Epping Suburb Review

Upmarket North Shore suburb features great connectivity and is highly pet-friendly, although price remains an issue.

Summary: A key transportation hub on the North Shore, Epping is both well located and connected for accessing other key urban centres nearby. The suburb features many larger, heritage-listed homes sprawling out from a small, concentrated shopping district around its station with back streets that are highly leafy and dotted with numerous parks. It’s eminently pet and family friendly, however the combination of traffic issues and price are both factors to consider when living here.

Key stats

In terms of mobility for getting around Sydney’s North Shore, few suburbs can compete with the mixture of physical location and public transport connectivity that Epping has.

It’s been an intersection point for major rail lines for a while, and the region’s Metro addition has only enhanced this – add in its high volume of buses, and if you’re looking for a suburb to live in the area that makes it easy to get from A to B.

That’s not to say Epping is merely a springboard to get elsewhere of interest; the suburb itself is quite charming, with its northern portion in particular a land of some impressively large houses on big blocks that sit among wide, leafy and pleasant streets.

Many of these large federation homes (that fetch eye-popping proces) have retained their original character thanks to heritage regulations, and as a result there’s not that many new-looking, modern constructions here outside of a cluster of modern apartment blocks along Carlingford Road.

Its apartment blocks follow a similar trend, as many of them are old-style brick facades. It lends an aspect of “true Sydney” that has been concreted over in many other suburbs, and gives Epping’s back streets a nice, quiet atmosphere. There’s also an unusually high volume of churches whose architecture helps keep things interesting.

Park Life

Adding to this ambiance is its handful of lovely parks. They’re both new and kept in good condition, and offer a nice cross section of amenities such as barbecue facilities, playground equipment, and cycling paths.

Epping’s lack of a major retail/urban centre nearby means these parks are often uncrowded, and also not home to some of the unsavoury types other Sydney suburbs’ central parks can be. They’re eminently safe-feeling and family-friendly as a result.

Combine this with its wide, grass-lined streets, vet services, and large properties, and Epping makes for one of the most pet-friendly suburbs in Sydney within reasonable proximity to major urban centres.

Pretty and park-heavy, Epping’s a highly pet and family-friendly suburb

There’s quite a good array of schools on offer nearby too, with some prestigious offerings in both Epping proper as well as neighbouring Carlingford, Ryde and Denistone. This mix of education and safe public spaces scores pluses for the suburb for families as well.

Amenity-wise, Epping is “okay” without providing anything too amazing. Its main shopping strip near the station area is sufficient if a little small, though it does have a Coles as well as a nice little mix of cafes, service stations, local restaurants, fish and chip/seafood shops and the like.

The main problems around here start to crop up when looking at Epping’s road situation. This shopping strip is serviceable, but there’s a distinct lack of parking for starters.

Road congestion is also a problem, with some strange setups where pedestrians and traffic conflict at heavy chokepoints. It seems like the construction of some footbridges or traffic lights would help a lot, but they’re conspicuous by their absence.

“The suburb is quite charming, with its northern portion in particular a land of some impressively large houses on big blocks that sit among wide, leafy and pleasant streets.”

Traffic in general is also an issue. While Epping’s location near large motorways is in theory a boon for being able to get elsewhere in the city, peak hours suffer from that familiar Sydney over-abundance of cars. Epping Road in particular is a proverbial carpark, so taking advantage of the suburb’s great public transport instead of driving is preferable (if possible).

The other issue here is direct access to the Sydney CBD. While Epping’s well connected by public transport, its route into the city is a bit of a “long way round” that goes via Strathfield, or involves an interchange at Chatswood. It’s not bad, but it’s a little awkward and the teething problems of the Metro have still been a bit of an annoyance factor in the other direction.

Many would say to take the bus instead, but the standstill-traffic in peak makes them far less consistent than the rail options. Living here is thus probably better for those working in the likes of Macquarie Park, Rhodes or even Parramatta than the city.

Nightlife-wise, Epping ranks a little higher on average than your typical north-shore “dead-at-night” snoozefest scenario. It’s not exactly jumping or as buzzing as say, Crows Nest, but venues such as the Epping Hotel and The Epping Club provide decent focal points for a drink. Plus, its connectivity to Chatswood opens up a world of dining, cinemas, and other venues for a drink within easy reach.

Epping is also quite a bit more multicultural than much of the North Shore, with a prominent Chinese presence and a mix of Indian and Korean among others.

Price is the other factor that’s going to keep Epping out of reach for some. Given its concentration of larger freestanding houses, there’s not much in terms of budget accommodations on offer here. The growth of nearby suburbs for offices and workplaces has made Epping more desirable still, and property prices have hiked up as a result.

Purchase prices of $1.5 million are standard for something modest, and its median apartment rental prices are higher than average, too. Expect to pay around $560 per week for a plain, small 2-bedroom apartment here.

The Verdict

Epping’s quite versatile and has some lovely aesthetic aspects to it, and its connectivity is going to be enticing for many.

Being able to get to basically anywhere essential in Sydney by road or public transport while still having largely green and open aspects to its streetscape is a desirable balance, so it’s not hard to see why prices here are rising.

In addition, there’s enough going on here to separate it from some of the other similar, more boring suburbs that surround it; a few more restaurants, proper shopping, good schools, and nice parks check the boxes for what most would want in daily life.

Families whose bread-winners work elsewhere on the North Shore or in other western-located business parks should consider it as a good base in particular.

Price will probably be a bit of a barrier to younger professionals, as there are other cheaper and slightly more lively suburbs that serve the same purpose that might be better suited. Outside of its traffic situation, for those with cash there’s little not to like about Epping, and it comes quite strongly recommended.