Transformed from an ammunition depot into accommodation for Olympians before becoming a desirable residential neighbourhood, Newington is the textbook example for an athlete’s village done right.
The compact western Sydney suburb was built from the ground up for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games to house more than 15,000 athletes from across the globe adjacent to Sydney Olympic Park.
But after being reconfigured into a residential suburb once the “best Olympic Games ever” wrapped up, over the following two decades Newington has become a desirable neighbourhood targeted by upsizing families who never want to leave.
More than 1500 families now call the leafy suburb home, with its tree-lined streets — most of which are named after famous athletes — featuring a combination of freestanding and semi-detached houses and apartments.
And according to local real estate agents, there’s strong demand to buy into the tightly-held pocket, where fewer than 10 properties typically come up for sale each month.
Newington’s median unit price is $800,000, which has remained relatively steady over the past few years, but a typical house there sells for about $1.84 million, according to PropTrack.
A typical Newington house, which ranged between $250,000 and $500,000 at the time of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, is now worth almost $2 million. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
House prices in the suburb have jumped by about 15% over the past year — more than twice as fast as Sydney’s market overall — with demand from families trying to buy into the neighbourhood outweighing the supply of houses available, sending prices higher.
The suburb’s rise to become an aspirational neighbourhood is a far cry from some of the athlete’s villages from previous Olympic Games that were criticised for major shortcomings including leaking roofs, poor security and unsafe drinking water.
Newington features extensive tree cover as a result of considered native landscaping during construction of the suburb more than two decades ago. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Many other athletes' villages from previous games were built as high-rise apartment towers and eventually transitioned to residential, with some becoming affordable housing, while others were repurposed into student accommodation and in one case, a prison.
But Newington stands apart for its clever design, diversity of housing and amenity, not only setting the benchmark for Olympic infrastructure, but also for master planned communities Australia-wide.
A community built from the ground up
Newington was developed in three stages by a joint venture between Mirvac and Lendlease, starting with the northern precinct where the first residents moved in before the games began.
Mirvac general manager, national planning and delivery Toby Long said establishing the community early on was critical in the suburb’s success.
The central section of Newington was built as the athlete's village, with homes sold off the plan to the public and leased back for accomodation during the games, before being retrofitted as family homes. Picture: Jeff Darmanin / News Limited
“It was an intention to create the community upfront,” he said. “We had people living there before the games, not athletes but normal mums and dads, which actually really gave it its soul from the beginning.”
The central precinct, which formed the athlete’s village, was developed next, with flexible homes designed with their eventual use in mind.
During the Olympics, a typical four-bedroom Newington home housed up to two dozen athletes in a modified floorplan. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
“We took a four-bedroom house that would have a family of a maximum of six at the end, and we had 24 athletes living in that house,” Mr Long said.
“The way we were able to do that is we didn’t put the kitchens in, the garages were rooms, and we dropped demountables into the backyards to really boost up the dormitory atmosphere.”
“We made the village viable because we sold that part upfront,” he said. “People could actually buy houses and apartments within the athletes' part of the village, which we leased back from them during the Olympic games.”
The new suburb sparsely vegetated at the time of the Olympics, but streets now feature a lush canopy of mature eucalypts. Picture: Jeff Darmanin / News Limited
Apartments were built in a similar fashion of two or three interconnected units to maximise capacity, while the southern precinct featured largely demountable accommodation.
After the games, existing houses were retrofitted as three or four-bedroom homes and handed over to their eventual owners. Transportable homes were sold to caravan parks around the country, and the southern precinct was then developed, utilising the newly built roads and infrastructure.
Demountable homes in the southern section of Newington were relocated after the games to make way for more housing for new residents. Picture: Jeff Darmanin / News Limited
Newington Village Real Estate principal Matthew Hamilton, who was originally involved in marketing newly built properties in the suburb, said the suburb’s lasting legacy as a great place to live came from the design thinking that went into the project.
“Newington won more awards than any development in Australia’s history,” he said.
