Southern Suburbs

Summary: Compact in size yet conveniently-located, little Allawah to the south-west of Sydney’s CBD is an unassuming pocket of mostly residential homes fanning out to the south of its long-running train line. It boasts a deceptively-high population for its relatively tiny physical area due to its abundance of low-rise unit and apartment buildings, which lie interspersed between the occasional higher-end, prettier street of typically-older but well-maintained freestanding homes.

With little in terms of landmarks or through-traffic to draw in crowds or visitors, it’s a mostly quiet and peaceful little streetscape that’s decently-priced for the combination of its position and rail connectivity, too. It’s home to a single strip of amenities which is decent given its size, while both large-scale shopping centres and the beach are not far away. It’s not exciting, but is safe, practical, and pretty convenient for city workers and families alike – a true “sleeper” suburb of Sydney worth considering.
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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: One of the most amenity-rich suburbs in all of Sydney, Hurstville is teeming with options for shopping, dining and services. It’s also one of the most mono-cultural, being home to the highest proportion of residents of Chinese descent of any suburb in Australia.

Combine the two, and you’ve got a suburb with a central area with an always-busy and distinct flavour that’s quite a contrast to the rest of its streetscape – which is mostly residential and home to large, freestanding houses or mid-rise apartment blocks. It’s quite safe, has great public transport connectivity, but can feel hectic and a little unkempt in spots, while multiple new constructions continue to make it even busier. Read Review

Summary: Quiet, conveniently located and heavily residential, Bexley is a bit of a sleeper suburb that’s not often talked about yet offers a surprising dose of upmarket living for a pretty good price. Given its position relative to the Sydney CBD and its overall balance of safety, amenities and home sizes, Bexley is probably still undervalued overall and – while it’s still not “cheap”, being Sydney prices – is worth considering as a slightly-cheaper alternative to neighbouring suburbs that still has good public transport connectivity. Read Review

Summary: Convenient, well-positioned and incredibly well-equipped with amenities, Rockdale isn’t the prettiest suburb in the world but packs a ton into a relatively small space. It boasts good connectivity to the city and elsewhere by both road and rail, and a wide variety of housing types suitable for a range of budgets and lifestyles. It’s also very busy in sections, with its main roads packed with traffic and a continually growing number of apartments adding to its population. It’s also decent value, considering its location. Read Review

Summary: Seldom-discussed yet solid all-round, Carlton offers a good blend of peace, access, greenery and choice to make for a suburb that needs to be considered in your Sydney search. It’s in a position that provides access to plenty of different “types” of Sydney nearby while being safe and pleasant in and of itself – and having a decent bit of Euro-influenced character to boot. Freestanding home prices aren’t great, but its apartments and other housing alternatives represent pretty good variety and value overall. Read Review

Summary: Walking the line between greenery, value, high-end and working class very well, Kingsgrove is down-to-earth and unpretentious Sydney suburbia in full swing. Boasting good diversity in both property types and people, this is a suburb in which decent proximity to Sydney city comes with personal space and a very good array of amenities. There’s plenty of quality local dining dotted throughout, a solid selection of schools, and enough to see and do to keep things lively. Traffic and price are issues, but it’s quite well-balanced overall. Read Review

Summary: A very good value option of a suburb for those who like things with a little more space but retaining a touch of grit, Mortdale offers a balanced lifestyle at a pretty good price. Its distance from Sydney city is very manageable, it’s got a decent mix of amenities for daily life, and there’s a good mix of both large and small-sized housing options to cater to all income levels. It’s not particularly exciting or beautiful and it’s lacking in larger-scale shopping options, but as a choice for middle-class people on a non-ridiculous income it’s got everything one could need with a fairly nice community vibe to boot. Read Review

Summary: Striking one of the best available balances of city-meets-country environments available to Sydneysiders without crossing one of the nearby southern bridges, Oatley offers a blend of exceptional nature and family-oriented amenities. In addition, while most other suburbs that offer this balance come with the pitfall of bad transport connectivity, Oatley remains an exception with solid heavy rail services. It’s a little lacking in things to do outside of the natural, and it comes with a decent pricetag, but its rental market is quite affordable given the positives it offers to make it one of the best suburbs in Sydney overall. Read Review