Live-work apartments launched in Sydney

Six affordable live-work apartments are on offer for artists and other creative Sydneysiders as part of the City’s support for the creative community.

The apartments, which feature space to live and work, will be part of the city’s new creative hub on William Street in Darlinghurst.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the affordable live-work space initiative – one of the first of its kind in Australia – showed how seriously the council took local creative workers struggling with Sydney’s rental crisis.

“We know how tough it is finding affordable spaces to live and work in the inner city,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Our creative spaces initiatives have housed more than 50 organisations and entrepreneurs in Council-owned buildings, allowing them to showcase their ideas and host hundreds of exhibitions and performances.

“We’re now increasing that support with these unique new spaces.”

The six apartments, on levels one and two of 113-115 William Street, vary in size from 35 to 53 square metres. Each includes a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, along with a separate space suitable for creative work. Tenants will also have access to a common roof area and shared laundry facilities.

James Winter is the director of Queen Street Studio, a Darlinghurst-based organisation which offers non-profit rehearsal facilities and creative development spaces to artists.

“Artists in Sydney struggle with rising rents, pushing them further out into the suburbs and away from other creative communities,” James said.

“Offering subsidised rent will bring these artists back into the city, which will have a flow-on effect to local culture, business and general liveability for local residents.

“Assisting with their living overheads will mean more creative work gets produced in the city. More contemporary, riskier artists will be encouraged to stay, and Sydney will once again be a city of creative thinkers, makers and doers.”

The City also plans to open up another 14 artist live-work spaces on Oxford Street late next year as part of its long-term creative spaces program.