The State Significant Development application and accompanying rezoning received approval through the NSW Government’s Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) pathway, making the project the largest housing development approved under the scheme to date.

The precinct is planned as a mixed-use inner-city neighbourhood that brings together residential accommodation, hospitality, retail, public spaces and cultural programming. Construction is already underway following approval for early works in March this year.

Coronation Property Managing Director Joe Nahas explained that the project presents an opportunity to deliver housing while creating a broader destination for the inner city. "Waterloo is a rare opportunity to deliver housing at genuine scale in an established inner-city location, but our ambition for the project goes well beyond the number of homes."

The 2.1-hectare site is located at the corner of Danks and Young Streets, less than four kilometres from Sydney CBD and within walking distance of Waterloo Metro and Green Square Station.

The precinct includes a central park, new east-west street and through-site pedestrian connection. Building heights and massing were refined through the State Design Review Panel process, including changes aimed at improving solar access to the park, surrounding streets and neighbouring properties. The residential offering includes 777 build-to-rent apartments and 73 affordable rental homes, along with commercial and retail premises, indoor recreation facilities and communal amenities.

The street level is being curated as a 24-hour retail and dining precinct, designed to keep the public realm active across all hours of the week, with a tenancy mix of food and beverage, wellbeing, services and convenience offerings. Almost a third of the site area across ground, podium and rooftop levels will be communal open space. Communal amenities include a gym, pools, saunas, an open-air cinema, a pickleball court, podcast and music studios and rooftop barbecue areas.

The approved design will be delivered across four development parcels, with four Sydney studios working to a single urban vision: SJB, Bates Smart, Curious Practice and Chenchow Little. The four practices have worked to a common urban framework while bringing individual architectural identities to different parts of the precinct, responding to Waterloo’s established character.

"This is the result of four architects working to a shared vision: a high-density, high-amenity precinct where active streets, vibrant pedestrian spaces and distinctive architecture work together to bring a rich, diverse urban environment to Waterloo," said Matthew Allen, Director at Bates Smart.

SJB Director Adam Haddow shares that the design focuses on residents’ experience both within their homes and across the wider precinct. "At the heart of Waterloo is a simple idea, that delivering more homes should also mean delivering better places to live. The architecture has been shaped around the everyday experience of residents, from light and outlook within the home to shared spaces, landscape and the life of the precinct beyond the front door."

The project demonstrates how coordinated planning and design could support significant housing density while contributing positively to the surrounding neighbourhood, according to Coronation Property Head of Urban Transformation Aras Labutis. "The opportunity at Waterloo has always been to think beyond individual buildings and consider how a substantial inner-city site can contribute to the neighbourhood around it," Labutis said. "Bringing four highly regarded Australian design practices together has allowed us to create architectural diversity within a cohesive precinct, while maintaining a strong relationship with the scale, materiality and character of Waterloo.”

With construction underway, the Waterloo precinct is targeting staged completion from 2028.