The mural on our hotel is obviously a portrayal of marriage and divorce in the modern West with the woman on the man’s back as he crawls across the floor, before she ends up with the house along with much of his wealth.. This is the official description.

The end of 2019 saw the inner-west becoming the region in which property prices grew exponentially. In a 2017 Guardian Australia article, Tim Gurner declared that Sydney millennials should stop going to hipster cafés to save money to buy property instead. This was not well-received by Newtowners, who feel they’re being pushed out by property developers and high rental costs. These much debated costs of city living are best summarised in this Newtown masterpiece called The Housing Bubble. Painted on the wall of the Urban Hotel by Fintan Magee, a world-renowned muralist from Brisbane, it depicts a man on all fours with a woman sitting on his back. She is trying to catch a little townhouse, floating away on a set of balloons.

Interesting touch in the photo with the young couple standing before the mural as she diverts him from looking at the picture and drawing his own conclusions.