Carlton Suburb 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 located in a position that provides access to plenty of different “aspects” of Sydney nearby while also being quite safe and pleasant in and of itself – and having a decent bit of Euro-influenced character to boot.

Freestanding home prices aren’t exceptionally cheap, but its decent array of apartments and other housing alternatives represent pretty good variety and value overall given its reasonable proximity to central Sydney. As an added bonus, it’s highly safe, too.

Key stats

Not to be confused with its bigger and more famous Victorian brother, Sydney’s Carlton is a suburb that doesn’t get much play – search online for anything about Carlton and you’ll be bombarded with Melbourne-centric content – and thus qualifies as a bit of a little hidden gem.

It’s positioned in a location which provides a mix of some of the best bits of both Kogarah and its Bayside Council vibe with elements of Hurstville dotted in to provide both diversity and convenience, and yet the suburb itself is overall very quiet.

This gives it a blend of both demographics and streetscapes that is pretty well-balanced – its traditional Greek influence can still be seen in both the older homes and in the restaurants on offer, while its Asian element offers eastern cuisine and influences as well.

Carlton’s physical position also means you’ve got easy and immediate to the more “go-go” aspects of Sydney (Hurstville Westfield, Kogarah’s main strip and station, Rockdale Plaza etc.) as well as waterfront escapes – you can take a leisurely ~30 minute stroll down to the waters of Kogarah Bay, or go further on for a bit of sand at the likes of Brighton le Sands. Even the airport is a relatively short drive away.

It’s this flexibility that makes up one of Carlton’s major strengths.

The first part that stands out about Carlton itself in general is just how peaceful it is. Despite being fringed by the eternally-busy Princes Highway and not being too far away from Sydney city, it’s largely a quiet and leafy streetscape with a good mix of older, low-rise freestanding Federation-style brown brick homes and mid-rise apartment buildings.

In addition, despite being so close to the airport, Carlton lucks out by not being subject to the flight path noise that some of its immediate neighbours cop as well. The only real noise here eminates from the train track; live a little further back and it’s hardly much of a factor, especially given the less-frequent services that stop here vs. some of Sydney’s bigger stations.

While it’s mostly residential, the main “action” occurs around Carlton’s train station. There’s a decent handful of services on either side of Railway Parade – including a mini-market and small-scale local supermarket, as well as your standard mix of pharmacies, newsagents and the like to help round things out. For bigger Woolies type groceries you can head down to Kogarah station, or more generalist and larger-scale shopping at Rockdale Plaza not far away.

Bigger-scale stores in Carlton mostly run along the Princes Highway, while the south-west portion of the suburb is largely taken up by light-industrial businesses and services (think auto spares, repairs, electrical servicing and the like) although there are some newer home builds here as well.

Carlton’s home to several decent little local cafes – not only here but along the Princes Highway side too – while its Greek restaurants are likewise a standout and give the suburb an extra bit of unique flair. This combines with the suburb’s range of Greek orthodox and other mixed churches to give it a distinct flavour befitting its varied heritages.

For a drink and a decently-priced bite to eat, the Royal Carlton Hotel offers a semi-historic venue with nice ambiance for a pub. It’s especially good for sports fans, with plenty of viewing opportunities and serves as a nice “pre-game” base for attending the suburb’s typical main focal point: Jubilee Oval.

A Sporting Chance

Jubilee Oval (or is that Stadium? It’s gone through numerous name changes over the years) is the region’s home of footy and regular base for the Dragons of NRL fame. It’s got some cool little historic curation out the front highlighting local footy history, and is fringed by a decent little park as well.

This “little slice of parkland” theme continues throughout Carlton. There’s not really a major ‘flagship’ park in the suburb – the closest is probably that of Angloe Square which is nice and length with good shade covers and playground equipment – but there’s a ton of small-scale parks around most corners for the kids to run around in.

Carlton’s generally pretty green and leafy, but not overwhelmingly so, and there’s no real “standout” natural feature(s) to separate it from standard suburbia. It’s “nice”, but not “beautiful”.

