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News.com.au
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Single pic exposes how grim Sydney dating really is
Commentary in response to a photograph has exposed Sydney's bleak dating scene, as many share details of absolutely unhinged behaviour they have encountered while trying to find a soulmate. An image posted to TikTok of the Barangaroo skyline was accompanied by a simple question – asking people to share tales of their worst date in the Harbour City — and the answers did not disappoint. Hordes of social media users unashamedly unloaded their dating traumas. Some were about getting stiffed on the bill at dinner. Some called out dating culture in general. Others shared very specific details of their dud dates. To sum it up — if you don't laugh, you'll cry. Yes, it's that dark. 'Took her to a nice restaurant. She ordered a $30 drink. Didn't like the drink, so she ordered another. Didn't like that one either, so she ordered a THIRD and wasted the other two,' one said. 'She ordered four lots of food to 'try'. Only ate half of it and took the rest home in three takeaway boxes. Bill was $250. I didn't realise this date was supposed to be her meal prep for the week.' Another asked: 'What date? People don't approach you in Sydney.' 'Picked me up and asked me where I wanna go to eat. I said 'I don't know. I thought you had a plan',' one social media user commented. 'He took me to Macca's. I was put off so I just asked for an ice cream and he made me pay for my it and complained that I expected him to pay for my 80c ice cream.' Another revealed: 'Guy asks me out. I order a cocktail. He says 'oh how many of those are you gonna have? I don't wanna have to call my dad for money to cover the bill later'. He was 46.' 'It got so bad I moved states,' another shared. One social media user added: 'I told him I don't drink and he took me bar hopping.' 'The problem with dating in Sydney is that if you don't live next door to them you might as well live on Mars, because it's just as much effort to get them to meet you halfway,' one commented. Another weighed in: 'This bad culture is solely because of dating apps.' 'Went on a date with someone, 2nd date in they wanted my social media passwords. I never dropped someone back at their place so quick in my life. No thanks,' shared someone. One commented: 'HE ASKED ME FOR RENT MONEY, after meeting ONCE. And I had to pick him up and I got us food and he ate it all LEFT ME NOTHING and then tried to kiss me.' 'What dates? I'm just a certified pen pal at this point,' one added. Another said: 'He took me to Woolies on the first date and proceeded to buy his mum groceries and he kept getting calls from his mum the entire time.' 'I was 24 and he was 32. When I told him my age he gasped, said I'm so old and proceeded to say his grandmother had four kids at my age. He kept swearing, zero decorum and decency,' one person divulged. Samantha Jayne, a relationship expert, was left asking one question after seeing what had unfolded in the comment section. 'Where has the romance gone?' She said the experience of Sydneysiders was 'sad' and showed just how many people were lacking empathy when it came to the dating scene. She did point out a lot of these were 'extreme cases' and most were 'fortunate cases of dodging a bullet'. 'The common theme is most bad dates are when the focus is on the superficial things,' she said. 'The cause is often because there's no emotional connection established and therefore no empathy. It's all about what is in it for me. 'Empathy requires some level of understanding or resonance with another person's emotions — and if that connection hasn't formed, their ability (or willingness) to empathise might feel absent.' Ms Jayne said the recurring theme was empty and disposable, and stemmed from a 'grass is always greener' perspective, thanks to the pick-up culture that has long been established in Sydney. 'Ultimately, even the people who are looking for the next best thing feel lonely and want a connection, in many cases the most insecure people reject before they get rejected or self sabotage to prevent a real connection forming,' she said. So, is Sydney a worse place for love than other cities in the world? According to Ms Jayne, yes. 'I love Sydney, I think it's one of the most beautiful places in the world but according to Time Out Magazine the city is a battlefield when it comes to love,' she said. 'An annual survey conducted ranked Sydney as one of the top 10 worst places to find love. 'Sydney ranks among 10 worst places in the world for finding love.' She pointed out that Sydneysiders have high expectations, and due to cost of living there is a focus on status, wealth and physical appearance. She said it's also a very 'clique' based city with tight-knit social circles. 'Often the two most common questions asked are 'Where do you live' and 'What do you do?' Most people date within their stereotypical suburbs which can create the socio economic divide,' she explained. Ms Jayne said another reason first dates can feel awkward and performative is, because at the end of the day, they are surface level interactions. She said without depth they may not feel invested enough to feel vulnerable. It can lead to a cycle of hurt and avoiding feeling vulnerable. 'Bottom line is some people have mismatched intentions while you may be wanting something genuine. A person may have watched one too many drama filled dating shows as they try to keep things cool,' she said. 'Dating is mostly based on perceptions and individual experiences, it is important to consider mindset and filtering. 'If you have a bad date, dust yourself off and try again. Don't let it get you down, instead laugh it off and get out there and meet someone who is aligned and makes you feel good.'
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Game over? The tell-tale signs Australia's most high-profile sporting romance is in trouble as Mary Fowler and Nathan Cleary make some very out-of-character moves
A telling detail about Mary Fowler 's recent return to Sydney is just one hint that her long-distance romance with star might not be what it once was. The injured Manchester City star arrived in the Harbour City on Wednesday and was photographed emerging from the airport with a driver helping her with her luggage.
