Newtown, NSW 2042

Ugly, no parking. The people are pretentious and fake.

Newtown is a dirty suburb, street parking is near impossible. An issue, as I don’t feel safe walking to and from the train station. Some of the locals are pretentious and self righteous ‘left wing’, but are in fact antisemitic and racist.

I lived in Newtown throughout 2024. Having gone through the reviews on this website (With no dates) it seems as though alot of them are from 10/15 years ago when the area was alot dodgier.

As of late 2024, most of the troublemakers and dole bludgers have been priced out and pushed out of the inner west and into western sydney (Starting at Earlwood/Ashfield nowadays). However, due to the excellent public service links to Newtown some of these people from west sydney (obvious by tattoos on their face and no teeth from hard narcotics) will still be seen loitering around on hot days and weekends.

On weekday mornings it feels just like a Nice but not exactly fancy inner city suburb where nice looking hipster and young professional people are walking around with suits and high quality clothes, on their way to work or enjoying some kind of day off (Not because they are dole bludgers but because they work from home or have their own business type of people)

The suburb looks much more grungier/dodgy on the surface than what it really is. There are many cafes and restaurants that look like some kind of crack house on the outside but when you go inside its all modern and renovated.

To speak on negatives, there are alot of housing commissions in the area but after a year of living in newtown (Moved recently) I have never had any trouble as male who dresses in plain unpretentious clothes other than hearing noises and smelling strange stuff walking past.

Another negative is that the streets are like overgrown dirty hippy jungles. Because of the overall greeny vibe, people seem to think that maintaining their garden and disposing of waste is evil. Alot of houses have overgrown forestry, and have trees/greenery growing through the cracks of their walls, causing insects and allergies to run rampant, and my car basically got ruined by the amount of leaves and tree grime that would go onto it. The residents rallied up to have the red bins emptied only every fortnight with a new green "Fogo" bin making up the every second week. This bin is for organics such as banana peels, apple scraps ETC. The main extreme drawback, however, is when you dump a heap of these organics in a bin and leave them to rot for two weeks, they become maggot and fly infested dumps. These bins (and also the red ones) End up stinking like a combination of death, maggots, rotten fish, rotten meat, baby diapers, and hippy body odour. worst of all since they only get emptied fortnightly, the bins fill up and get placed on the curbs ages before the bin trucks come. I've had times where I literally cannot walk on the footpaths because they get blocked by thousands of full, dirty, maggot infested death smelling bins.

Overall it is a cool place to live for a creative/open minded young professional or student with great access to everything. People aren't all socialist anti work dole bludgers anymore, however, you do notice that people typically are hippies and will hold extreme views, albeit I found specifically on climate related stuff while being a bit more centered (but not typically conservative) on social and economic topics. If the waste and forestry was managed better it would be quite significantly nicer to live in Newtown; although this negative was outweighed by the positives for me. Overall I enjoyed living there, and had alot of fun as a young creative tech professional in my early 20s.

I remember when King St was the best social, shopping and eating strip in Sydney hands down. It lost the crown many years ago. The area didn't receive enough investment and enhancement. Such a shame. The suburb is still OK to live but not enough to make me want to stay.

Great for a family and I have even met some happy downsizers who want to be close to amenities, friends and their kids - close-knit community, greenery, cafes, schools, day care, healthcare, culture - everything you need within walking distance, and you can get to any side of the city via driving in a reasonable timeframe. The convenience is hard to beat. Have found it filled with down-to-earth, intellectually curious, open-minded folk.

So much character - on one hand, a lot of the streets down the South and North side of King St are actually very leafy, quiet, with lots of families who have taken to living in this very central location.
On the other hand, it is so vibrant, with bouldering gyms, parks, food, markets, brunch cafes and bakeries all within walking distance! The bay for city and water views is also not too far away.

Newtown is cool, hip and funky. Located within the inner-city, it attracts musicians, artists, performers, dancers, and creatives. When you stroll down the famous bustling King Street, it'll be a feast for your eyes. You'll see all kinds of individual style and expression that you simply don’t see anywhere else. There are many restaurants on King Street or explore its many little side streets.
Its bustling nightlife boasts several of Sydney’s famous pubs and clubs where you'll find live music playing nightly. A mix of traditional old-style pubs to the trendiest bars in town.
Famous for the Newtown Festival, King Street Crawl, Newtown school of performing arts. The Newtown locals are passionate and proud about their vibrant home. The homes are mostly terrace-style homes that are beautifully renovated or you may find a blank canvas gem. "Jamie Zimmermann - Sales Agent Newtown - Zimmermann Agency".

Lots of people moving in and renovating/updating some of the old Victorian-style terraces in the area.
Everything is within walking distance (parks, entertainment, restaurants, childcare, medical, transport) in this suburb, which is so key in this COVID19 era.
Surprisingly quiet and safe as well along the South side.
Highly recommend.

Newtown is in pretty good shape for a first home, or a home in general I'd say, as long as you don't aspire to have a massive lawn! Inner city suburbs will always do well if growth is what you're after, and Newtown has quite a few things going for it:
- close to CBD, RPA, Sydney Uni, just about as central as you can get without being too hectic
- very walkable to everything you could possibly need - coffee, great food, groceries, markets, gyms etc
- areas of Newtown have great neighbourly vibes (particularly South side of King st)
- great leafy parks/playgrounds for kids
- good childcare, primary school, secondary school options as well

I don't know about everyone else, but coming from Melbourne, I really like this particular patch of Sydney.
Have lived here for a few years and probably will continue to do so.

Have lived in Newtown for 3 years or so.
Love the area - great food, parks, convenience, culture, community.
Would advise looking for a place with off-street parking, as I did.
I like my part of Newtown, down the South side of King st towards Marrickville/Erskineville where the streets are quiet but still close to everything.