He hadn't been there for more than 20 years, so when Alex Topic started looking for an apartment to buy, Parramatta was a suburb that never even crossed his mind.

Renting in Newtown in the inner-west for 17 years, he looked around there first of all, but found everything too expensive. Then he checked out small studios in Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and the city.

"They were tiny, around 20 square metres in really old buildings," says Topic, 47, who works in his own business as a Reiki master. "One was pretty much a space in a corridor with a bench put in for the kitchen, and they were still expensive, around $460,000 for such small areas.

"So then I thought I'd try further out in Earlwood. I went there to do a reconnaissance but I noticed a lot of shops closed at 5pm and in the evenings it was so quiet, with very little open. It felt dead."

Then a friend suggested Parramatta, further west. Topic wasn't particularly interested but caught the train out to see. What he found astonished him.

"Parramatta was totally different to what I remembered," he says. "There were so many shops open, the Westfield was huge, there were so many cafes and restaurants, theatre, cinemas ??? It was so alive and busy. It felt great and the apartments were mostly new and much bigger than I'd been looking at for the same money."

A year later, Topic has just moved into his apartment, paying $502,000 for what feels like a massive studio, at 44 square metres. And, again, he's been taken aback by Parramatta, and now the experience of living there.

"It's great," he says. "It's superb, it's magnificent. I ate in The Sicilian restaurant last night which felt so authentically Italian and the train back to work in Newtown takes under half an hour.

"But I'm loving it here. I love the apartment, the gym, the pool, the theatre, the library, the games room, all those communal facilities, and there's always so much going on in Parramatta. There are heaps of people, so many shops, so much to do, there's everything here you'd find in the city itself. Parramatta had been the last place on my mind, but it's just so easy to live here."

That's something an increasing number of Sydneysiders are now finding. With Parramatta frequently named one of the most liveable suburbs in NSW - coming top in a report by NSW's Urban Development Institute of Australia - because of its public transport, its proximity to major roads and growing retail sector.

With $10 billion of investment funnelled into the area over the next five years by the state government, Parramatta is well on the way to becoming Sydney's second CBD, says local agent Doug Driscoll, CEO of real estate agents Starr Partners.

"There's so much money and resources now coming into Parramatta it's becoming a very vibrant, lively city," he says. "It think it surprises a lot of people!"

The administrator of the City of Parramatta Council Amanda Chadwick says people now have a great deal of confidence with so many new jobs, a growing economy, the light rail, the transformation of Parramatta Square, and so many events.

Among other improvements on the way for Parramatta are the West Metro, the West Connex, the M4 extension, the Parramatta stadium, the first high-rise high school, the new University of Western Sydney tower and, possibly, the Powerhouse Museum which is still in planning limbo.

But the local residential property market is booming. A new apartment price record was set late last year when a penthouse sold for $3.2 million, and the sales of units in all Parramatta's new towers continue to be strong.

Parramatta's apartment median price is now $605,000, up 53.7 per cent in the last five years, according to Domain chief economist Dr Andrew Wilson. House prices are up 79.5 per cent over the same period to a median of $942,500.

Those prices are still below those in Newtown and Earlwood, too. In Newtown, the apartment median is $699,000 and for houses $1,385,000, while in Earlwood they're $742,000 and $1,483,000, respectively.

But Topic is thrilled with his decision to relocate from Newtown, and hopes to transfer his business, Reiki Energy Therapy, to Parramatta at some point in the future too. "I'm really enjoying everything here," he says.

"They even have tai chi in the courtyard area around St John's Cathedral. You'd never find that in other places, even in Newtown!"