Food fest - The Sydney suburbs that are a foodie's paradise

Food fest - The Sydney suburbs that are a foodie's paradise

Apartment Living Chronicles Part 6

There are several Sydney suburbs that are any food lover’s dream, where even the most finicky foodie will be able to eat to their heart’s content. Replete with artisan shops and grocers galore, Marrickville and Surry Hills get our vote as joint winners of Sydney’s Foodie Capital. This week we will start by taking to the streets of Surry Hills in search of gourmet fare. 

Long known as the one of Sydney’s hippest suburbs, here the foodie revolution steams ahead in full force. With a plethora of artisan providores, the quality and array of foodstuff on offer is outstanding. Cramer are big on supporting small business, and never has it been so important to shop small as now, as we are on our way out of lockdown. 

For the best in cheese, try Formaggi Ocello. One of the widest ranging cheese selections in Australia, there is something here for everyone. They also have an outstanding range of cured meats, handmade pasta, olive oil, nuts, condiments, biscuits and wine.

For ready-made pasta extraordinaire, visit Pasta Emilia where you can pick up organic pasta and sumptuous sauce. We recommend the truffle cream sauce with either the beetroot and chevre or pumpkin and ricotta house-made tortellini, but as there are ten varieties to choose from, you’ll find the one for you. Then for the perfect bottle of wine to complement your meal, Osteria Emilia offers an outstanding selection of Italian and Australian wines. And before you leave, be sure to pick up a jar of the Peperoncino Chilli Conserve and tub of Beef Ragú. 

The Soul Deli is a greatly morish café/deli. This little Korean powerhouse offers a range of products, both fresh and packaged, and gorgeous homewares make by Korean community members. With a vast collection of pickles, sauces, kimchi and home BBQ packs, you will not be able to leave this cool little deli empty handed. 

If you are in a rush and want a one stop shop to get all your delicacies, try Crown Street Grocer, where the selection is mind bogglingly good. Surry Hills has a number of really cool little grocers. The family-owned Maloney’s Grocer, New Indian House Surry Hills or Lucky Bamboo Asian Grocery are all stocked with excellent, exotic and exciting produce that will add spice, variety and excitement to your home menu plan. 

And don’t miss the Surry Hills Markets that take place on the first Saturday of every month. The 60+ stalls offer a fantastic array of artisan foodstuff, and you can even get in early and start Christmas shopping once they reopen. An important part of the community since 1981, shopping at this market not only provides you with fantastic produce and specialties, it allows you to support the makers directly.

Then if all else fails to please, we can’t go past the original Bourke Street Bakery without being drawn in by the wholesome, ‘Mama loves you’ smell of the baked goods that beckon. The Red Wine and Mushroom Beef Pie; Bacon, Gruyère and Leek Quiche; humble Green Olive and Rosemary Flatbread; and Ginger Brûlée and Chocolate Ganache Tarts are all mouth-wateringly good.

With covid turning even the least food obsessed of us into would-be gourmet chefs, having the best grocery stores and providores on call is now more important than ever. So, to live in the midst of the foodie action, check out our incredible village development, Surry Hills Village.

Mood boosting must-haves for your home

Apartment Living Chronicles Part 5

There has never been a better time than the present to look for ways to boost our mood. Even the most stoic among us have lockdown fatigue, and the rest of us are going positively stir crazy. Creating a peaceful yet uplifting atmosphere in your home is the perfect foil for lockdown blues.

Smell is one of our most powerful sense, though few of us give it much thought unless we discover an unwanted parcel left by the dog or that tuna casserole from three nights ago is well past its use by date. However, we can use our sense of smell to help calm our mind or invigorate it – whatever the mind’s need at any time, aromatherapy can work wonders. 

If you don’t already have one, invest in an oil burner and a few essential oils, or spoil yourself with a scented soy wax candle. Most of us have experienced the calming effect of lavender and rose, but there are so many other peace-inducing oils out there that we can let our nose take its pick, no pun intended! Rosewood, Ylang Ylang, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Camomile, Frankincense and Jasmine all have long been used to calm a busy anxious mind, and there are combination oils on offer that will have a number of these ingredients. All these oils are great to burn in the evening when we are trying to wind down, or if we are feeling particularly uptight during the day.

If you are in the mood for a joyful and uplifting aroma, you can’t go past the citrus family of oils, especially Orange, Lemon, Tangerine and Grapefruit. Peppermint, Myrrh, Basil, Rosemary, Lemongrass, and Sandalwood are also very uplifting. Most of these also assist with mental alertness and clarity. Bergamot is very good in the morning if we wake up a bit sluggish from too much Netflix. It helps fight tiredness and can provide us with an energising boost. 

