Maroubra Suburb Review

Oftentimes when looking at some of the more expensive suburbs in Sydney, one finds themselves scratching their head as to why people would be willing to hand over such large sums of money in order to live in what are objectively pretty boring places.

Generic, same-y streetscapes, pretty-but-sterile neighbourhoods of similar-looking big houses without much to do, land-locked and without many amenities other than bland, big-box chain retailers that no-one outside would ever really want to visit… these kinds of attributes are surprisingly common amongst even wealthier parts of the city.

One thing you can certainly at least say in Maroubra‘s favour is that – despite being as pricey as you’d expect given its seaside location – that’s definitely not the case here.

This south-eastern suburb boasts pretty immense variety in not only architectural styles, streetscapes and topography but also in the people who populate it, and while the contrasts are pretty stark in some sections, it certainly helps to keep things interesting.

This is an active, lively suburb despite much of it mostly being populated purely with residential housing. It’s got enough pockets of things ‘going on’ dotted throughout so that you’re never far away from something decent to see or do – regardless if you live in one of its highly-wealthy, quieter cliff-top streets, or more ‘among the action’ in its cheaper (relatively) medium-density units.

There’s also enough variety in what’s going on here to appeal to pretty much all age levels, which is something fairly uncommon in Sydney. Typically most higher-end suburbs around the city usually cater solely towards rich old people, or wealthier business professionals and their families; that’s not quite the case here.

Much of this comes as a result of two things: Maroubra’s solidly-varied housing density mix, and its bevy of attractions both natural & man-made that draw people here to either live or visit from elsewhere across the city.

Among its residential housing profile, it’s got a respectably high quantity of low-to-mid-rise units & apartments mixed in among all the long-standing, often-towering mansions of detached houses. Many of both these houses & apartments have been built over the years to capitalise on its hilly streetscape and to maximise the impressively-sweeping views on offer.

This hefty amount of apartments helps cut back on the barrier-to-entry of the suburb somewhat. It opens Maroubra up to a bit more of a younger or slightly-less-wealthy demographic than other suburbs such as, say, the upper-tier parts of the North Shore or Eastern Suburbs that have done their best to shun any kind of density being added. And then, of course, Maroubra’s beach also makes for an obvious attraction in & of itself that serves as a reason for people to want to visit.

Physically, Maroubra lies in an interesting position around a ~20 minute drive to the CBD in times of decent traffic (add more time to that during peak, obviously). It sits officially under the domain of Randwick Council, but also has definite aspects of Bayside mixed in from both an architectural & a natural standpoint. It’s still probably “one level below” the ‘true’ Eastern suburbs to the north in terms of a pure monetary perspective, and there are other noticeable differences as well.

Its parks and nature strips are comprised of that signature, stringy grass & with that sandy ‘Bayside-style’ soil as opposed to more soft/lush/green grassed areas, and this carries over to the general beach-y atmosphere that permeates the suburb as a whole.

This is a “wealthy yet still feels appropriate to wear thongs” suburb that also comes across as less pretentious despite the significant amounts of money that populates many of its streets, and it conveys a little more of a welcoming vibe as a result.

Part of this also stems from some of its more humble, middle-and-lower-class roots that still populate parts of the suburb to this day.

Around ~10% of Maroubra is allocated to public housing, with several pretty significant sections of housing commission sitting along various nondescript streets in the suburb. Some of this housing also sits in some pretty prime real estate closer to the sea & with near-water views, in the case of those lucky enough to be in units up the top of its hills.

Chunks of these public housing complexes are clustered mostly on the suburb’s southern side around streets like Portland Crescent, however there’s also fairly large sections running along Malabar Road, parts of Anzac Parade and a couple of other spots.

You could also argue that some of the units located on Portland Cres and Malabar Rd make for some of the most well-located public housing land in Australia, given their proximity to the water.

While these are mostly harmless, it’s pretty obvious even at a glance the immediate difference in streetscapes they generate.

Expect all the associated messiness like overgrown grass, mattresses, trolleys and garbage dumped in front lawns, etc – as well as the more-frequent echoes of police sirens around these areas.

Contrast the flaking storefronts with bars on the windows near these sections with the trendy, upmarket cafes & tourist-heavy dining parts of the suburb elsewhere, and the distinction between Maroubra’s wealthy and less wealthy areas is visually pretty drastic.

