Small Families

Summary: Located towards the northern centre of Sutherland Shire, Jannali offers a solid blend of personal living space and connectivity to Sydney city – without breaking the bank. Wide, leafy streets that are clean and quiet allow those without ridiculous incomes to actually have a chance at a freestanding house, while its main shopping strip around its train station keeps things just lively and convenient enough. It’s got a handful of great schools and is highly family-friendly, although it’s a little lacking in parkland and there’s not too much to do for entertainment. Read Review

Summary: One of Sydney’s true “dining capitals”, Leichhardt is a hub of activity that’s home to some of the city’s best restaurants and cafes. Its longstanding Italian heritage remains obvious, and it boasts one of the most interesting mixes of architecture of any suburb. Despite a lack of a heavy rail station, it’s still very well-serviced by public transport and has a great mix of amenities to offer families as well. Its main downsides are traffic, price, and noise – both at ground level and from the air – that make it an amazing place to visit, but a mixed bag for living. Read Review

Summary: Large enough to almost be considered a self-contained town at this point, Hornsby is one of the most complete suburbs in Sydney when it comes to amenities. It’s lacking absolutely nothing in terms of services and shopping – both big and small-scale – and brings with it solid public transport connectivity too. A huge array of parks, playgrounds, schools and childcare add to this to make it perhaps the most family-friendly suburb in Sydney at good value to boot. Its only real negatives are distance, and a lack of nightlife. Read Review

Summary: A small, nondescript suburb of the Inner West, Lewisham is quite quiet, visually appealing, and highly leafy. Its main strengths lie in its excellent public transport connectivity with multiple options for getting from A to B, a great choice of schooling options for families, and its range of charming heritage style homes give its streets some lovely character. It’s got some notable traffic issues and is almost entirely lacking in dining, shopping and general “things to do” however, and is mostly best served as a pretty place to lay one’s head. Read Review

Summary: A heaping of public transport options combine with gorgeous back streets, a lovely little cafe scene, and a huge dose of greenery to make Dulwich Hill one of the highlights of Sydney’s Inner West. It’s home to some wonderful architecture and a range of home types to choose from, as well as plenty of flora-rich public spaces that make for a great atmosphere. Parts of it could use a fresh coat of paint and don’t convey the best first impression which is entirely deceiving to how nice it truly is, and rising prices have taken it outside of its former “sleeper” status, however. Read Review

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. Read Review

Summary: Boasting a solid mix of reasonably centralised location, variety of dining opportunities, and convenience versus greenery, Kogarah is an underrated “sleeper” suburb that’s closer to Sydney city than you’d think. It’s a hotspot for educational facilities while still providing a good selection of housing types that offers the chance at a reasonably affordable place to live without having to endure a massive commute. It’s got some traffic issues and isn’t exactly “beautiful”, but it’s a good all-rounder without many other weaknesses. Read Review

Summary: Mostly known for being home to Sydney Airport, Mascot has become a hotspot for mass, high-density residential development that has markedly changed its face, both for better and for worse. It has such a wide variance in its positive and negative factors – good location, bad traffic, great amenities, plenty of noise, et al – that its appeal as a place to live will likely depend on individual tastes perhaps more than any other suburb in inner Sydney at this point. These wild contrasts between highs and lows make it nothing if not interesting; it’s a living case-study in rapid Sydney urban planning and development. Read Review

Summary: Situated on the outermost fringes of what most would consider Sydney’s “Inner West”, Burwood is renowned for two main things: its range of shopping, and its Chinese community. Amenity-wise, this is one of the most well-equipped suburbs in all of Sydney, with a diverse range of large and small-scale retail, as well as heavy concentrations of restaurants. It’s busy and bustling at most hours of the day in its central portions, while its suburban streets are wider, quieter, and quite expensive. It’s a bit noisy and not exactly diverse, but its location and connectivity both definitely work in its favour. Read Review

Summary: Heavy with new constructions and faced with ongoing traffic issues, Alexandria has some challenges to face. It’s a shame, as it boasts an ultra-convenient location for those looking to access the Sydney CBD, has a well-connected rail station nearby, and is a hub for a lot of startup and creative industry types that’s quite cool. Add in a duo of large, great parks and varied food and dining options and there’s plenty to like – if you can deal with its core, base-level cons. Read Review