Affirmations are hugely powerful, so now is a good time to look to the internet and find one or more affirmations that really resonate. Then either print them up or write them down and post them somewhere in your home where you will see them regularly. Say them to yourself whenever you are feeling overwhelmed or down, no matter how mechanical it may feel at first, because they really work.

Make a ‘sacred spot’ in your home where you can retreat and either just zone out to some beautiful music or use one of the myriad of tools we have at our disposal for calming the mind. If you’ve never tried meditation, now is the perfect time to start, and if you used to do it sometime, get back into it. There are many apps that offer guided meditations so shop around until you find what best works for you. Everyone needs mental time out to boost the mood, and there is no better way on earth to do this than meditation.

If you haven’t already, set up a spot in your house where you can exercise. Ideally it would be a different place to your ‘sacred spot’ as your subliminal brain is a powerful thing and quickly associates a particular spot with an activity you repeat there and recalibrates your mood accordingly. So, find a designated area that you return to each time you want to exercise. Think about putting a small chest there to house your weights, resistance bands, skipping rope, pilates ball, yoga mat or anything else you may need to get your blood, dopamine and endorphins pumping.

Also hugely important, if you have a balcony or an outdoor area, embrace any direct sunlight on as much skin as you dare. The Vitamin D in sunlight is a hugely effective mood booster and has the added benefit of boosting the immune system. And if you live near a park or green zone, make sure you take daily walks to get some sun, exercise and the positive mood boost of being out and about. 

Happily, there are some must-have mood-boosting items in the food department as well. Wonder why you crave chocolate, it improves emotional health if you have the dark variety and eat it in some moderation. Dark chocolate is rich in folates, as are green leafy vegetables, blueberries and camomile or lavender tea. Also look for magnesium rich foods – again our hero dark chocolate, avocado, nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. So do your mood a favour and make a salad of spinach, avocado, seeds and nuts to have with your lunch, then round it off with a nice chuck of dark chocolate and a healthy handful of blueberries. Your mind will thank you for it. 

But most of all – hang in there. Make your home as beautiful and mood-boosting as you can, because your surrounds really affect how you feel. And remember, this will end and life will move on from this covid craziness. Meanwhile, keep on keeping on in the best way you know how.

 

Design Trends 2021

Apartment Living Chronicles Part 4

With home now so much more than just our base, we feel the time is ripe for applying some of 2021’s styling trends into the rooms where you are spending the majority of your life. If now isn’t the time to give your home a new lease of life, I don’t know when is. Not only will the addition of some new pieces revitalise your spaces, but the latest trends will create a sense of peaceful harmony that we all need at the moment. 

When choosing something new, focus on instilling balance and calm into your spaces. Almost all the world’s leading styling trendsetters are tending closer to the organic, sculptured and subtle than ever before. Colours are warm, soothing, natural and gentle on the eye – beige and bisque are no longer boring, the softest shell pinks and sage greens make the heart sing and the occasional forest green and charcoal grey can be introduced to create depth. 

Mindful shopping is very much 2021, with designers recommending buying local, organic and sustainable materials where possible. And bring the outside in with indoor plants that will soften and lighten the atmosphere in any room and boost its oxygen content. Even if you don’t have a large budget, it is amazing the difference a few well-placed plants and some new sculptural homewares can make to your space. 

Soft, subtle paint colour is featuring on walls, with skirtings, cornices and door and window frames in a crisp white or exposed timber. Brush Box with its pinkish hue, and the blonde shades of Ash and Oak timber are featuring heavily in the best designers’ repertoires as are natural stone and blown glass. Heavy, natural textures in furnishing are being used to up the organic factor. Wallpaper is making a comeback, especially of the textured, botanical or impressionist varieties. 

Furniture pieces appear sculpted and create incidental works of art in the home. Curved wood is design of the day, along with tan leather and anything that looks as though it could integrate into a landscape with ease. Vintage and antique pieces are being employed to add character, particularly Mid Century Modern. These pieces also avoid the over designed look where everything is new. 

So give your home a warm, soft, relaxing lift by introducing some of these ideas into your space. 

Life in lockdown - Making your home more important than ever

One thing is certain during these strange covid times – home is of the most paramount importance. Many of us have now been staring at our own four walls for so many months that the cracks are both literally and metaphorically starting to show. I believe that the increasingly urgent desire to upgrade our home and location is largely what is fuelling the property market at present. More and more of us are wanting to find a home that works for us on many different levels – as a beautiful, well-designed, flexible, conveniently located place to be. A place where we can engage with our community even given the current restrictions. A place where we feel safe and sound and happy to spend the days/weeks/months inside that these lockdowns dictate.