The suburb also has historic elements of people who were simply closer to ‘middle-class’ in terms of backgrounds and careers, and have ended up with huge levels of house wealth simply from getting in early and sitting on these properties over time. Definitely a tried-and-true Sydney strategy, especially given some of the large block sizes of many detached houses in Maroubra.

This combines with some parts of the suburb’s general “party/tourist” nature to make for a crime rate that, while it’s still below the Sydney average, is only slightly so.

This makes Maroubra a bit of an anomaly among “wealthy” Sydney suburbs, and reinforces that it still hasn’t quite fully escaped from its past just yet. Most of this is isolated almost exclusively to these public housing & its alcohol-centric hotspots however, and skews the crime rate upward in aggregate when compared to the mostly-uneventful residential parts of the rest of the suburb somewhat.

Maroubra’s other most notable negative comes courtesy of its lack of a connection to Sydney’s rail network. There’s no train or even light rail station here, and while there’s been vague mention of plans to add Metro connectivity to Maroubra as part of the city’s continued greater rollout, this remains at the least in the very distant future, should it even end up happening at all.

As a result, in the present-day you’re left dealing with buses as the primary non-self-driving way to get from A to B, and while Maroubra does offer pretty good/frequent bus connections, you’re still left dealing with a typical Sydney traffic commute situation on a daily basis.

Its 350 bus line provides a decent connection westward where you can hop on and continue all the way through to Bondi Junction for the train, or get out at the likes of Mascot and hop onto the rail network’s airport line that way as an alternative. They’re both viable, but hardly ideal for those who work in the city, let alone even further away.

Overall it boasts a good amount of bus connections, and as a bonus has those newer-gen bus stands with live digital bus timetables on them which show estimated arrival time as well as rough estimate of passenger fullness, which are quite nice.

For drivers, getting in and out technically isn’t too far distance-wise from the city, however it can get a little chaotic as sections in and out via Anzac Parade and feeding onto branching streets like Maroubra Road or Wentworth Avenue can suddenly cut down to two lanes and lead to congestion or people indicating at the last minute and having to suddenly cut you off.

On the plus side, compared to some of the other popular beachside eastern Sydney suburbs, at least Maroubra has a fairly solid array of parking and you actually have a realistic shot of getting a park within walking distance to the beach.

It also offers multiple parking areas in the middle of major roads, at some of its larger parks, and on various side avenues without insanely price-gouging you to enjoy its offerings as often happens elsewhere in the city.

And, as mentioned, this is a suburb that you can live in that’s actually worth visiting as well – you might realistically have success encouraging your friends & family to come to visit here as opposed to more boring parts of Sydney suburbia. This is because Maroubra offers quite a lot in terms of actual attractions & activities, both in terms of the natural and the man-made.

While the former is mostly carried by its namesake beach, there’s more to Maroubra’s natural offerings than just the surf and sand itself. Maroubra Beach‘s waterfront area provides a cavalcade of roomy seaside park reserves, and is one of the more lively and enjoyable parts of Sydney.

It’s populated with various Surf Life Saving Clubs and an active, buzzing foreshore full of fit and active people. There’s always a mix of demographics out jogging, using its barbecue facilities, dropping into its skate bowl, utilising its public exercise equipment, walking its Headland walks, or simply lazing and reading on the grass.

Head across the road over Marine Parade, and you’ve got a touristy, Bondi-like beachside dining hub, with all the typical arcades dotted with various cafes and eateries you’d expect.

Throw in a couple of bars/hotels, and a number of rockpools for swimming, and you can see why backpackers of everywhere from Britain to Brazil love this place – yet it still remains less busy and crowded in comparison to Bondi in particular. Maroubra’s beach is never quite as packed as its more famous brother due to less ‘brand recognition’ & simply more physical room to spread out, and you can almost always find more of a roomy spot on the sand.

Maroubra’s topography and seaside location also combine to make for some pretty excellent views. Its north-eastern reserve in particular has a pretty dramatic outlook, and you can stroll further around its little Coastal Walkway for another great scenic little walk. This offers some refreshing sea breezes, and homes along this stretch have some impressive vistas, but it’s also very exposed to the elements so often highly windy as well.

