Families

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 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.
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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

Summary: An interesting mix of both budget high-density living and the ridiculously high end, Kensington in the “Inner South East” is an extremely diverse suburb that contains fragments of all the varied parts of Sydney both past and present. Squat and ugly mid-rise apartment blocks sit alongside grand Federation homes; slick modern gyms neighbour long-running, old-time local Asian restaurants & abandoned storefronts – all while massive, gorgeous parks and prominent public works lie just a street or two away.

It’s a highly central and well-located suburb that offers numerous demographics a chance at city-adjacent living, with good public transport connectivity and a helping of busy and noisy roads all mixed in. Sprinkle in some absolutely gorgeous pockets of wealthy living, a handful of impressive historic buildings, and an education-oriented chunk of student-heavy society, and you’ve got a recipe for one of the more eclectic suburbs Sydney has to offer. And, one that can often be as cheap – or expensive – as you like.
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Summary: Grand, historic and full of character, Haberfield is one of Sydney’s most charismatic suburbs that retains much of its legacy without the taint of more sterile modern development creeping in. Its Italian heritage remains obvious, not only in its excellent array of quality dining and cafes on offer, but the demographics and faces of its older residents as well. Heritage homes with picturesque gardens and quiet back streets contrast with some semi-industrial and traffic-packed parts of its extremities to form quite a contrast, however.

With a physical position that puts it within easy striking distance of the CBD along with its spacious, low-density housing blocks, it’s should be no surprise that Haberfield is highly expensive and priced out of reach for most. Add in traffic concerns with its arterial roads and some issues with aircraft noise, and Haberfield definitely isn’t perfect – but it certainly is pretty, and a part of Sydney everyone should visit at least once. Read Review

Summary: If the search for a larger-sized home for a more reasonable price – without compromising on either safety or connectivity to the Sydney CBD – is getting you down, don’t sleep on Holsworthy as a highly viable solution. Technically the biggest suburb in the city, Holsworthy’s main residential area is a trim and tidy concentration of family-friendly property on generally large blocks set up alongside a ton of facilities to cater to those with kids.

This is a suburb that’s home to a mostly-peaceful environment and pretty hefty helpings of bush-style greenery along with a collection of schools, townhouses and freestanding homes with enough amenities to satisfy daily needs as well. It’s a bit lacking in terms of dining and retail as well as apartment/unit options, and non-families may feel a little out of place, but with what you’re getting for the price Holsworthy still ranks as one of the best value suburbs in Sydney.
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Summary: Tranquil, substantially green and overall upmarket, Denistone is a quiet pocket of classy North Shore goodness sandwiched between two drastically different suburbs on either side. It’s physically a relatively compact suburb which runs up a hillside, providing some often impressive views from atop its streetscape which is mainly dotted with large-scale freestanding homes.

Denistone has the benefit of a central location and good transport connectivity without any of the bustle or crime which usually comes along with these, and while that also brings a bit of a “retirement village’ vibe along with it, its level of peace and decent traffic situation helps balance this out. It’s great for those with pets and who appreciate greenery, but is a near-total wasteland in terms of amenities with little to offer outside of medical services. It’s also pricey, due to both the age and size of its many impressive homes. Read Review

While there are inevitably going to be some suburbs that deal with higher rates of crime, on the whole the Greater Sydney region ranks as one of the safer global …
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