stoked

Everything you need is walking distance - cafes, restaurants, bars, theaters, bookshops, parks, supermarkets, shopping, GPs, hospital, day cares, primary and high schools, universities. Easy access to Surry Hills, Newtown, Redfern and city. Buses, trains and trams to connect you to everything else. A lovely, lively and safe place to live in the middle of everything Sydney has to offer. Great area to raise a family

Waterloo is a true inner city Sydney suburb. If you look at a map of Sydney, Waterloo is one of a pretty limited group of suburbs which is walking distance to the CBD. Its probably the last of those inner ring suburbs left in the city to undergo the significant gentrification that has already spread from places like Paddington and Darlinghurst twenty to thirty years ago, through Newtown, Chippendale, Surry Hills, then Redfern and Alexandria in the last 5 to 15 years. You can almost feel it and watch it in real time seeping next into Waterloo. If you walk a few streets up to Redfern and Surry Hills apartments are anywhere from 25% to 45% more expensive. So its a good opportunity to have the same lifestyle you get in those areas but at prices you could have bought in those suburbs for several years back.

One thing I would say is that it kind of depends which part of Waterloo you're in. The area west of Bourke St up to Waterloo oval around Elizabeth and George streets and going into neighbouring Alexandria is zoned no more than 5 or so stories so the buildings are low rise and are sort of the height of the trees around them; the bit to the east of Bourke St (which is really part of Zetland IMO) and within Green Square is zoned much higher density (we're talking 20+ stories in some cases) which can be a bit impersonal and noisy due to having too many neighbours. Depends on what you prefer, but looking for the lower density parts around Waterloo oval also further north up towards Redfern Park is probably the go as it feels more like a community and is actually closer to public transport as well.

The suburb has social and affordable housing mainly around its northern half near the border with Redfern, which turns some people off it, but really what most people end up buying or renting isn't all that near the social housing area itself. I've lived over the years in Surry Hills as well as Redfern and Waterloo, and there's been no difference between them in my experience in terms of the influence of the social housing. I've never had any problem, and I actually like having it around because it keeps the suburb diverse, interesting and place for all people, not just a bland homogeneous grouping of white collar types. There's also going to be a lot of money spent over the next decade or so redeveloping a lot of the social and affordable housing stock and encouraging more of a mixture of private and public housing.

The suburb has a tailwind of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment continuing for the foreseeable future including at green square, the public housing improvements, and a new metro stop adding to the already good connections the suburb has. Its close to heaps of parks, already has great restaurants/cafe's/bars with more opening all the time, and is close to the eastern beaches and all the cool stuff the inner west and inner east has to offer. Its one train stop to the city which takes like 5 mins if you don't feel like walking to work or riding your bike. All in all I reckon its a bit of a no brainer as long as you pick the spot well.