How the global financial crisis sparked Wollongong's CBD building boom

That moment was in 2007, when the Global Financial Crisis hit. According to Simon Kersten, managing director of Colliers Wollongong, those dark times led to a new dawn.

Some key Wollongong CBD sites were held by a few developers who weren't doing much with them. By holding onto the sites, they were creating what Mr Kersten called a "reverse monopoly".

Read more: The future of Wollongong's CBD - is the only way up?

So when the GFC came along, those developers went under and their sites were liquidated at prices that made redevelopment feasible.

"One example of those, which was probably the first, is the site that Parq on Flinders now sits on," Mr Kersten said.

"That was held by Frank Vellar back post-ICAC days. That went into liquidation and that was sold to make sure it was maintained as a key gateway site and then we sold it to BRDB who are current developers and now we have the lovely project that is there."

Other projects that fell into the same category were Belmorgan's failed Gravity project on the site of the Oxford Tavern, and the Crown Apartments across the road on Corrimal Street.

"So you've got three key sites that were held by developers and were really going nowhere," Mr Kersten said.

"Because of the GFC and those entities going into liquidation those sites were traded at prices that developers could afford to develop. And between the three of those sites you're talking about probably 700 apartments that were added to Wollongong."

Those apartments started selling - a sign it was what the market wanted - and that created momentum which led to out-of-town developers' ears pricking up and checking out what was happening in Wollongong.

"For an out-of-town developer to come to a new market they look at the data," Mr Kersten said.

"They look at the history - how many apartments have been sold, what's the average sale price, how long do they take to sell, how many sell per year.

"If they can't find that though, they'll call it a risk and they won't come. But because we've now had almost 10 years of history it's a safe market and people are coming."

Today, Mr Kersten said there were 20 apartment projects in the city either under construction or for sale off the plan, making a total of around 800 apartments - and only around 100 of them were unsold.

That's a clear indication that city living appeals to a lot of people, rather than the traditional Australian dream of a house and a block of land.

Mr Kersten said it was a collision of several different factors that have seen people return to the city in droves.

"One of them is that we don't have a lot of land left at West Dapto and it's getting dearer," he said.

"Once upon a time a young couple got married, bought a block of land at West Dapto and built a house but now that's a pretty expensive exercise and there's not a lot of land available. And now you're looking at almost a year or two before it'll even be ready to start building a house on."

The other factors at play were the efforts that Wollongong City Council and GPT, the developer of Wollongong Central, have put into beautifying the city, and the COVID pandemic showing people they can work from home rather than looking for somewhere in or close to Sydney.

Two of those new CBD apartment dwellers are couple Andrew Hogden and Chloe Golding, who moved into Parq on Flinders a year ago.

Mr Hogden said cost was a big factor in opting for the apartment life.

"We had a certain budget in mind and I guess, for our budget, a house just wasn't really achievable unless we went further out west or even further south," he said.

"Both working in the Sydney CBD we didn't want to be too far away, even though an hour and a half from Sydney's already quite far."

The growth in the city's nightlife was a factor as well, which has fed off the rise in inner-city living.

"Another key thing for us was the central location," he said.

"We've got the shopping centre five minutes down the road, and Wollongong has quite a good nightlife with the bars and the restaurants and the beach is a 10-minute walk down the road as well.

"We both grew up on the South Coast so it was very appealing to be within walking distance of the beach."

For a number of years Wollongong City Council's buzzword for the CBD has been "activation" - a move to ensure the area isn't a dead zone after 5pm.

That's been a success, with the city no longer being the place people went to work and then left to return home.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said to develop that "after five economy" a level of population density was needed, which was why council was pleased to see the growth in apartments in and around the CBD.

"It's all part of a mixture of what makes a city centre work and a focal point," Cr Bradbery said.

"It's not only residential opportunities but also entertainment, hospitality, retail. You need that critical mass of population to sustain that, especially after hours."

Cr Bradbery also felt the rise in inner-city living reflected a change in people's reliance on the car as the sole mode of transport. Living close to shopping, entertainment and retail locations reduced a need to drive - and therefore provide parking spaces.

"For some people the car is the be-all and end-all of choices," he said.

"But for those who are moving into high density residential around public transport options it's no longer the focus. It's other lifestyle priorities, such as the proximity to recreation, retail, services, entertainment and so on."

With cranes seemingly always in the skies over Wollongong building yet another apartment tower, it's clear the place has grown up and now actually resembles a city.

"I think a lot of people have this image of Wollongong being a city in the old context of office buildings and shops," Mr Kersten said.

"And that's clearly not what Wollongong is. What we've been calling it is a living city. It's a place you live.

"Yes there are places to work but that's not the majority of what goes on here. We're not the Sydney CBD. We're a very lovely place to live and work.

"That's the direction that Wollongong city seems to be moving in and that's not a bad thing. We don't have to be a metropolis."

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