Low-income renters face an excruciating wait (and a possible scramble to find shelter) as one of the first development applications (DAs) is considered by the Inner West LGA under NSW Government’s Transport Oriented Development (TOD) scheme.
Two low-cost rental unit blocks are slated to be demolished in Marrickville, with an application lodged to develop a nine-storey high-rise building of luxury apartments with some “affordable” housing.
The site at 50-52 Warren Road, Marrickville is currently home to 17 low-cost rental apartments, providing a total of 18 bedrooms – homes for 20+ people.
The new development is set to provide 43 apartments over nine storeys, 35 of which will be market priced, while just eight are planned as “Affordable Housing”. Pegged at 80% of market rental rates, these 8 apartments will revert to market price after 15 years. This project represents a net loss of nine truly low cost affordable rentals in Marrickville, and the eviction of more than 20 people.
“I had to hold meetings with the other residents, as the only notice we have received is a sign with a QR code on the front gate, and some of the residents don’t own a smart phone,” said tenant Erina.
She is fearful of the future, as there has been no discussion of support for the low-income residents to find new housing.
“Many of us will likely be forced out of the area,” she said.
Inner West social worker, Ann King, is quick to note that, “this is exactly the type of displacement – with all its adverse social and psychological impacts – that concerned community members and housing groups warned about.”
“Proponents of mass upzoning seem stunningly indifferent to these kinds of consequences,” she said.
The existing blocks were two Italianate villas built in the 1880s, later redecorated with an art-deco facade in the 1930s. One was a teachers’ residence in the late 1800s, later a school, before being converted and rented as studio apartments for at least 90 years. In the 1890s, one villa was home to women’s rights activists the Golding sisters.
The Marrickville Heritage Society opposes the planned demolition.
“The society believes that the buildings have aesthetic and historical significance at the local level and should be retained and protected”, said its President, Scott MacArthur.
Tenant Brook Caley commented: “They’re concerned with making money, and not their obligation to the community. There are plenty of sensible developments around, but this one is in the interest of developers and no-one else.”
Another tenant, Duncan Roden, said this will be particularly hard for the elderly people who live there, most on low, fixed incomes. He cited one woman who has lived in the Inner West her whole life, after her family moved there in the 1930s:
“If she’s forced to move further out to find something she can afford, she would lose her friends, everything she knows, her whole life.”
The application comes in stark contrast to Inner West Mayor, Darcy Byrne’s statement earlier this year that no DAs would be lodged in TOD zones as the controls were not feasible. This application proves otherwise. The TOD zones were gazetted in January this year, and support 6-9 storey development within a 400m radius of Marrickville, Dulwich Hill and Ashfield railway stations.
Led by Mayor Byrne, the ALP majority on the Inner West Council voted 8-7 on 30th September to pass the area’s next development plan, which they paradoxically dubbed “Fairer Future”.
Critics of the new plan – a plan which more than doubles the number of dwellings required under the TOD – say that minimal public housing and the lack of truly affordable housing will see escalating misery and social disruption for the substantial numbers of tenants who will increasingly face eviction.
Greens councillors, along with Independent Councillor Victor Macri, and Liberal Councillor Vittoria Raciti, all voted against the plan.
Olivia Barlow, Greens Councillor for the local ward, Midjuburi (Marrickville), commented on the DA: “This is what NSW Labor’s planning reforms look like on the ground – the eviction of vulnerable community members and the actual reduction of existing affordable housing stock.
“We want to see more homes built, but it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice existing, well-built medium density options for what will be luxury apartments with a few flats held off as ‘affordable’ housing for a measly 15 years,” she said.
“Community members of all backgrounds and ages know these projects are about developer and real estate investor profits being prioritised over real people’s lives – it’s disgraceful.”
JOIN THE PROTEST MARCH AGAINST THE HASTILY PASSED UNFAIR PLAN FOR THE INNER WEST
SUNDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2025 at 11AM
MEET AT MARRICKVILLE TOWN HALL
MARCH TO VISIT FIRST HOUSES EARMARKED FOR DEMOLITION