This time last year the Book Kitchen in Surry Hills in inner Sydney was turning over $23,000 a week.

Now the well-known restaurant and cafe's revenue has more than halved to as little as $11,000 a week, forcing it to lay off 10 full or part-time staff.

The owners lay the blame squarely on disruption from the building of Sydney's $2.1 billion light rail line, which resulted in high barricades being erected directly outside their doors last month.

Many property owners along the route of the light rail line from Circular Quay in the central city to Randwick and Kensington in the south-east have already benefited from a surge in the value of their homes and commercial premises on the prospect of better public transport once trams begin running in 2019.