It is incredible how the aesthetically beautiful and architecturally sublime can lift the spirit. Perhaps it is this reason why luxurious, beautifully finished properties are in high demand at present. Increasingly, buyers are choosing properties that are a pleasure to inhabit, that feature intelligently designed spaces that allow us to thrive now work is increasingly becoming the office and school room. 

Purchasers are increasingly seeking out new, state-of-the-art homes that are a pleasure to inhabit. Light, natural tones with bursts of colour create harmony while lifting our mood. Things around the home that function well make life easier and give us more time to focus on what’s important. Where only a few years ago, homes we could renovate proved all the rage, now the prospect of renovating a home seems overwhelming to many. Many are now looking for streamlined, beautifully crafted and flexible properties, driving off-the-plan property sales. Another added benefit of off-the-plan is these properties allow us to plan, prepare and save more while only requiring a 10% deposit. And anything that helps us to stress less is of benefit at the moment.

Properties that offer everything we need all in one place are also proving incredibly popular at present. Properties that are close to public transport and in burgeoning, exciting and popular locations attract buyers who are yearning for a sense of community and looking to the future when lockdowns will be a thing of the past. Masterplanned precincts in coveted or burgeoning locations are proving incredibly popular, as residents have an instant village with excellent restaurants, cafes, boutique shopping, gymnasiums, and common work and landscaped spaces at their immediate disposal.  

So, if you are looking for a newer, better way of living - a gorgeously designed home where you can have all the amenity of urban life while enjoying a village atmosphere - check out our superb properties below. Surry Hills Village offers a full dining precinct, exquisitely landscaped residential park and commercial precinct featuring gym, yoga, work spaces, art and cultural hub.

The apartment precinct - The future of apartment living

Apartment Living Chronicles Part 3

It is expected that Australia’s population will expand to more than 35 million citizens by 2050, with a large percentage of its inhabitants living in urban centers. The existing infrastructure and public utilities that were set up to accommodate an urban density model of 8 to 15 detached dwellings per hectare are now largely unsustainable. 

However, the advent of the apartment to replace detached houses has tended to bring with it certain setbacks of their own. They have tended to eat into public space, been heavy consumers of energy and offered lonely, characterless corridors as the only common areas.  And this is not to mention their aesthetic value or lack thereof on our urban landscape. So, what does the future of apartment living look like, and will we remedy the errors of the past?

Progressive architects are looking to design spaces that not only provide dwellings, but also create community infrastructure in sustainable, medium density developments that embrace and nurture the social aspect of community. Rather than limiting their design to purely residential, many cutting edge architects are developing vibrant precincts within apartment complexes for both residents and the public to enjoy. This type of urban development has long been seen in Europe, where communities seem to have the social and leisure aspects of life down pat. So, it is almost inevitable that Australia’s largest cities adopt this successful urban design for the future.

Never has the home and its relationship to community been more important than in the current climate. The best upcoming developments not only provide homes, but also contribute positively to our cities in a sustainable way. Private foyers are becoming public spaces and provide infrastructure and services often lacking in the local community. This not only serves the community at large, but also residents. Additionally, it creates a sense of vibrancy and a buzz of activity for the people living in the apartments connected to these precincts. This supports residents’ wellbeing and creates spaces where neighbours can connect with each other. 

Precincts allow residents a village way of life that reduces carbon emissions and means they are able to live small and shop local. The on-hand convenience of having a trendy restaurant, café or boutique shop a lift ride away, means residents have more time up their sleeve. And the best apartment precincts are close to transport corridors, shops and services. Ideally, precincts have their own green space that not only beautifies the immediate area, but also offers a readily accessible space for leisure and recreation. 

Cramer have an exciting collection of apartments for sale by developers TOGA, who have really embraced the precinct concept for living and incorporated it into their outstanding apartments, retail and green spaces. Here is a selection of our fantastic listings in Surry Hills Village and Wicks Place on the Park in Marrickville, two of Sydney’s most creative, cool and cosmopolitan suburbs.

Post Lockdown Must See – One of the world’s top ten coolest neighbourhoods, Marrickville

The locals know it, and now it’s gone international with Marrickville having been voted by Time Out magazine as one of the world’s top ten coolest neighbourhoods. While we are all stuck in lockdown, use the internet to go sightseeing while your feet cannot, and get to know why Marrickville is fast becoming the most popular Sydney suburb. I’ve popped a few links below for your armchair travels until happy, post lockdown days will allow you to visit the real thing!

The best cuisines of the world are showcased here in Marrickville’s restaurants - try Peruvian at Pepito’s, Mediterranean at Barzaari, Kurumac for Japanese, Pizza Madre for Vegetarian Italian. Some of Australia’s most authentic Vietnamese and Filipino cuisine is there to enjoy and eating out doesn’t cost have to cost an arm and a leg. 

