NSW Liberals cling to heartland as Labor takes the cake

Former Prime Minister John Howard has paid tribute to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet's heroic campaign as the Liberals prepare for opposition.

A murmur rose among the sparse crowd of party faithful at the Liberal election function in Sydney's Hilton hotel as election analysts called a convincing Labor win shortly after 7pm on Saturday.

Two hours later Premier Dominic Perrottet called Labor Leader Chris Minns to concede.

Former prime minister John Howard said Mr Perrottet had campaigned heroically and had his continued respect and admiration.

"He can be proud of giving strong, determined leadership to the party, having taken over in incredibly difficult situations," Mr Howard said at the Liberal party reception.

Labor has seized key seats where the coalition had retiring MPs, after 12 sitting MPs quit in the lead up to the poll.

Some high profile losses include: former minister Stuart Ayres who lost his seat of Penrith in Sydney's west to Labor's Karen McKeown, outgoing Health Minister Brad Hazzard looks likely to lose Wakehurst to independent Michael Regan, and Ryde which was held by retiring Customer Services Minister Victor Dominello has also fallen to Labor's Lyndal Howison.

Earlier, a Liberal Party insider told AAP the party hoped to hold blue ribbon beachside Sydney seats, including Manly and North Shore, where it faced strong challenge independent candidates.

"Obviously, as you can see, it's not looking as promising anymore in some of the western Sydney seats," he said.

"The independent seats right now look like they're holding. None of them are currently, on our count, looking like they're going to get there (the independents)."

Other major coalition losses include: East Hills, Monaro, Parramatta, Terrigal, Holsworthy and the South Coast, with an overall 6.6 per cent swing to Labor.

The latest Newspoll on election eve predicted victory for Labor, who lead the coalition 54.5 to 45.5.

Deputy Liberal Leader Matt Kean said this party needed to have a good, hard look at what happened. 

"Clearly the number one issue driving the voters away from us was the time factor," he told ABC TV.

When asked if he was interested in becoming opposition leader he said he had not discussed the issue.

"We have a leader at the moment, it is Dominic Perrottet, he's a leader as long as he wants," he said.

Liberal powerbroker Michael Photios said Mr Perrottet had done an outstanding job as premier and there was a job there for him if he wanted it in opposition but it was unprecedented for a losing premier to continue in the job.