Parramatta: $9.9 billion invested in CBD over 10 years
It used to be ‘Dallas on the cheap’ but billions of dollars pumped into Parramatta over the past decade has propelled the housing market and turned it from a run-down region into Sydney’s true second city.
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Parramatta’s unstoppable growth and investment in infrastructure over the past decade has hurtled at such ferocity, $9.9 billion has been poured into major projects from Parramatta Square, to CommBank Stadium and the beginning of the light rail project.
Since 2011, billions has been spent developing Parramatta, known as Sydney’s Second City.
That includes public and private projects — the $360 million CommBank Stadium (formerly Bankwest), part of the stage one component of the $2.4 billion light rail, the $18 million Escarpment Boardwalk, the $345 million Arthur Phillip High and Parramatta Public school upgrades, the $320 million 32 Smith St building, the $300 million Western Sydney Innovation Hub and major drawcard the Walker Corporation’s $3.2 billion Parramatta Square.
Once calculating allocations for future projects such as the Metro and Powerhouse, Property Council of Australia says $9.9 billion in government and commercial investment has been poured into the CBD since 2011.
“I think it’s very clear Parramatta has gone from a maybe to a certainty in its future as a commercial centre,’’ Property Council’s western Sydney regional director Ross Grove said.
“The real tipping point in its future was when Lang Walker made the decision to switch (6 and 8) Parramatta Square from a residential tower into a commercial tower (in 2017).
“It was a very gutsy decision. Commercial is where the jobs are created. I think the great benefit from a commercial centre is you’re selling real estate close to where people want to work.’’
Business Western Sydney executive director David Borger concurs about Parramatta Square,
which boasts a 225m tower (6 and 8), that soars to 225m and will be the largest 80 office blocks in the world when it opens next year.
“I think Parramatta Square is the biggest piece in the jigsaw,’’ he says.
“Parramatta Square, in my view, is the project that you’ve got to have one look at it and you’ve seen how the city’s changed and you’ve seen the opportunity.
“I think Parramatta’s got more pulling power than it had.’’
Along with the colossal Square redevelopment, Mr Borger says government investment, including the 17-storey Arthur Phillip High School being the first high-rise school in NSW, has fuelled Parramatta’s growth over the past decade.
“I think it was an overnight success that took about 30 years but I think the thing that changed Parramatta was the government actually getting involved and investing,’’ he said.
“It was all those big government decisions that eventually made the private sector realise that actually ‘there’s going to be a second city and we better get in’.
“The government realised they had to do something — that there were two Sydneys and we couldn’t have 300,000 people travelling into Sydney CBD every day to access work — they needed to balance it out and create a few more jobs in western Sydney.’’
Mr Borger says Parramatta is “unrecognisable from the city I grew up in”.
“Parramatta was a bit of a country town 30 years ago,’’ he says.
“It was a city but I think most people knew each other and love the area but it was run down, it was overlooked and I think people left town because it had become Dallas on the cheap.
“I’ve always loved Parramatta. You could always see it had potential but it was neglected, it was undeveloped. There was a gravel carpark where Parramatta Square now is so it was so low-value that you could drive in and park your car for free and then go to Parramatta station.’’
Naturally the commercial boon has boosted the housing market and seen the proliferation of apartments.
CoreLogic data shows the median price of a house in Parramatta has soared by 120 per cent since November 2011, when it jumped from $546,331 to $1.2 million over 10 years.
Unit prices recorded a more modest 37.1 per cent increase over the same period when the average price for an apartment rose from $430,167 to $589,651.
At Westmead, which is the centre of its own building boom thanks to the health precinct, light rail and Metro, the average price of a house jumped $681,282 in 2011 to $1.5 million this year — a 127.2 per cent increase over the past decade.
Unit prices recorded a 29.8 per cent rise from $422,839 to $548,656 in the corresponding period.
Ray White Parramatta director, Broderick Wright, says some dwelling prices had tripled since 2012, thanks to private and public entities such as Sydney Water, relocating to Parramatta.
“If you’re in middle management working for a major corporation, travelling an hour and a half to the CBD of Sydney is just not quite feasible,’’ he said.
“Particularly over the last 10 years, as Parramatta has grown it’s become more attractive for businesses to come and access and that’s like a domino effect.
“When one major company or organisation makes the commitment to Parramatta the rest see the value in the company being there and follow suit.’’
Like Mr Wright, Mr Borger has seen a shift in more young people calling Parramatta home after being priced out of the inner west and the inner city, all while maintaining its multicultural make-up.
“It’s kind of a place now when you leave home you might get your first unit in Parramatta,’’ he says.
“I think the other thing that’s worked for Parramatta is that Sydney’s become so big that commuting a long way’s become a real pain, so when you think of it you can assess everything you want in life is in Parramatta and you can walk to it. You can walk to everything but the beach.’’
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