St Leonards buyers agent

About the suburb

St Leonards at a glance

St Leonards sits about five kilometres north-west of the city and straddles three councils: Lane Cove, North Sydney and Willoughby. It is named after Viscount Sydney of St Leonards, and the name once covered the whole area from today's North Sydney to Gore Hill.

It is almost entirely apartments, with very few houses, and most homes are rented rather than lived in by their owners. Childless couples are the largest household group, and the most common age group is 30 to 39.

St Leonards is one of the North Shore's business centres, with a cluster of office towers, and Royal North Shore Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Sydney. The Forum, built over the railway station, combines offices, shops and two residential towers.

Transport is a real strength. St Leonards station opened in 1890 and is the oldest on the North Shore line, Crows Nest metro station borders the suburb, and the Pacific Highway runs through it.

The trade-offs are worth saying plainly. In a suburb of towers, the building is the decision: strata records, levies, defects and what the owners' corporation has planned all need checking before you bid, along with what may be built next door. And with so few houses here, treat the house figures in the statistics box as a guide, not a price.