Sydney’s housing market is a special kind of hell. As the second most expensive housing market in the world, the housing crisis is one of the biggest issues facing Sydneysiders right now, and the NSW Government is directing a heap of energy towards rezoning suburbs, planning new housing projects and offering new fast-track approaches to building new homes. That’s all promising to hear if you’ve got a few years to wait or a plot of land to build on, but when a new build-to-rent project comes along promising hotel-style amenities and interiors with actual personality, Sydneysiders seriously take note. Situate that development in the beating heart of the city’s trendy Inner West, and you’ve got something genuinely game-changing. Enter Precinct 75 – a landmark development taking over St Peters’ Taubmans Paint Factory site, that’s part lifestyle destination, part housing experiment, and a whole lot more boutique hotel than apartment block.
If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve knocked back a schooner at the onsite brewery, caught an exhibition in one of its artist studios or lingered over a coffee in the café. Those elements of the old precinct are still alive and well, and they’re welcoming some notable new neighbours: a collection of design-led rental apartments that flip the idea of rented apartment living on its head.
Instead of beige, box-style units, the aesthetic embraces bold colour palettes, statement features and glossy finishes. Design elements range from iridescent lobby panels to jewel-green ceilings, and plans for the crimson cocktail bar sound more Soho House than Sydney rental property. Designed by COX Architecture (the award-winning firm who are also responsible for the interiors of the new Western Sydney Airport) for Coronation Property, the project preserves the industrial bones of the former Taubmans Paint Factory site: exposed brickwork, concrete and warehouse forms layered with colourways from the Taubmans archive.
And while the interiors are reason enough to add this development to your Inner West apartment vision board, it’s the communal facilities that really set Precinct 75 apart. When it opens to residents, the development will be home to a rooftop pool with views across the city, a private cinema, wellness zones (complete with plunge pools), a music room and podcast studio, landscaped terraces and an entertainment quarter celebrating the site’s creative heritage. Once open, it will house more than 500 residents in a super-luxe, super-accessible futuristic living space.
The landmark project is a bold move for Sydney, where renting has long been framed as a temporary compromise rather than an intentional lifestyle. But with home ownership slipping further out of reach for a lot of us, Precinct 75 offers a glimpse of another path: a rental community that’s design-driven and set up for actual living.
At a time when conversations about housing affordability feel bleak at best, Precinct 75 stands out as an optimistic, tangible shift – and could be a blueprint for the future of housing in the Harbour City. Work is currently still underway, with the site expecting to welcome residents in 2026.
You can learn more and register your interest over here, or follow along via the Precinct 75 Instagram.
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