The Upper North Shore is home to some of Sydney’s most sought-after suburbs. With its spacious homes, abundant parks, notable schools and convenient City access, it’s a popular place to call home. Statistically it’s also one of the safest areas in Sydney, making it a popular choice for families.
The region is located to the North West of Sydney’s CBD and is perfect for growing families or those that love the outdoors and want to get away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney’s CBD.
The Upper North Shore is generally referred to as the area that encompasses the suburbs along the North Shore train line between Roseville (just north of Chatswood) and Hornsby.
The suburbs of the Upper North Shore include Roseville 2069, Lindfield 2070, Killara 2071, Gordon 2072, Pymble 2073, Turramurra 2074, Warrawee 2074, St Ives 2075, Wahroonga 2076, Hornsby 2077.
Recreation & Outdoors
The outdoors is what makes the Upper North Shore so popular and such a great location to live and pursue a healthy lifestyle. There is literally something for everyone – with abundant national parks, bushwalking trails, cycling paths, playgrounds, sporting fields, golf courses and waterways.
If you enjoy nature and getting outdoors, then the Upper North Shore has plenty to offer. The area has access to some of the best National Parks and Waterways in the State – including:
- Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
- Lane Cove National Park
- Bobbin Head
- Apple Tree Bay
- Garigal National Park
- St Ives Showground.
There is also an extraordinary selection of great parks and playgrounds for families – including:
- Wahroonga Park Wahroonga
- Gordon Recreation Ground
- Bicentennial Park West Pymble
- Boyds Orchard Park Turramurra
- Queen Elizabeth Reserve Lindfield
- Bancroft Park Roseville
- Turramurra Memorial Park Turramurra
- Golden Jubilee Field Wahroonga
- Bannockburn Oval Pymble
The Upper North Shore is also home to a number of very popular high quality golf courses including:
- Avondale Golf Club Pymble
- Pymble Golf Club St Ives
- Killara Golf Club
- Roseville Golf Club
- Terry Hills Golf and Country Club
- Gordon Golf Club.
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Restaurant and shops
There are several major commercial and retail centres in close proximity incuding Chatswood Shopping Centres, Macquarie Park and Hornsby. These shopping centres are major drawcards and feature a wide range of amenities including restaurants, cinemas, gyms and hundreds of great stores.
In addition, each of the suburbs along the Upper North Shore also have a great leafy, ‘village’ feel with a wide selection of amazing restaurants, cafes and boutique shops. Of course, Sydney CBD is also only about 30 mins away with all that it also brings.
Transport
General
One of the best features about owning a home on the Upper North Shore is the ease of commuting to most key locations – in particular Sydney CBD, Chatswood, North Sydney, Macquarie Park, Newcastle, Frenchs Forest, Hills District, Central Coast and Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Trains
The upper north shore is serviced by Sydney Trains T1 North Shore line services. Heading to the City is very easy using the North Shore rail line. Commute time typically ranges between 25 and 35 mins – just long enough to read a few pages of your favourite book or unwind after work. Here is the Train Timetable.
Buses
The Upper North Shore also has an extensive bus network just in case you are not as close to the train line as you would like. Its services multiples routes with regular running times and its ideal for those who work in the City or surrounding areas. Here is the Bus Timetable.
Driving
The Upper North Shore is particularly well serviced by an impressive road network that includes easy access to the M1 Pacific Motorway (to Newcastle, Brisbane), North Connex (linking the M1 and M2 Motorways), M2/ M7 Motorways (to Western Suburbs, South Coast, Canberra), Mona Vale Rd A3 (to Northern Beaches) and the Pacific Highway which runs right through the middle of the Upper North Shore and provides direct access to Sydney’s CBD.
The Upper North Shore is home to many of the most sought-after schools in the State. Most suburbs in the Upper North Shore have excellent Public Preparatory and Senior Schools. Killara High School for example, is regarded as the best performing non-selective government secondary school in NSW for final year (HSC) exams.
In addition, the Upper North Shore is an effectively a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for world-class Private School education, with a large number of sought-after independent schools located in the area ( click on the links below ):
- Pymble Ladies’ College (Girls) – Pymble
- Abbotsleigh (Girls) – Wahroonga
- Ravenswood (Girls) – Wahroonga
- Brigidine College (Girls) – St Ives
- Knox Grammar School (Boys) – Wahroonga
- Barker College (Boys/ Girls) – Hornsby
- Roseville College (Girls) – Roseville
- Sydney Grammar School Prep (Boys) – St Ives
- St Leo’s Catholic College (Girls/ Boys) – Wahroonga
- German International School (Girls/ Boys) – Terry Hills
- Wahroonga Adventist School (Girls/ Boys) – Wahroonga
- Lorento Normanhurst (Girls/ Boys) – Normanhurst
- Masada College (Girls/ Boys) – St Ives
Additional Public school information can be found at schoolfinder.education.nsw.gov.au, with additional information on Private schools available at bettereducation.com.au or privateschoolsguide.com. In addition, Macquarie University, a world-class University in its own right, is only about 15 minutes away. Also, both Sydney University and the University of NSW are easily accessible by public transport.
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Upper North Shore – Property Pricing and Performance
Over the last twelve months, property price growth on the Upper North Shore has been resilient. Competition for properties that support a natural lifestyle choice – such as the Northern Beaches – that are still commutable to the City has been further fuelled by recent COVID-19 events.
Over the last twelve months property prices on the Upper North Shore have been quite resilient and the region has done better than many parts of Sydney.
In fact, despite 2020 seeing many commentators predicting ‘doom and gloom’ for property prices, the year saw several suburb sales records tumble on the Upper North Shore, largely driven by intense demand and a shortage of options for buyers.
The emergence of COVID and recent changes to the way we work and live, has resulted in more people broadening their search for homes and prioritising more space for the family as working from home becomes the new normal.
This has resulted in strong competition for properties listed for sale on the Upper North Shore.
During the 6 months to August last year, median house prices across the Upper North shore increased by about 6%. Auction clearance rates have also been above 80% for much of this period (Source: Realestate.com.au).
The median house price across the Upper North Shore is now $2,588,444, with units coming in at $912,111 (refer table below).
Despite COVID, over the last five years, house prices across the Upper North Shore have increased by a compound annual growth rate of 4.5%. Some suburbs have done much better than this, with Killara at 7.7% and Wahroonga at 5.6% over this five-year period.
It has been a different story for units, although prices have still increased moderately over this five-year period. St Ives has been the standout for Units over this period with compound growth of 6.7% (refer table below).
Upper North Shore – Property Prices by Suburb
Source: realestate.com.au and Love Live Sydney analysis (Jan 2021)
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