Residents and housing advocates aren’t happy with the plans. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers

Tenants in a block of seven flats in Potts Point will be turfed out in a plan to make the building one luxury home complete with library, gym, plunge pool and a lift to reach all four storeys.

The development application lodged with City of Sydney council this week describes the “significant demolition” of the existing structures and a four storey rear addition “associated with the change of use from a residential flat building to a single dwelling”.

In the place of the existing seven dwellings will be three bedrooms over the four storeys connected by a sweeping spiral staircase and featuring multiple terraces.

The St Neot Ave building would become the only single dwelling in the street, which is made up of multiple blocks of flats.

The Sunday Telegraph spoke with tenants in the building who were upset about the prospect of being spat out into a volatile rental market while one family builds a mansion.

“I’m stressed and anxious about finding a place with so much competition, I might have to move home with my parents,” one tenant said.

The St Neot Ave building will no longer consist of seven flats. Max Mason-Hubers

Property records show the block of flats was bought by Barry Sechos, director of investment company Sherman Group and his wife Maria for a pretty $11 million last year after selling their Vaucluse manor for just shy of $29 million.

Mr Sechos declined requests for comment.

Members of Sydney’s new pro-density housing coalition Housing Now! are up in arms about the proposal, which would see much needed housing stock reduced in already rental poor areas.

Former NSW housing minister and Housing Now! Chair David Borger said it would be a “perverse” outcome if the application is approved.

Plans lodged with City of Sydney Council to convert a block of seven flats into one luxury home in Potts Point.

“In the middle of a national housing crisis - when more and more Australians are struggling to put a roof over their heads - what kind of message does it send for an apartment block to be turned into just one home,” he said.

“We’ve already started behind the eight ball with a 375,000 home shortfall in NSW. We cannot afford to go backwards by turning medium density apartments into mansions for the well to do.”

A City of Sydney spokesperson said there are currently eight DAs under assessment which aim to decrease the number of dwellings on their sites.

One woman hoping to stop the downward housing trend is town planner Melissa Neighbour, whose group Sydney YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) wants to revolutionise planning controls around the city.

Melissa Neighbour is speaking out against the development. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers

She wants more housing density within a 15km radius of the CBD, and says Sydney needs widespread upzoning to solve the housing crisis.

“We need to allow more housing to be built at a higher density in our existing urban areas and at the moment, our planning controls don’t support that kind of development or encourage it,” she said.

Ms Neighbour said if the trend of developers taking existing flats and reducing the amount of dwellings continues, Sydney could become a “stale old place”.

“Sydney is losing 10,000 young employees every year because they can’t afford to live in the city. At 8pm the whole city will be putting their slippers on … a city should be progressive and move with the times.”