Newtown confectionary factory reborn as $10m-plus co-living space

The heritage-listed property, located about 20 minutes from the CBD and just one kilometre from the popular Enmore Theatre music venue, features 19 self-contained studio apartments, all with en suites and kitchenettes, and around 40 per cent have private courtyards. 

The former warehouse – which was also used as an art studio before changing hands for $3.5 million nearly six years ago – has been updated with a pale blue painted brick exterior, and converted to offer the compact 17-square-metre or 18-square-metre rooms with shared amenities, including a lounge and games room, co-working spaces, an outdoor barbecue area, laundry and 24-hour security surveillance.

The 474.7-square-metre two-storey building is perched on a 382.9-square-metre site, in what co-living brand UKO describes as Sydney’s “most quirky and free-spirited neighbourhood, where beautifully restored architecture meets street art”.

Fully leased and operated by UKO, the property currently generates a tidy gross annual income of around $632,300, offering investors a stable income stream in one of Sydney’s tightest rental markets. In Newtown, a one-bedroom apartment fetches an average of $747,500, and 60 per cent of homes are rented.

The property is listed for sale with Knight Frank’s south Sydney agents James Masselos and Adam Droubi, who are selling via an expressions-of-interest campaign.

Droubi says the opportunity to take the reins combines heritage appeal with strong books.

“UKO Newtown Village is a landmark asset in Sydney’s west and is widely regarded as Sydney’s leading co-living asset,” he says.

“Its heritage and character will appeal to buyers, as will its secure and predictable cash flow and blue-chip Newtown positioning.”

The property sits just 80 metres from 24/7-open King Street, placing residents within walking distance of Newtown’s well-known dining, nightlife and shopping strip, as well as Newtown train station, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the University of Sydney.

Nearby Enmore Theatre features international and national artists weekly, including Counting Crows later this month, and the site is within the catchment areas of Newtown North Public School and Newtown High School of Performing Arts. 

While the property is famed for its lolly-making, historic records reveal the site’s latest housing twist is a return to its residential origins. 

A semi-detached three-bedroom weatherboard cottage with a three-stall stable once stood where the factory was built. The home was bought in 1925 by a scrap metal merchant named David Cohen, who owned a number of properties along Egan Street and had bigger plans.

Cohen originally planned to convert the cottage, but it was demolished, and a brick factory with an iron roof was built in its place before he moved into a house over the road at 5 Egan Street. Soon after, in April 1927, the factory was leased to Edgar Owen Harris and the Sydney Confectionery Company began, around the time domestic refrigerators were introduced to Australia.

Archival records show the Sydney Confectionery Company produced confectionery and ice-cream cones at the site, with a 1927 newspaper advertisement calling for an “ice cream cone maker”.

Now, the building represents the industrial past of Newtown during the interwar period, when factories and small manufacturing businesses lined the suburb’s back streets, giving it a distinct character that set it apart from its farmland beginnings.

The building’s architectural style is a blend of the Federation and interwar periods and is considered a “good example of a small-scale industrial building constructed in an established residential area”, according to the Sydney City Council. “The building makes an important contribution to the streetscapes of Egan Street and the rear lane.

“This factory forms part of one of the largest known collections of industrial warehouse buildings of its kind in Australia, which records the City of Sydney’s past as one of only two historic industrial heartlands in Australia. The use of the factory for manufacturing ice cream cones demonstrates the expansion of industries during the interwar period, which were reliant upon the newly developed refrigeration technology.”

The Sydney Confectionery Company leaves a legacy with its prominent original painted lettering signage still visible, contributing to the building’s heritage value, along with its rendered and face-brick facade and multi-paned timber windows.

While the site’s most well-known for its tickling tastebuds, it was continuously used for other industrial purposes throughout the 20th century.

By 1936, the site was occupied by the mechanical engineering company Welded Products, before sheet metal workers set up in 1950. By 1954, the site became home to a printing works company, Scoton Press.

In 1981, the site was sold again, later turning into a theatre painting studio, Scenographic Studio. Then, in 2019, the property was listed for sale in a campaign by Savills, with a price estimate of $3 million, offered as a blank canvas for multiple uses, including a creative office or as a grand home. It sold for $3.5 million.

“People are drawn to the quirky, commercial properties; these properties are rare, but they offer that level of nostalgia,” Savills agent David Hickey said at the time.

Now, transformed yet again, the property’s adaptive reuse into a modern co-living space has significantly increased its value.

Adaptive reuse projects increasingly reposition unique assets such as heritage sites and hotels into co-living spaces, reflecting both changing living preferences and the growing appeal of renovating rather than building from the ground up. 

Co-living has been well established overseas for some time, as the traditional rental market has become increasingly competitive. In Australia, it’s still early days, with operators like Hmlet and Together Co-Living joining UKO in the mix. Sydney is dominating the co-living landscape.

“Sydney is the bellwether for the asset class in Australia as a genuine alternative to traditional housing types … now accounting for more than 90 per cent of completed schemes nationally,” Knight Frank found.

“The total number of operational co-living units has now surpassed the 2000 unit mark as the sector’s emergence continues at pace. A further 4159 units are currently under construction or have development approval, whilst 3647 are in planning or proposed, taking total supply to just over 10,000 units,” its 2025 Co-Living Report states.

Masselos says residential investment assets such as co-living buildings and apartment blocks are attracting strong demand from investors.

“Last year we sold $155 million in apartment blocks and groups of townhouses across 19 transactions in Sydney, with this property type in high demand,” he says.

“We anticipate ongoing investor interest this year, with buyer enquiry remaining high, underpinned by strong fundamentals in the residential market, including solid rental growth, record low vacancy levels and scarcity of stock.”

UKO Newtown Village’s website details how “every detail has been thoughtfully crafted, from contemporary interiors to smart, space-saving features”.

The property is being sold via an expressions-of-interest campaign closing at 4pm on Thursday, March 19.