Combined with both its generally quite large yards and its animal-centric services (both the St George Animal Hospital and Dogs and Cats Home, among others) and you’ve got a pretty pet-friendly suburb overall as well. It’s also close to St George Hospital – handy for both medical and potential work purposes.

For families with kids, Carlton fares pretty damn well. There’s multiple good schools crammed into what is physically a pretty small suburb, as well as early-learning centres and daycare on offer.

Its connectivity is a bit of a mixed bag. Carlton has a train station that offers a ~30-ish minute run into the city, however it’s part of “all stops” services only. Outside of peak, its services are pretty infrequent – time things wrong, and you can easily find yourself sitting waiting for the next train for nearly half an hour.

The Princes Highway itself is no picnic for drivers, either. It’s not quite Parramatta Road, but it’s not far away either, with frequent congestion and bottlenecking at multiple points from Carlton onward into the city. Carlton itself has relatively little through-traffic outside of thoroughfares like Durham Street, however.

As a place to live, Carlton offers a very good mix of property types of all sizes.

There’s some old and some new in both low and mid-density to cater for a range of affordability levels, including some big mid-rise apartment blocks with a wide footprint – they’re mostly built “out” here, rather than “up”. It’s mostly clean and well-kept by council, and there’s a decent amount of “house-pride” from residents with many nice, neat and often charming gardens throughout.

It’s a pretty neighbourly suburb as a whole, too. Homeowners and their neighbours can be frequently seen sitting in front gardens and chatting like the “good old days” of Sydney, and it’s quite welcoming in general.

Price-wise, overall Carlton isn’t “cheap” but there’s some good value to be had with other housing types due to its diversity of sizing options. Its freestanding home pricing is around average to slightly above average for Sydney as a whole, but it’s a balance that comes from the pricy-ness of its newer builds offset by its array of older and slightly more affordable brick homes.

“Homeowners and their neighbours can be frequently seen sitting in front gardens and chatting like the “good old days” of Sydney, and it’s quite welcoming in general. .”

The average sits around the $1.7 million mark for a 3 bedroom home, but there are a lot of newer constructions with more bedrooms packed in that blow this figure out of the water. Thus, while it’s not the easiest market to crack into for those after a freestanding home, its apartment situation fares quite a bit better.

Its quantity of apartments can make things easier, as it’s still possible to get a solid, older build in Carlton that’s not going to crumble and fall down in a few years. Many here fall into that “sweet spot” of renovated older rock-solid apartments, or the ~15-ish years newer builds before mass-production took over.

As a result its rental prices are quite good given all the suburb’s perks – a $600 per week rental bill can get you a solid 2-bedder, while $700-$750,000 can still let you enter the owner’s market as well.

That’s not too bad given how rapidly you can access the CBD via public transport from here, and given its safe little environment as well Carlton’s apartments still feel fairly reasonably valued considering what else has gone on elsewhere in Sydney.

The Verdict

Carlton’s rock-solid as a suburb, with few weaknesses outside of its fairly high freestanding home prices and semi-infrequent train services. It’s quite safe, has a decent mix of little retail, dining and shopping options without having to leave the suburb, and also offers the prospect of a good night’s sleep with a quiet and generally pleasant streetscape.

It’s not spectacular in any one way, but the combination of its pluses quickly add up, and it doesn’t have any major glaring flaws for anyone to say “I don’t want to live here” other than those who want to truly be where the action is.

It’s no massive hotspot for entertainment, yet having a decent main hotel, a stadium, and a train station on a major line is more than most small-scale suburbs this far from Sydney city can boast. There’s also enough big-box stores, fast food and the like on the suburb’s fringes to add “bigger feeling” variety for those who want it as well.

Overall, Carlton’s simply a very good option for those looking to enter the apartment market in particular, either as first-home buyers or new relocators to Sydney who just want somewhere decent all-around without a ridiculous commute into the CBD. Be sure to include it in your search when looking in the region rather than just its “bigger name” neighbours.