TikToker shares shock at ‘dystopian’ disparity in Sydney suburbs

A TikToker has revealed his shock at the stark differences between inner and outer Sydney regions.

A 19-year-old social media user has expressed his shock at the difference in Sydney houses, labelling the newly developed areas on the city’s outskirts as a “literal dystopia.”

Matt Van Biljon, a TikToker and branded content creator grew up in Sydney’s northwest where property development has exploded over the last few years.

Footage shows Mr Van Biljon on a lush, tree-lined street in Gladesville on Sydney’s lower north shore.

“Closer to the CBD, the houses were more different, more spaced out, with different things to look at on the street,” he told news.com.au.

Footage shared to TikTok shows Mr Biljon driving past a series of different homes that range from contemporary double storeys swathed in grey paint, to traditional Federation and quintessential red-brick properties.

“The first difference is pretty obvious. There’s a diverse range of plant life, each house looks completely different,” he said in the video, adding: “A lot of these houses are actually heritage sites meaning its against the law to change the outside of them.”

Mr Van Biljon pointing to the lush vegetation in comparatively older Sydney suburbs. Picture: TikTok via @lil_vb_

A shot of a street in an older suburb. Picture: TikTok via @lil_vb_

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Then, the video flicks to a shot of Katoomba Street in The Ponds, a suburb in Sydney’s west, notable worldwide for a high-profile landowner vs. developer standoff.

“Here are the new suburbs and we can immediately see that each house looks the exact same,” he said, gesturing to a series of contemporary brown brick properties that stretch down the end of the street.

While Mr Van Biljon admitted that the vegetation might take a while to grow in these suburbs, he noted that the urban planning of these newer suburbs – with their lack of “windy roads” and “grids and grids of houses” – makes him feel “sick.” His caption refers to the developments as “dystopian sleeping pods.”

Expanding on the point to news.com.au, Mr Van Biljon said: “The reason I referred to them as that was because it feels like these suburbs are being built for cars, not humans,” adding that homes are being further away from amenities like parks and schools.

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“Give the streets 20 years and hopefully they’ll look lush. But the council needs to make sure they do appropriate street planting now,” says one commenter, while another says that “the look the same because they were all built at the same time. The older suburbs have houses from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and new builds.”

Others have cited the emergence of developers as a key difference in how modern homes are built.

“Also because developers are much more prevalent, there are some rare new suburbs where you might find people building their own homes, but many are developers building enormous sites to sell,” one user says, while another reminds users to “remember we’re in a housing crisis. Not many people have the privilege of designing their own home anymore.”

Newly developed houses in Sydney's northwest. Picture: TikTok via @lil_vb_

The streets referred to as a ‘literal dystopia’ in The Ponds. Picture: TikTok via @lil_vb_

This isn’t the first time Mr Van Biljon has criticised the urban planning explosion in his area.

In late November, he shared a video about a family from Sydney’s northwest who refused to sell their 20,000 square metre property home to developers despite being offered bids close to $60 million.

Mr Van Biljon said to news.com.au about the property: “I actually went to school around there when it was all farmland.”

“(The change was) insanely fast. When I first joined I just remember the smell of the chicken farms and the cows or whatever it was. I left that school and didn’t go around that area as much — I would occasionally drive past and every time I just couldn’t believe (the changes), it was crazy.”