Tyrice Barker

I used to live in an Airbnb around the corner, and regularly heard loud fighting in the units on the corner, drug users and homeless people hang around the T intersection next to the shops on the corner often, it is a pretty badly looked after area, filled with trash, graffiti, etc, I even found used syringes around. Police get called into the area almost everyday, not at all surprised, not really a place you want to hang around.

Newtown is a little inner city suburb with a wide range of vintage shops, coffee shops and restaurants on King street, it used to be a great place to visit, but it is slowly going through urban decay and growing more undesirable every day due to it being poorly maintained.

With abandoned buildings on nearly every corner and garbage on the streets EVERYWHERE, the area brings off an unwelcoming sketchy vibe, without mentioning common street crimes rampant and widespread, with drug addicts congregating in most of the public spots, harassing passers-by for change and cigarettes, fighting loud in the street and drinking open in public being a common sight, I’ve even witnessed drug dealers selling in broad daylight in parks not even a kilometre away from the police station, and it is only getting worse, without mentioning the frequent home/car break ins in a lot of parts of Newtown. Newtown is a popular tourist destination and nightlife hotspot for good reasons, with its wide varieties but it’s state is slowly declining with more of the shops and venues closing or moving as more and more scum build up in the streets everyday.

If you are planning to invest in a property in Newtown, I advise you to spend your money on a house in the back of Macdonaldtown station, Newtown station (even though the station itself can get hairy) and Camperdown park, due to these areas still being pretty decent to live in, as they are actually pretty clean and safe for families, with some pretty good community spirit, but these parts can often get expensive, which is not really worth the investment considering how undesirable the surrounding area is getting, but can be considered as good enough, due to this being a suburb close to the city and a wide range of shops to go to. Most of the more decaying, dodgy and filthier parts of Newtown can get expensive as well (inner city Sydney obviously), unless you want to live dangerously close to one of the Housing commission blocks in the south and far north, which should be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS, as those hellholes are locally known for some REALLY bad social problems, which make it impossible to walk through the depth of of them, the type to throw a brick at your car window and relieve it of your personal belongings.

Newtown is an area, with its demons, but is home to some pretty good schools, such as Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, which hosts a spectacular teaching staff, as well as performing arts facilities.

Newtown is a suburb with good qualities as well as some growing unaddressed problems , a good place to visit, but not really worth the money living in.