Balmain is in Sydney’s Inner West, which offers relatively affordable neighbourhood villages with their own personalities, relatively close to the CBD, lots of transport options (road, rail, bus and ferry) and a good mix of property. The whole Inner West is a ‘foodie’ paradise thanks to waves of immigration since the 1950s leaving a stamp on local restaurants and shops. Architecturally, the Inner West has many personalities – waterside Georgian, Victorian and Federation splendour in Hunters Hill and Drummoyne, Victorian cottages and terraces in Glebe, Newtown, Balmain and Birchgrove, larger Victorians in Glebe, Annandale, Balmain, Stanmore and Petersham. Almost everywhere else is Federation style or later – red brick and tile – ranging from small (Lilyfield, Leichhardt) to large garden suburb mansions (Strathfield, Burwood). Flats and townhouses include older blocks of four and six units, comfortable waterfront buildings built between the 1960s and 1980s in Drummoyne and elegant, master planned waterside communities like Breakfast Point and Cape Cabarita.