Reviews

Summary: Largely encircled by the waters of the Georges River, Blakehurst in Sydney’s south is a suburb in which all things aquatic play a prominent role – from views, to food, to access to marine activities. Dissected almost in two by major (increasingly packed) arterial roads, it’s highly accessible for drivers and quickly offshoots into upmarket, almost purely low-density residential living on either side of the highway.

Much of Blakehurst’s streetscape is a mixture of high-to-extremely-high-end living, with only a handful of apartments, and homes that range anywhere from large to literal waterfront estates. This includes some notable heritage aspects with prominent use of sandstone, and some excellent views from multiple hillside reserves overlooking the water. Its lack of train connectivity may turn off some, while its propensity for waterfront living means appropriately massive property prices are a staple here as well. Its inner residential areas are also notably lacking in amenities, however this is also one of the safest suburbs in Sydney.
Read Review

Summary: One for those who like a little extra room to move – without being a wasteland lacking in amenities – Menai in Sutherland Shire provides a more reasonably-priced chance at a larger freestanding home. This comes without the extra fee for having a train station that multiple other suburbs in the region have tacked on. Both dotted with and surrounded by bushland, it’s a place where buildings and houses have a wider footprint in general, being mostly built out horizontally instead of vertically.

Its combination of multiple shopping centres and increasing hubs for dining combines with its array of educational opportunities to make for solid diversity for families as well. Distance from the city is a required sacrifice of living here, and while its fringing bushland offers walking opportunities, it has had issues with exposure to fires in the past. It’s also best as a base for those who can work either in the Western Suburbs or elsewhere in the Shire or southern Sydney, with owning a car basically essential for daily life. Read Review

Summary: Balancing the space and peaceful appeal of Sutherland Shire with one of southern Sydney’s most concentrated hubs of amenities, Miranda strikes a fairly even balance of the busy versus the serene. Its solid public transport connectivity via both road and rail combine with its sheer variety of housing types – on both the high and low end of the economic scale – to make for a good variety of options for daily life.

It’s increasingly becoming too busy for its own good however due to rapidly increasing high-density construction, making both traffic and parking ongoing issues. Its station and social housing areas combine to contribute to the odd crime issue as well, making for a suburb in which its central section is a massive contrast to its external residential areas. These offer much more roomy, relaxed and greenery-draped living – although at some increasingly eye-watering prices.
Read Review

Summary: One of the more interesting suburbs in Sydney, Petersham represents the point where both the charming and gritty/trendy aspects of the Inner West collide. It’s a suburb in which rounding any corner presents something that’s at least intriguing – if not always pretty – from its eclectic mix of architectural styles that are often beautiful, to its several excellent dining and amenity strips, to its occasional back alleys dotted with graffiti and bags of smelly rubbish.

It’s also a suburb which both benefits from, and is a victim of, its highly convenient location relative to Sydney city – one which offers a great commute and easy access to numerous other eclectic suburbs nearby, but also makes it a frequently noisy and busy place to be on multiple levels. It’s overall very well-equipped and a great place to visit to drink and dine, but its high prices, popularity, noise issues and proximity to major roads combine to put a bit of a damper on what is otherwise an extremely character-rich part of Sydney.
Read Review

Summary: At its core, Gymea ranks as the most versatile of the Sutherland Shire suburbs, with a solid across-the-board balance of all the benefits we look for in an enjoyable place to live. Its central location relative to the rest of its neighbours combine with its train connectivity and immediate access to main roads to make it highly accessible, while its diversity of housing types make for a place not only the highly wealthy can afford.

Its dining and cafe scene has grown to the point where it’s not only nice, it’s – dare we say – actually trendy, with a very good array of amenities despite some awkward parking in order to access them. This is balanced out further by its solid array of schools, leafy surrounds and actual options for adult entertainment to make for a Shire suburb that feels far less “boring” than many of its peers, while still not yet being overdeveloped. Its lack of parkland and some traffic issues are its only real downsides; this is one of our favourite suburbs in Sydney in terms of balanced places to live. Read Review

Summary: A neat and tidy pocket of upmarket Sutherland Shire living, Woolooware is a pretty, village-type suburb traditionally home to larger and impressive homes that’s gradually seeing more pockets of dense development crop up. With plenty of greenery, easy access to beaches nearby, and a wide range of public facilities and spaces oriented specifically at families and sports, it’s also an area in which property is typically tightly-held long-term by residents with no real desire to leave.