“The consortium ran an architecture design competition for young architects to put their ideas forward, those architects who won were included in the bid,” he said.
“Their mindset was ‘let's really do a great job and use all of our experience to do it, and showcase what we can do’.”
Sustainability and amenity
Homes in Newington had impressive green credentials for their time, with all freestanding houses including solar power, passive design and grey water recycling – features that have now become standard among new homes, but were groundbreaking at the turn of the century.
Mr Long said this was critical given the Sydney Olympics’ commitment to environmental sustainability, earning it the unofficial title of the “green games”.
Homes in Newington incorporate passive design, with homes oriented to maximise solar access. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
“At the time it was the largest solar suburb in the world,” he said. “We had photovoltaic cells on the top of every house we built and we continued that after the Olympics.”
“The orientation and form of the houses was very much about getting solar access into the right living areas.”
“We spent a lot of time making sure the landscaping was right. I drive through it now and I’m blown away, frankly, by how good it looks.”
The suburb also boasts enviable access to green spaces, with cycling and walking tracks lining adjacent Haslams Creek and the remaining portion of the old Newington Armory to the north converted to parklands, with retained heritage buildings open for exploration.
Nearby Bicentennial Park features an array of playgrounds as well as pathways snaking through wetlands, while the Parramatta River is within easy reach.
Newington is positioned a short walk from the sporting and entertainment precinct at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Newington Marketplace, which initially served as an athlete’s arrivals and administrative area before being converted into a shopping centre, provides supermarkets, eateries and a range of specialty shops. Larger shopping centres at Parramatta and Rhodes are both within a 15-minute drive.
Transport wise, the M4 motorway can get drivers to Sydney CBD in 25 minutes on a good day, and while Newington itself doesn’t have a train station, Auburn, Lidcombe and Sydney Olympic Park stations are within reach thanks to bus routes that also provide access to ferries.
The area is expected to get a further boost in the coming years from the Sydney Metro West, with a station to be built within the Olympic precinct, as well as the Parramatta light rail, which is slated to travel down nearby Holker Street.
A destination for growing families
Despite prices rising rapidly recently, real estate agent Jacob Saleh of Horwood Nolan said families upgrading to a house in Newington were often surprised at the relative value for money compared to surrounding suburbs like North Strathfield or Concord West.
“It's a safe option for a lot of families looking to grow and stay local to the area,” he said.
“They might be looking for an entry level house in a market that's a little bit higher value, but can't seem to get their foot in the door. Or they'll be looking at townhouses or strata.”
“They can go to Newington and get a freestanding house for a similar price. Buyers suspect that it will be strata, but every house there is torrens titled.”
Pierre De Coubertin Park serves as a central green space between Newington's northern and central precincts. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Mr Hamilton said value for money is one of the key reasons that Newington continues to appeal to family buyers decades later.
“Most buyers were originally families with kids under 11, and it’s still the same today.”
“The demographics have changed a little bit, and the income there is a lot higher than it was 25 years ago.”
“The apartments seem to attract people with disabilities too, because we have quite a number of properties that are disabled adaptable.”
“We also get a lot of retirees downsizers who have had big houses and want something a little bit more convenient for a good price.”
About half of the properties in Newington are apartments, mostly located on the suburb's eastern edge and near Newington Marketplace. Picture: realestate.com.au/sold
Even decades after the games, proximity to the sporting facilities at Sydney Olympic Park means plenty of athletes call the suburb home today, Mr Hamilton said, some of whom may go on to become Australia’s Olympians of tomorrow.
“We get a lot of sports people or people involved in sports marketing buying because of the NSW Institute of Sport and all the local facilities," he said.
Mr Long said one of Newington’s lasting legacies has been its impact on residential development Australia-wide.
“It became a benchmark of good urban design,” he said. “It was the beginning of an evolution of new housing stock, and now you can actually see elements of what we did at Newington across almost every master planned community.
“It’s one of those projects where we thought ‘wow, we’ve done something special here.’”
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