Inner City Sydney - Terrace House or Workers Cottage?

Looking at houses no larger than 2-3 bedrooms around inner-city Sydney and parts of early inner-west. Until you reach Annandale the options are mostly terrace-style houses and unless they've had special architecture done or are end of row the natural light tends to be pretty bad. I want a house that has decent light or the capacity to add it in future. Workers cottages appear to be easier to add light and have slightly wider land than terraces when looking for smaller homes. There are also fewer of them but they seem to have more heritage conservation restrictions like only being able to build behind the roofline.

I'm wanting to strike a balance between something I would want to live in, rent out and also be a good investment. While location and aspect is more important, do you think the shorter supply of cottages in Sydney would see them go up in value more than one story terraces in the future? Would you favour buying one style of house over the other?

 

Personal preference - buying any character home will come with restrictions. Pick a council area which has the restrictions which best suit your intentions.

With council amalgamations your choices are limited - City of Sydney, Innerwest or Bayside.

 

Hi Shillyboy,

Welcome to the forum - this is a great place to start.

I buy in these inner west character areas often, and what I would say is that the terraces command a premium because they have style and charm, however as with everything the choices that you have come down to budget.

From Newtown to say Stanmore, the terraces are generally Victorian in character. From Annandale to Leichhardt onwards, you can find more modern terraces that are a bit cheaper but lack the charm.

Scottnomates is also correct about character homes having restrictions - at least in terms of façade.

This part of Sydney is extremely hot right and prices have flown.

I would suggest starting with your budget and then writing down your three must haves and three must not haves and see where that exercise takes you. Because real estate is about trade offs, so that simple exercise might help you come up with an appropriate search zone and search style.

 

How far from the CBD is your limit?