This is a largely peaceful suburb with adequate (if fairly minimal) amenities that still provides the benefit of train connectivity through to the Sydney CBD – a boon for a suburb of its size. It’s starting to see some “spillover” effects from higher density developments both within and from neighbouring suburbs via some increased congestion, but otherwise its combination of nature, schools, safety and proximity to appealing spots nearby make it highly desirable for families in particular – who can afford it. Read Review

Summary: One of the most well-equipped suburbs in all of Sydney, Lidcombe is home to an immense amount of variety in multiple forms – housing, businesses, restaurants, streetscapes, and even cultures. It’s one of the city’s best hubs for Korean and mixed international dining, while lacking for almost no single amenity; if there’s a shop or service you’re looking for – both large and small – Lidcombe likely has it. There’s simply a ton to potentially do here.

Its location sits in a convenient position for accessing both Sydney’s east and west, while its public transport connections see a high volume of services in either direction as well. This is a busy suburb that can be noisy and a little hectic, and its major road arteries experience some eye-watering traffic, but it also contains a large range of different “pockets” of living that can suit a wide variety of people of different budget levels and life situations – while being pretty reasonable value and quite safe, too.
Read Review

Summary: One of the prettiest and most aesthetically pleasing Sydney suburbs you’ll come across outside of the Lower North Shore, Lugarno is an incredibly leafy hillside community in Sydney’s south that’s home to a ton of greenery, peaceful streets, and big, big houses. Its trump card of a pleasant waterfront aspect along the Georges River only adds to the natural beauty on offer, with the ample flower gardens and well-kept lawns of its residents the cherry on top.

It’s family-friendly and incredibly safe – one of the safest suburbs in Sydney – while offering a small yet reasonable array of essential amenities for small-scale shopping and dining that are cute if unspectacular. Its tucked-away nature sacrifices some accessibility issues in return, while its hilly topography makes owning and using a car on a daily basis all but mandatory. Its generally large block sizes make for some amazing houses with high prices, but also a lot of land relative to your money spent by Sydney standards as well. Read Review

Summary: Close to major public amenities and arterial roads yet somehow still feeling “tucked away”, Botany to Sydney’s south-east retains a self-contained, village-style atmosphere despite being relatively close to Sydney city. It boasts the signature, slightly “beachy” elements of the Bayside region despite not having much of an actual beach, with its historic and mostly low-lying homes fringing an inner section that has had large blocks of modern apartments plonked in over recent years.

It’s home to a decent array of restaurants, cafes and amenities along its main dining strip along with the occasional cool and trendy cafe dotted throughout elsewhere, and also offers some truly massive and excellently-equipped slices of parkland to go with all the rest of its leafy greenery. Botany also plays host to a substantial array of businesses and warehouse-style workplaces, offering the potential to both live and work in the one spot. It’s an appealing suburb overall, with traffic/parking and a lack of rail connectivity its main glaring negatives.
Read Review

Summary: A sprawling, hilly and bush-draped suburb deep-ish in Sutherland Shire, Engadine is a land of Aussie flags flying proudly in front lawns, large and roomy split-level homes built on the hillside, and a comprehensive central area home to a very solid array of amenities. While it lies a fairly hefty distance from the Sydney CBD, its rail connections help alleviate this somewhat, and the trade off it offers in terms of larger home sizes for better prices than the Sydney average may just be worth it for some.

This is a highly family-friendly, neighbourly, and outdoor-oriented place with an array of schools and childcare options along with ample sporting fields and facilities; add in expansive National Park right nearby, and being outside here is an enjoyable prospect. It’s fairly average – though improving – for dining however, and the drive up to the city can be a killer. It’s also much more ideal for families vs. the younger crowd in search of more diverse entertainment options. Read Review