News.com.au
30-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Sydney median house price hits record $1.55m after bumper June growth
Sydney home prices have torn even further away from the rest of the country after another month of accelerated growth fuelled by recent interest rate cuts. PropTrack's latest Home Price Index released Tuesday showed Harbour City home prices last month notched one of the biggest monthly gains in close to a year, increasing 0.5 per cent over June. The bumper growth pushed up the median price of a city house to an unprecedented $1.55 million – about $500,000 pricier than houses in the country's next most expensive capital, Brisbane. The Queensland capital was the only other major Australian city with a median house price above $1 million, a milestone it surpassed for the first time in June. Sydney's median unit price hit $858,000 over the month – an average of about $150,000 higher than units in Brisbane and nearly $250,000 pricier than typical apartment costs in Melbourne. Prices for all Sydney dwellings are now an average of about $50,000 higher than at this time last year, according to PropTrack. Monthly rises have been steadily increasing since the Reserve Bank announced the first of two cuts to the cash rate in February, with an increase in buyer demand matched by dwindling listing numbers. REA Group economist Eleanor Creagh said interest rate cuts were the driving force behind much of the market momentum. The increased borrowing power from lower interest rates encouraged more property buyers to bring forward their plans to purchase, Ms Creagh said. The prospect of further easing in rates had the extra effect of boosting buyer confidence and making buyers more comfortable placing higher offers, she said. She expected this pattern to continue for the rest of the year given high expectations of another rate cut in July, plus further cuts, but she noted that poor affordability would moderate coming price rises. 'The upturn remains gradual and stretched affordability will see a more measured upswing than in previous (rate) easing cycles,' she said. Ms Creagh added that an imbalance of demand and supply were exacerbating the growth stimulus from lower interest rates. 'Population growth and limited new supply are also placing upward pressure on prices, especially at the more affordable end of the market,' she said. 'With interest rates moving lower, these factors are likely to sustain price growth over the second half of 2025.' Price growth was varied across Sydney regions. The CBD and inner south had the largest gain in prices over the past quarter, increasing 3.42 per cent. The northern beaches and southwest were some of the other leading markets, with average quarterly rises of 2.46 per cent and 2.63 per cent, respectively. Growth was more subdued in Blacktown, where the average rise was 0.4 per cent, and on the north shore, where the average increase was 0.93 per cent. Pella Real Estate agent Michael Dowling, fresh off the back of two record $4 million-plus house sales in Ryde, said there was a renewed sense of 'FOMO' in the market as buyers scrambled for limited stock.
News.com.au
23-06-2025
- News.com.au
The Road To War: Family feud that sparked Sydney's gang wars
Sydney's underworld has exploded in recent months in an escalation in the city's underworld wars. The most recent was a triple shooting in the heart of Sydney's west, which critically injured a female kebab shop worker who was caught in the crossfire. Alleged underworld figure and the man at the 'epicentre' of a simmering underworld feud, Samimjan Azari, 26, was targeted for the fourth time last Monday when two masked men stormed a Turkish food outlet at Auburn and opened fire on him and another man acting as his bodyguard. The underworld war that has been ongoing since late-2020 has escalated to a new level, something many who have followed closely in recent years would have thought was impossible. But gang wars are not a new thing for the suburbs of the Harbour City, in fact, they have been raging - with highs and lows - for the best part of the last 20 years. A new doco-series from The Daily Telegraph delves into Sydney's first gangland war between the Razzaks and the Darwiches. The conflict between the two began in the wake of the Sydney Olympics as the two families went toe-to-toe, gunning each other down in public and spraying the opponents' homes with more bullets than police could count. At one point, the Darwiches even considered using a rocket launcher to annihilate their rivals. The Road to War is the latest docu miniseries from The Daily Telegraph, taking you inside the biggest gang conflicts this city has seen. Episode one 'Til Death Do Us Part - which was released today - looks at how a drug dealer being robbed in 2001 sparked the city's first gangland war. It started when Bilal Razzak robbed a drug dealer who worked for a rival crime family, the Darwhiches in early 2001. Tensions simmered for two years before an all out war broke out the likes which Sydney had never seen. How to watch The Road To War After Bilal Razzak robbed the drug dealer he was confronted by Adnan Darwiche and his enforcer, Khaled Taleb and bashed at a Bankstown shopping centre. Tit-for-tat drive-by shootings followed before Ali Abdul-Razzak, who was married to the sister of Adnan Darwiche, arranged a sit-down of the two factions. It failed and violence reigned on Sydney's streets for the next eight years. In 2009, the final chapter played out when Abdul Darwiche was shot in front of his family as he walked out of a restaurant in Bass Hill. 'It was unprecedented. There had been nothing like this before. The underworld killers like Neddy Smith and the like did their business quietly. They more often than not disposed of the bodies in shallow graves,'' says retired Detective Superintendent Stuart Wilkins. 'This was in your face, confronting intimidation and violence against police and the public. They would shoot and leave bodies in car parks, outside restaurants and service stations. Wherever, wherever they decided to attack somebody, they were shot and killed.'
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The beautiful faces (and bodies) behind Sydney's dial-a-dealer scourge: They look like typical Bondi bikini girls... but if you have their digits saved you could be in REAL trouble
They are the 'cocaine babes' of Sydney 's ritzy eastern suburbs - the glamorous women caught supplying the addictive drug to the Harbour City's rich and famous. The day jobs of these genetically blessed (and surgically enhanced) dealers who were busted by the NSW Drug Squad have included reality TV stars, bikini models and influencers.
