The owner of guitar shop Global Vintage, Rene Roth, has a downbeat view of what could be done to revitalise Parramatta Road.

“It’s a lost cause,” he says. “You can see the hodgepodge of buildings - abandoned buildings, abandoned shops - [with people thinking] let’s just let this sit here for four years until we get council approval to knock it down and build apartments.”

Nicholas Munning works at Global Vintage, a guitar shop on busy Parramatta Road in Annandale. Credit:Jessica Hromas

The retail strip has got worse in the 10 years he has been operating, with the 35 per cent of his business online keeping him going. “All the shops have closed,” he says. While Roth won’t divulge how much rent he pays, he concedes it is not much.

“The rent here is cheaper than the rent in a shop in the main street of Bathurst because nobody wants to put a shop here,” he says.