The pub culture in Marrickville is becoming world-renowned and its craft beer halls arguably the best in the country. And for those who love their coffee, the café culture and quality of brew is exceptional in this thriving suburb. Meet with a mate (once the lockdown ends – and it will end thank God) and take your pick from Ona, Matinee or Stix and while you’re there, try the food as it is as good as it gets. And Two Chaps has a vegetarian based menu and is also open at night for pasta and Italian style desserts.

Then for a mean breakfast and bargains galore, explore the Marrickville Organic Markets at the Addison Road Community Centre. These markets are dog-friendly in Marrickville’s typical inclusive style and offer everything from bespoke artisan wares to organic produce and vintage clothing. 

It’s easy to get out and about in this fantastic suburb’s many great parks – take a book and a picnic to your choice of Marrickville, Henson or Enmore Parks. Or to get a great cardio and enjoy water views, try the Cooks River Foreshore walking and bike track. Also check out the brand new, award-winning, architecturally superior Marrickville Library and Pavillion. If you have little ones, the library has a great Rhyme Time, then after take the tiny tots for an excellent adventure at the playground in Marrickville Park. 

A huge factor that contributes to Marrickville’s liveability and lovability is its multi-cultural population that creates a melting pot of all that is great about the individual cultures and shows Australia functioning socially at its best with everyone getting on with everyone. 

Marrickville’s Inner West centrality is greatly assisted by the neighbourhood’s two train stations – Marrickville and Sydnenham – taking you direct to the CBD and the buses connect easily to other popular Inner West suburbs such as Newtown and Enmore. And just before I sign off, let’s look forward to the Marrickville Annual Street Festival - once things open up again and we can all happily return to live as we somewhat know it. 

For more on Marrickville, check out Concrete Playground’s neighbourhood guide.

If you're considering a move to Marrickville, then look no further than Wick's Place. 
View Cramer Property's available residences, including this beautiful two bedroom apartment.

Why the Sydney property market remains strong

On the surface, it seems to defy logic that the Sydney property market is remaining so strong during one of the major global crises in living memory. However, you don’t have to go digging too deeply to see why property still stacks up as being your best bet, whether this involves investing in or owning your own property.

With money in the bank earning negligible interest, and the share markets being unpredictable and usually only beneficial in the long term, property is becoming the place that so many of us are choosing to park our cash. In Sydney, property has been steadily going up in value for well over a decade now, and the capital gains to be had in property have far exceeded those to be found in any bank. Placing our dollars in hard assets not only fights inflation, it also gives us the reassurance of something tangible during these changing times and most importantly, provides us with a place to live. And when purchased as an investment, return on investment through rent is generally far more attractive than other forms.

Another major driver of the hot property market, also involving interest rates, is the historically low cost of borrowing money. We are able to borrow more now than ever, largely due to the fact that our interest rate will vary somewhere between 1% and 3%, which was previously unheard of. The fact that interest rates have remained low or even further decreased over the last decade stems from the global financial crisis of 2008. And the RBA and banks all indicate rates will remain low in the foreseeable future. All this gives us confidence that rates will remain at all-time lows for the foreseeable future, increasing our buying power which in turn generates property market activity. 

One of the chief reasons the RBA are reluctant to raise interest rates is because owning your own property gives us a sense of wealth, which generates spending both elsewhere in the economy and within our own home. We tend to purchase more things when we own our own place compared to when we rent, and we are prone to want to upgrade our property with far more regularity than in previous generations, and spending more the next time round as we move up the property ladder. The flow on effects of all this include increases in property values, a decline in unemployment, a steadier rate of inflation and more discretionary spending - all good for the economy. 

Now 18 months into this pandemic, our homes have increasingly become our places of work as well. This change of use has a number of ramifications. We are becoming more insular in our way of life, and home is often now where we work, exercise and periodically home-school our children. These extra purposes ideally require extra space, and many of our homes just aren’t user friendly enough. This has created incredible demand and is fuelling the property market as we seek more multi-purpose properties.

With so many of us now working remotely from home, it is imperative that we have a work-dedicated area. This change of use repercussion is that we are now able to write off a percentage of expenses associated with our home as work-related. When paying off a mortgage, every little saving counts, and every dollar saved in income tax when working from home contributes to greater mortgage serviceability potential and can allow us to upgrade to a more suitable home. 

There has also been a big drive towards off-the-plan property that is brand new, intelligently designed and move in ready. Not having to contend with a fixer-upper and having a beautifully designed new property that is move-in ready is proving highly attractive. And off-the-plan has the added benefit of allowing us to plan, prepare and save more while only requiring a 10% deposit. So if you are looking to either purchase your first home, move up the property ladder or invest in a rental property, here are some of the great properties Cramer currently has available.