Apartments, flats, units, condos, co-ops, pads, penthouses… Whatever you call them, they’re coming to Orange! So believes Williams Machin managing director Tom Sheehan.

The “housing of the future” as witnessed in numerous Sydney suburbs like Wolli Creek will eventually come to Orange for those looking for convenience and proximity, Tom believes.

“One of the things we are seeing is interest in CBD residential properties with townhouse development and the like,” Tom explained.

“With an ageing population, we have many older folk who are happy to live in an apartment,” he said.

Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria have already got on the apartment-block bandwagon with new developments in their respective cities.

He points out that it was only a few decades ago in our larger cities that units were almost totally peopled by single men and women and young couples starting-out on their first few years.

“Absolutely, when you think about it, the same people who live in Sydney live in Orange,” he added.

“It is changing, my parents moved from a house on Sydney’s north shore to a fifth floor apartment in Kirribili (on Sydney Harbour).

“It’ll come to Orange. I’m slightly-expecting that in three to five years, apartment blocks are going to go up cheek by jowl to the CBD with underground apartments; people just love the convenience of them,” Tom said.