Rivers of Gold Start to Flow

Sydneysiders' love affair with waterfront properties is no longer just about eyeing pricey beach suburbs - rivers are now attracting interest.

Following the model of the successful Rhodes development near Homebush Bay, developers are opening up new riverside properties with similar ambitions: fancy new apartments and a whopping great big shopping centre.

Some of the large developments launching this year include new projects at Wentworth Point, around the river bend from the Rhodes development on Parramatta River and Wolli Creek, on the Cooks River, in the south.

And while the suburbs bloom with apartments, buyers don't just want living quarters; they want shopping centres, public spaces and a sense of community.

Builder Rod Brown has sold his five-bedroom Casula house and bought into the latest stage at The Waterfront, paying $815,000 for a two-bedroom apartment. Mr Brown says developers can't just build apartments, ''they've got to go the extra mile and build a community''.

''That is what sold me on Wentworth Point,'' he said.

''The people here do everything together; people canoe, they go golfing, there are numerous classes on, there is a band that plays every month and there is even a church.''

But for Wentworth Point, The Waterfront is the start. Eventually, 15,000 people will live in the suburb.

Chief executive of development lobby group Urban Taskforce, Chris Johnson, said retail outlets were pivotal to developments. ''Supermarkets are the modern version of the markets that occurred in the centre of traditional European towns.''

A new project by Sekisui House at Wentworth Point - to be called The Address, with 642 apartments in four buildings - will sit alongside the Parramatta River next to the well-established development The Waterfront, which has almost 2500 apartments. Edward Natour from Sekisui House said as part of the area's makeover there are also plans for a retail hub as well as a marina.

The residents are eagerly awaiting the 2016 opening of a $43 million bridge over Homebush Bay which will connect it to the shopping centres at Rhodes.

Mr Johnson said along with downsizers, demand for these developments was coming from Generation X and Generation Y buyers who are shunning suburbia. The previously industrial suburb of Wolli Creek is also becoming an urban hub with nine new developments on the way. When complete, there will be 1840 apartments.