News that two Newcastle developers have lodged plans for a high-end storage facility in a converted Islington warehouse is yet more evidence that the city is changing significantly.
Dave Hughes and Julian Morton plan to sell luxury storage spaces at more than $450,000 a pop so inner-city apartment residents have somewhere to park their sports cars and wine collections.
The Milford Street building they are converting is a former Winchcombe Carson Ltd woolstore.
If ever there was a perfect symbol of the city's changing fortunes, turning a 1940s woolstore into a four-storey bolthole for nearby residents' Ferraris, complete with rooftop sauna, must come close.
Property analysts CoreLogic published new data this week which showed house prices in Newcastle had started to rise sharply again over the past three months.
The 3.6 per cent jump in the value of a typical home over the past quarter shows the city remains an attractive place to live long after the COVID-19 disruption.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen told the Australian Financial Review that demand for housing in regions within commuting distance of capital cities could rise further.
"One thing that might buoy the more popular regional centres is the fact that expensive markets like Sydney are on the rise again," she said.
"This could prompt more first home buyers and young families in particular to look to nearby regional centres such as Newcastle or Wollongong for housing.
"I think for the year ahead, just based on the idea that we are settling back into pre-COVID rent trends, we could see strong growth in the major regional centres like Wollongong, Newcastle and Geelong."
Mark Mathot, a former Newcastle journalist who has returned recently to the city, summed it up perfectly when he wrote in a letter to the editor this week that Newcastle was Australia's "Goldilocks city", not too small and not too big.
But the influx of people and money must not be at the expense of the city's history and amenity.
As the saga of the Hunter Street Mall redevelopment has shown, it is beholden on planning authorities and politicians to bring the community along for the ride.
Newcastle need not be as desperate for investment dollars as it was in the past, which means development proposals must be well designed and sympathetic.
The next urban strip ripe for redevelopment is along Maitland Road at Mayfield.
The community will expect City of Newcastle to insist on high standards while hopefully doing all it can to encourage more affordable housing in the growth corridor.
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