As Parramatta’s skyline continues to push upward, a tug of war has emerged between city planners and developers over the CBD: what should space in the city centre be used for? Will it be a global engine for jobs, or used for high-rise housing?
The answer depends on how you picture Parramatta’s future.
The City of Parramatta council, for instance, believes the city needs more office space. It’s new strategy for the city’s economy shows that preserving and growing employment floor space across Parramatta as the population grows, is a priority. But it also warns that the current housing affordability crisis is driving pressure to surrender employment lands for residential use.
“The last thing you need is to just have houses within the Parramatta CBD, as an example, and then having to trek to the city or to other areas to find the job,” Parramatta Lord Mayor Martin Zaiter said.
“If we are going to have increases in housing density and increases in residential density, that also needs to be matched and met by additional job opportunities.”
To protect its ambitious goal of creating 150,000 new jobs by 2050, the council report said that all existing employment lands need to be preserved through planning controls.
But the council has to play a long game – recently revealed data from the Property Council of Australia Office Market Report shows total office vacancy in Parramatta rose to 22.1 per cent, up from 20 per cent six months ago, meaning the city has the fifth-highest vacancy rate in Australia.
Currently, the office space that is available is limited to spots across various floors, meaning large tenants cannot access multiple levels above each other – preventing more big businesses from becoming tenants.
With developers struggling to turn a profit on apartments in western Sydney, they are turning to one economic model that is proving to be the most feasible: build-to-rent. Unlike building to sell, which relies on strong pre-sales to fund construction, build-to-rent focuses on long-term rental income.
“Given that there are high vacancies across the A and B grades [office] stocks, build-to-rent is a good way to ensure that the city doesn’t become economically mothballed for the next 30 years,” Ross Grove, the western Sydney regional director for the Property Council of Australia, said.
Just down from Parramatta Square is the 47-storey HOME Parramatta tower, a new build-to-rent development that opened in January. Christian Grahame, head of HOME, expects more build-to-rent developments to be built over time, saying he has been “pleasantly surprised” with the level of demand for residential property in Parramatta.
“We’ve been able to lease about 10 per cent of it in the first couple of weeks with little or no marketing activity, and predominantly from local people who are attracted to Parramatta … that’s the place that they want to live.”
The Sydney Morning Herald has a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email parramatta@smh.com.au with news tips.
Ellie Busby is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
