The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age found vacancies had soared on south King Street, long the home of quirky bric-a-brac and lively restaurants and bars. Fifty-one shops were either vacant or for lease among 272, a vacancy rate of just under 20 per cent. Last year, a local business associate survey found 48 shops vacant across the entire King Street, Enmore and Erskineville roads district, a vacancy rate of 6.5 per cent. And by mid-August, two of King Street’s most colourful retail institutions, Wanting Collection and Gigi’s Fairy Fashions, will be gone, as will nearby fine dining restaurant Oscillate Wildly, which announced last week it would shut after 16 years serving locals with its ever-changing degustation menu. Gloria Douglas at the fashion shop she founded, Gigi Fairy Fashion, on South King Street. The shop is now closing. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer "No-one shops in King Street, it’s like what happened to Oxford Street," agrees Gloria Douglas, founder of Gigi’s Fairy Fashion, now owned by her daughter, Gemma Press.

Amid classic 1950s swing and sun dresses women buy for race days and weddings, she says despite thousands of new apartments in the area, many locals have sold up or been forced out by higher residential rents. "People come from Melbourne and Adelaide wanting to know where the hipsters are. They have moved to the suburbs. We have a lot of homeless, bewildered students, junkies and people who aren’t on the strip for shopping." Andrew Gray, principal and licensee of Travers Gray Real Estate points to online shopping and lack of parking. The area attracts more than 50,000 visitors a week, more than half coming by car. "You can’t physically stop," he says on clearway restrictions on King Street during rush hour. "And if you can’t park you don’t buy." Newtown in numbers 40,000 residents

More than 50,000 visitors a week

More than 5000 local businesses

57 per cent of visitors say that getting in and out of Newtown is their biggest inhibitor

51.28 per cent of residents say anti-social behaviour stops them visiting Newtown at night more often

86 per cent of visitors would visit shops at night if they were open

The average resident ventures out into Newtown at night 8.58 times per month Source: Newtown Precinct Business Association

Some landlords are unconcerned by a 12-month vacancy, as they can still profit from a seven year lease with rent increases, which allows them to pass on much of the cost of land tax, strata fees, council and water rates to tenants, he says. "Newtown is not Newtown anymore," says Wanting Collection owner Emily Zhao, a 34-year-old who arrived from China ten years ago with $2000 and little English. (Her Chinese name is Wanting). Emily Zhao is closing her fashion shop Wanting Collection on South King Street. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Her clothing, jewellery and fashion shop, which started as a market stall selling crazy socks in 2013, explodes with colour onto King Street but will close in August. "Obviously it’s very expensive now. The rent is very high," says Zhao, while sipping on a flat white. This has driven away not just retailers but also customers, she says. "Sydney people tend to be quite conservative, they don’t want to be individual. ‘Who is the designer? What is the label?’ Nobody wants to really rely on their eye."

Another culprit are the lockout laws, which decimated Kings Cross, but had unintended consequences locally. Within a year of their introduction, Friday and Saturday night visitors to Newtown increased 304 per cent, says the Newtown Precinct Business Association, which hosts local business forums for worried shopkeepers. Now cafes and restaurants are replacing shops and some worry Newtown will thrive by night but risks being dead by day. It's so sad ... All these beautiful shopping districts are dying Faster Pussycat retailer Jenelle Camino NPBA manager Simon Shaw says there are lots of retailers who are struggling. "There are a lot of vacant shops that could be filled with retailers. We need to establish what Newtown was a few years ago, a vibrant retail destination." Local independent councillor for the Inner West Council, Pauline Lockie, is concerned at the 5 per cent shift from retailers to food and beverage could accelerate. "If you value that diversity in Newtown, you have to use these shops."