Lower North Shore

Summary: Boasting a prime waterfront location and home to mostly high-density housing mixed with a handful of stunning waterfront homes and cottages, McMahons Point is expensive but provides a gorgeous blend of views and convenience for those who can afford it. With the city just a stone’s throw away and excellent public transport connectivity – plus a range of dining options within – it’s a lovely peninsula, but limited on space for those with regular budgets. Read Review

Summary: One of Sydney’s true “cafe capitals”, Neutral Bay is a wealthy slice of Lower North Shore living that still offers enough diversity of housing types to keep things fairly demographically varied. It’s centrally-located and is utterly decked out in amenities in terms of dining and small-scale shopping, and its hillside aspect overlooking the water is often highly impressive. It’s also as pricey as one might expect given its location, and its traffic and road issues often border on nightmare levels. Read Review

Summary: Incredibly green and leafy yet within quite a short (road-bound) commute to Sydney city, Lane Cove presents a pretty damn good balance as far as family-oriented suburbs go. While it’s not home to any sort of nightlife scene that will blow your socks off and could be considered “boring” by younger types, it’s very pleasant overall and has seen continued enhancements and upgrades to expand its range of amenities to now be completely self-reliant and comprehensive. Its only major black marks remain high prices, traffic and a lack of a train station, but it’s otherwise very well-rounded. Read Review

Summary: Centrally located, convenient and well-equipped with amenities, if there was any one word to describe St Leonards, “functional” would probably be it. This is a North Shore Sydney suburb that has everything you’ll need for daily life should you be happy with small-scale apartment living, yet is almost entirely lacking in other character or any kind of personality. While it has no real negatives other than a lack of affordable standalone housing and some noise and traffic issues, St Leonards is fairly bland overall; its main saving grace is its access to the city, and proximity to the suburbs which surround it. Read Review

Summary: The Lower North Shore’s go-to venue for selection when it comes to a quality meal, Crows Nest is a trendy hub for dining and drinking that feels a little like a “cleaner” version of Newtown down south. Centered around its main street lined with all sorts of cuisine and takeout areas as well as small-scale retail, the suburb is energetic – although a little noisy in places – and has some traffic issues. Its lack of train connectivity is a negative as well, as is a general lack of parking, but it’s still a great night out. Read Review

Summary: Full of greenery, home to some truly impressive houses, and highly peaceful, Wollstonecraft is an unassuming Lower North Shore suburb that’s seldom discussed. This is largely because it’s a highly “utilitarian” suburb in that it skews highly towards the “good place to live” as opposed to “good place to visit” end of the spectrum. It’s connected to heavy rail, offers a range of housing types and… that’s about it. There’s almost zero to do here, and as a result it’s only a place you’d want to use for resting your head. Read Review

Summary: This ritzy North Shore Sydney suburb is teeming with wealth, boasting some of the most expensive properties in the region in a desirable location surrounded by greenery, water and some gorgeous slices of beach. Mosman as a suburb is also strangely quite isolated, however, with a disconnect from public transport and a nightmare road renowned for its terrible traffic putting some dampers on its otherwise gleaming facade. Read Review

Summary: An incredibly pretty, charming and surprisingly accessible suburb surrounded by waterfront with a likewise incredibly high barrier to entry, Kirribilli is as beautiful as it is out of reach for the majority of Australian property owners. There’s a reason it was chosen as the site of the governor-general’s house, as its outlooks are some of the greatest Sydney has to offer, and its proximity and connectivity to the CBD are all better than many of its neighbouring or fellow-elite peers. Read Review

Summary: Sydney’s ‘second CBD’ located just across the Harbour Bridge has quite a different feel than the centre of ‘true Sydney’ despite largely being used for the same purpose. North Sydney’s newer layout and design brings with it a bit more breathing room than the actual CBD, with roads that make (slightly) more sense and a little extra space between its highrises. Very well serviced by public transport, clean, safe and close/connected to some great things nearby, it’s a little soulless in itself without very much character or things to do, with limited housing options that can be quite pricey. Read Review

Summary: This pleasant, quiet and green suburb on the Lower North Shore offers a village-type atmosphere with remarkably easy access to the Sydney CBD just across the bridge. Annually rated amongst the most liveable suburbs in Sydney, there’s not much to do in Waverton however – and that seems to be exactly the way its residents like it. It costs a pretty penny to live here, however it’s one of the few elite suburbs in Sydney that may truly be worth the pricetag. Read Review