The suburb’s natural offerings extend further elsewhere away from its more signature areas as well, including some pretty impressive parks. Chief among these is the absolutely enormous Heffron Park on its West side which is almost like a standalone mini-suburb in itself – it’s that big.

The park is home to multiple sports complexes, a leisure centre, several playgrounds, expansive bike and walking tracks and (pretty gross, to be honest) public toilets, and extends all the way over to its border with neighbouring Eastgardens. It’s not quite Moore Park (and definitely not Centennial Park) level in size, but it’s not too far away either.

Elsewhere on the northern side you have Snape Park, which offers big sports fields – such as cricket pitches & multiple tennis courts – as well as more pretty robust playgrounds, while on the south side Coral Sea Park serves as a hotspot for soccer.

This range of parks & outdoor amenities makes it pretty great for pet owners generally, and is helped by the suburb being home to several vets/veterinary hospitals as well.

Topography-wise its western and central portion is mostly flat and walkable for dog-owners too, but it faces a fairly steep uphill incline as you head towards the water, making living on one of its steep streets with a dog not as desirable. It also makes owning an e-bike (as opposed to a regular bike) highly useful for getting around.

The suburb’s streets are generally well tree-lined, with overhanging willow trees common and generally-roomy footpaths & nature strips helping to round out things.

Add all of these up with its other array of smaller pocket-reserves in its residential streets, and Maroubra provides an impressive range of natural elements.

Especially for a suburb as built-up as it is; this puts it in the company of only a handful of other Sydney suburbs (think Cronulla, Watsons Bay, Balmoral & parts of the Northern Beaches, among others) in this aspect.

Meanwhile, on the man-made side of things, Maroubra is no slouch either. The suburb is both pretty well-equipped internally with its own shopping amenities, as well as sitting in close proximity to larger ones nearby as well.

Its main ‘central’ section of mixed-zoning serves as its primary shopping hub, combining retail with mid-density residential apartments around Maroubra Road and Anzac Parade (which is quite the busy intersection in itself).

This is where you will find its ‘Pacific Square‘ complex that comes complete with Coles and Aldi for supermarket shopping, as well as a huge array of mixed services up and down the road such as gyms, post office, medical, bottle shops, and much more.

This is rounded out with a wide range of dining & takeaway choices dotted throughout – mostly on the low to mid end of the scale, but also with the odd higher-end venue rounding things out. This is where signature watering hole Hotel Maroubra can also be found; add it all up and it makes for plenty to see, do and eat overall pretty much smack-bang in the middle of the suburb.

For those living in the suburb’s south side, its South Maroubra Shopping Village offers a Woolies Metro as well as other misc health services and stores, the Southend Hotel for stays/food/drinks, and various small-scale eateries. Its northern portion is a little bit more of an amenity deadzone, outside of its small strip on Malabar Rd.

While all of this is more than enough for daily needs, its proximity to the expansive Westfield Eastgardens centre on the suburb’s western fringe offers even more options for those times of need for bigger shopping & retail, as well as a cinema. It’s again an impressive range of offerings, and the suburb scores high marks in regards to its amenities.

For families, Maroubra largely fares well overall, however its degree of family-friendliness also varies quite a bit depending on where in the suburb you live. This is a big suburb, and as a result the proximity to amenities for kids (and the safety of individual streetscapes) can vary just as wildly from one portion to another, as much as Maroubra does in general.

Its external pockets more on the west/central side & to the north are probably the best in this regard; they’re away from both its main ‘party’ strip and mildly dodgier areas in the south, and more desirable for families, due to being safer and less rowdy overall.

Its aforementioned abundance of parks/playgrounds is obviously great for kids who enjoy the outdoors, and it’s also home to a pretty impressive array of schooling options.

This includes those both within its borders such as Maroubra Junction Public School and its adjacent swim school, South Sydney Highschool, and various other public & catholic schools, as well as additional education options close by in nearby Coogee, Matraville, and Malabar.

In terms of streetscape & housing, Maroubra is very diverse and far more interesting than most other Sydney suburbs in its sheer array of housing styles and designs.

This is the complete opposite to the modern, bland, cookie-cutter suburbs rolled out these days, and gives it far more actual character.

