40 years ago renting an office in Parramatta was more expensive than North Sydney

Looking back, records from the NSW Government Valuer General paint an interesting picture, with Parramatta office rents in 1977 higher than any other market in the state except prime Sydney CBD buildings.

At $67 a square metre, the western Sydney suburb was 48 per cent higher than North Sydney, which was the cheapest metropolitan area in Sydney to lease an office at $45 a square metre.

Parramatta office rental was also more expensive than secondary assets in the CBD ($50), Chatswood ($60), Bondi Junction ($60) and Burwood ($54).

Aerial view of Parramatta in 1979. Photo: Paul Stephen Pearson/Fairfax Media

Fast forward 40 years, prime Sydney CBD office net face rents are $1036 a square metre, JLL research for the three months to September 2017 shows. Leasing in North Sydney would set tenants back $722 a square metre, $515 in Chatswood and $435 in Parramatta.

LJ Hooker Commercial St George principal Bill Aslanidis, who has sold both residential and commercial real estate since 1982, said Sydney’s suburb pecking order back then was different from what it is today.

Parramatta was the second most expensive office market in Sydney. Photo: Valuer General’s Department Blue Book 30/6/1977

“Parramatta was the first large regional area of greater Sydney and that was the drawcard. That would make sense why the rents were higher in Parramatta,” he said.

“Apart from some small shops and a couple of pubs, Bondi Junction was nothing back in the 70s and early 80s.”

Mr Aslanidis pointed out that while Parramatta was seen as a regional hub, North Sydney was “the poor cousin of the CBD”. In fact, workers in North Sydney faced more stigma than those in Parramatta.

“To go to the city, you made it, if you’re still in North Sydney, you still haven’t made it – it was a cultural thing,” he said.

Knight Frank’s director of client services Kymbal Dunne, who has been in the business for nearly 40 years, said people started seeing property as an investment asset in the 1970s. It was a time when commercial real estate rents were double that of residential, while today it is the opposite.

“Office buildings were owned and occupied by corporations or major financial and insurance companies. Owning and occupying a building showed the market how substantial a company was.”

Mr Dunne added that public auctions were common in the 1980s for properties valued up to $20 million.

“Speculation was quite common; buyers would look at upcoming auctions like a day out shopping. They were fun and through the 1980s, money was readily available.”

High-rise office complexes were in demand in Parramatta in 1982. Photo: Fairfax Media

JLL’s John Macree, who heads the Parramatta office, said when he started in 1982, the introduction of car phones was one of the biggest changes. He remembered taking all marketing photography themselves, including aerial photography, which was pricier.

“We’d wait for a couple of properties (to be listed), get everyone to chip in and we’d go hire a helicopter and take the photos ourselves – it was great fun,” he said.

But because of the lack of technology, Mr Macree said agents had a “deeper understanding” of the markets they worked in and had a more personal approach to selling.

“Because as a group, they were driving around the suburbs and understanding what was happening in it, whereas nowadays agents tend to only go down there for inspection,” he said.

Although North Sydney’s market is larger than Parramatta, Mr Macree believed the western Sydney market would soon surge ahead.