Freecity joins booming North Sydney apartment market with 51-storey tower proposal near Victoria Cross
Burgeoning developer Freecity is the latest to take on the booming North Sydney apartment market, one of the most popular suburbs with off the plan buyers.
They are taking a 51-storey tower on Walker Street to the NSW Government's Housing Delivery Authority, filing a State Significant Development Application for 300 apartments above a 150-room hotel. It will replace two commercial office buildings.
According to the Scoping Report prepared by Urbis, the development will "support the ongoing evolution of North Sydney by delivering a high-quality, mixed-use tower in close proximity to major public infrastructure."
They also said it “responds to the competing urban demands” of housing, hospitality, and employment.
The vertical program places hotel uses on levels one to six, activated by a retail arcade and hotel entry, while the upper levels contain communal amenity and transition spaces. The residential component will be delivered across levels 8 to 47 and includes a mix of one to three-bedroom apartments. Shared facilities include a rooftop lounge, dining space, and landscaped terrace with panoramic views.
The design also accommodates a publicly accessible through-site link connecting Walker and Little Walker Streets.
The built form continues to reflect the earlier design vision by Architectus, with a distinctive two-volume massing: hotel podium stepping down to Little Walker Street, and the slender residential tower rising above. The architecture intends to balance North Sydney’s increasing urban density with solar access, view sharing, and a fine-grain public realm interface.
“The form has been sculpted to preserve sky view corridors and reduce visual bulk,” the Design Report by Architectus previously noted, highlighting view preservation and contextual integration.
Importantly, this latest iteration supersedes an earlier SSD pathway explored in late 2024 for a build-to-rent and hotel project. That alternative scheme has since been shelved following Freecity’s successful submission to the HDA’s new streamlined approval stream.
The site sits within the Victoria Cross station State Significant Precinct and is expected to integrate with broader public domain upgrades around the Metro station, including new pedestrian links and plaza connections between Berry and Walker Streets.
North Sydney has been one of the most indemand suburbs in Sydney, however it has struggled with supply. AURA by Aqualand was one of the only developments in market for several years, until the recent launches of The Walden, which sold over $100m of sales in three hours, and The McLaren by CASA.
Joel Robinson
Joel Robinson is the Editor in Chief at Apartments.com.au, where he leads the editorial team and oversees the country’s most comprehensive news coverage dedicated to the off the plan property market. With more than a decade of experience in residential real estate journalism, Joel brings deep insight into Australia’s evolving development landscape.
He holds a degree in Business Management with a major in Journalism from Leeds Beckett University in the UK, and has developed a particular expertise in off the plan apartment space. Joel’s editorial lens spans the full lifecycle of a project—from site acquisition and planning approvals through to new launches, construction completions, and final sell-out—delivering trusted, buyer-focused content that supports informed decision-making across the property journey