"It's like there's a house party, but there's so many different rooms no one knows where it's actually happening," said Peter Barclay, who owns King O'Malley's on City Walk.

"We're so lucky to have Garema Place and City Walk. [We] have this unique space in the middle of the city, which is an oasis, but we really need to be able to use it and make it safe and clean."

He compared New Acton and Kingston Foreshore, where "there's new paving, new lighting, new streetscape and trees and also regeneration of new buildings", to City Walk, where tree roots have dislodged the paving.

Raquel Paez, who owns a salsa studio on City Walk agreed the "iconic" areas had been neglected.

"[Kingston Foreshore] is such a buzzing area, it'd be nice to see the older areas getting the same amount of traffic and attention.

"Just now, from the small changes they've made on Bunda Street, it's definitely enhanced and made that street just a bit more vibrant. It feels like more of a place you want to be in."

On Monday, Canberra CBD Limited released a survey it had commissioned on how the city centre could be improved, revealing support for refurbishing buildings and revitalising the old areas like Garema Place.

While the 500 people surveyed were enthusiastic about the success of Braddon and New Acton, chief executive Jane Easthope admitted there were parts of Civic which were "grey, leafless and look tired" and needed to be fixed.

But the Property Council of Australia said change would be difficult to achieve under current rules.

The "flawed" Lease Variation Charge Policy acted as a" handbrake" and prevented buildings from being refurbished or converted to new uses, the council said.

"[The policy] provides a very expensive penalty for business owners to repurpose buildings, which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars," the council's executive director, Catherine Carter, said.

"The reality is there's little [development] happening in Civic at the moment. Most development and renewal is occurring on the perimeter, which is leaving a lot of emptiness in the city core."

The survey, which also highlighted people's concerns about parking and accessibility in Civic, were released the day before the government introduced paid parking in the city on evenings and weekends.

"People can see the CBD needs more critical mass to attract more activity but they're concerned whether the existing transport and infrastructure can cope," Ms Easthope said.

"In their words, we have to get it right. They're dissatisfied with the current system and are worried if there's an increase in density, parking pressure will increase."

On Tuesday evening, pay parking at London Circuit, the Civic Pool, next to Commonwealth Avenue and at the Canberra Institute of Technology was to be enforced until 10.30pm on weekdays and from 9am until 10.30pm on weekends.