Maroubra instead boasts a wide range of pretty varied and unique architectural styles that are incredibly distinct, with some pretty creative approaches to housing design and no two houses here looking quite alike.

Outside of its clusters of mid-density apartments in its main area, this is mostly a suburb of large houses with a tendency towards double, triple and even quadruple story homes (in the wealthiest streets) in order to maximise otherwise-limited block space.

Combine these as well as plenty of those typical ‘Bayside’-style single-level buildings that blend together old red and brown brick English style houses with others with a dash of Greek and Mediterranean style elements, and even the odd art-deco-influenced home, and it’s an eclectic mix for sure.

As with most other wealthy and elevated suburbs, the higher up you go, the bigger and more ostentatious the houses get, and Maroubra is no exception in this regard. Many of its flagship homes experience sweeping views, not only of the ocean but also in any possible patch of elevated area overlooking its parklands as well.

And, as you’d expect, these are almost universally highly expensive, especially considering many of them haven’t even been renovated.

There’s many original-era homes still in original condition with barely any maintenance or upgrades done to them, yet still worth squllions nowadays due to combination of sheer block size, location and time.

The median house price for detached homes in Maroubra currently sits at $3,000,000.00, which is almost double the Sydney average, and is going to put it out of reach for the majority of homebuyers.

At least here though, it’s expensive, but not hard to see WHY it’s expensive given all the drawcards the suburb has. There’s also some gradual elements of subdivision and modernisation starting to creep in, meaning duplexes and the like are (very slowly) starting to become more of an occurrence here.

For those willing to downsize to an apartment, Maroubra offers plenty of inventory but still isn’t particularly cheap.

It’s got a pretty substantial array of apartment/units – around 49% of the suburb’s residential offerings are apartments at time of writing – but this is also a little deceptive, given its housing commission flats make up a fair chunk of this.

Median apartments here now go for above $1 million (current median price is $980,000.00), and price-wise, that’s still a fair whack over the Sydney median unit price as well. However at least most of its apartment buildings are a bit older & more established, built at a time before apartment build quality started to go downhill.

This means you at least know they have stood the test of time so far, and are at least somewhat structurally sound.

Many of them are also concentrated at least toward the centre/eastern side of Maroubra, so the beach is never very far away in terms of accessibility as a bonus as a selling point. And if you’re willing to fork out some extra money, there are decent clusters of lowrise units overlooking Maroubra Beach itself for those who are keen on having ocean views.

The Verdict

Overall, Maroubra’s simply one of the better examples of lively, vibrant eastern Sydney done correctly.

It’s wealthy & very expensive in certain pockets, sure – but it’s also active rather than sterile, it’s multi-cultural with many cultures & backgrounds actually mixing rather than a monocultural ethnic enclave, it’s mildly touristy without being too cheesy, and it’s family-friendly without being boring.

It’s also a little less hectic and crowded & a little more laid-back than some of the more ‘brand-name’ Eastern Suburbs with their associated beaches, and blends in a bit more of a family-centric element along with it. Its headland areas are a striking spot for a walk, and its excellent helpings of parkland combine with this to make for one of the best nature-oriented suburbs of its ilk as well.

It’s not the most peaceful of places, and that will either be a negative or a selling point depending on what kind of lifestyle you prefer. Traffic is a bit of an issue, you’re sacrificing somewhat in terms of public transport, and regardless of how politically correct people might try and be, its public housing element adds a little bit of a red flag to certain pockets of its streetscape.

However this is also offset somewhat by the sheer array of things to see and do; if you’re after a suburb to live in that’s got enough to keep you occupied (in terms of shopping, dining, outdoor/nature appeal, etc) without having to constantly travel elsewhere, then it certainly delivers this in spades.

Price is its other obvious major barrier, but if you’re either wealthy enough to afford a detached home or willing to compromise and choose an apartment instead, at least you’re getting a slice of interesting character, streetscape & lifestyle in return.

Maroubra might not have the brand recognition of similar “wealthy seaside lycra and spandex” suburbs like a Bondi, but it’s hard to argue it’s not at least equal if not simply just better overall for all-round quality of life for those who like things a little more active.

But if you’re after the quieter life, there are certainly dozens of other Sydney suburbs that you can pick from for a similar or cheaper price that will deliver that better instead.