Experts have their say on Newcastle inner-city suburb hotspot viability

“The secret of the fantastic lifestyle opportunities in Newcastle’s inner-city suburbs is being let out of the bag,” Mr Kentwell said.

Various planning and development consultancy firms agree with Mr Kentwell’s sentiments, such as City Plan Strategy and Development’s regional director Amanda Wetzel.

She said that suburbs like Adamstown can offer the advantages of the CBD for those who are not keen on a CBD lifestyle.

“We’re seeing a lot of significant investment in suburbs like Adamstown with people renovating houses and also redeveloping sites,” Ms Wetzel said.

“Infill development is having a cumulative growth effect because it is making inner suburb small businesses more viable.”

In particular, Ms Wetzel pointed out that Adamstown offers instead a quick bike ride to the CBD, which is becoming quite popular.

Mr Kentwell also said the suburb is the start of the 15-kilometre Fernleigh Track, a combined pedestrian and bike path that links Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

“All the infrastructure is in Adamstown already, with great schools, village shopping, cycleways, a railway station and regular bus services,” he said.

There is also the potential for the suburb to see further growth from enhanced infrastructure, Mr Kentwell said, as Adamstown is included in the state government’s urban growth corridor and will likely benefit from any future extensions of the light rail currently under construction.

There are also prospects of seeing developments in Adamstown cropping up in the near future, as Adam Piper, principal of Piper Planning, said there are multiple R3 and R4 zoned areas, yet they do not have any modern developments on them yet.

“Suburbs like Adamstown have higher development heights than other Newcastle suburbs too,” Mr Piper said.

Mr Kentwell believes the suburb is a great long-term investment, a notion that is supported by CoreLogic data; the median price for a two-bedroom unit has grown 10.54 per cent in the last 12 months and has a gross rental yield of 4.06 per cent.