Miranda Suburb Review

Summary: Balancing the space and peaceful appeal of Sutherland Shire with one of southern Sydney’s most concentrated hubs of amenities, Miranda strikes a fairly even balance of the busy versus the serene. Its solid public transport connectivity via both road and rail combine with its sheer variety of housing types – on both the high and low end of the economic scale – to make for a good variety of options for daily life.

It’s increasingly becoming too busy for its own good however due to rapidly increasing mid & high-density construction, making both traffic and parking growing ongoing issues.

Its station and social housing areas combine to contribute to the odd crime issue as well, making for a suburb in which its central section is a massive contrast to its external residential areas. These offer much more roomy, relaxed and greenery-draped living – although at some increasingly eye-watering prices.

Key stats

As the central amenity and retail hub of Sutherland Shire, Miranda is in many ways markedly different from many of its more peaceful, uneventful and – some might say – more boring neighbours; both for good and bad.

While much of the rest of the region is mainly just large chunks of roomy, mid-to-high-end residential in quiet and leafy back streets with the occasional school or sporting field dotted throughout, Miranda takes elements of that and encircles them around a large and buzzing central district that continues to grow.

This growth comes in multiple forms, as increasing numbers of high-density apartments continue to quickly pop up in rapid succession, replacing many of the older fibro and red brick homes with swanky modern mid-rise units.

More than ever before, the contrast between “Central Miranda” and “Traditional Miranda” gets more obvious seemingly day by day to the point that it now offers two almost entirely different environments within the suburb’s borders.

As a result, what was previously a fairly sleepy suburb as soon as you walked a minute or two away from its central shopping area has gradually become more and more busy, with a number of knock-on effects which aren’t always for the better.

In terms of location, Miranda is solid. It’s fairly geographically “central” to the Shire as a whole, and still provides a pretty good balance between access to the beaches of Cronulla, the greenery of Royal National Park, and other natural regional highlights along with decent connectivity through to Sydney city.

Trains from Miranda run every 15 minutes or so (more during peak), with a ride that’s around 45 minutes through to Town Hall.

It’s long-ish, but not terrible, however its proximity to a number of popular schools in nearby Sutherland and further along in Hurstville means you’ll often have to share the trip with packed carriages of noisy school children in the mornings.

Due to its popularity for shopping, Miranda is also quite a good transit hub for buses, with pretty frequent services that provide access to a number of key routes from its main launchpad along Kiora Road.

Those on the roads here, as with the busier parts of the Shire in general, continue to face an increasingly annoying commute of a morning whether that’s by bus or car.

Key routes during peak hour such as along Kingsway, up the Princes Highway or over the Captain Cook Bridge get more and more congested every year, with the end result of a morning commute into the city that can easily eclipse an hour.

For drivers, it’s again then best suited as a place to live for those who either work locally, or have their workplace on the southern half of Sydney in general.

There’s a reason why the stereotype of “those who live in the Shire stay in the Shire” exists; it’s similar to the Hills District in this regard – just replace Pennant Hills Road (pre-Northconnex) with your major road here of choice instead.

This couples with the high level of demand for its shopping and service district to make Miranda a pretty busy suburb on the roads – one that’s also prone to a fairly high degree of accidents, particularly within its flagship’s main carpark.

This flagship, and Miranda’s key differentiating feature, has always been its Westfield complex – that’s “Miranda Fair” to us long-timers – and it’s not hard to see why.

As one of the 20 biggest shopping centres in the country, it should be no surprise that Westfield Miranda is well-equipped. Outside of a couple of premium brands, almost every major store and label large and small is represented here.

In addition to the two major supermarket chains, cinemas, small-and-large scale retail and more, it’s grown into a bit more of a dining and cafe hub over the years as well.

While Miranda’s not really a “hotspot” for dining culture the way neighbour Gymea has become, it’s certainly improved and there are now a pretty decent range of dine-in options available both within the complex and out on its streetside along Kingsway in addition to all its token fast food offerings.

The growth of the suburb has spilled over directly to Westfield, however. Its food court is almost eternally packed, its carpark can be a mission to find a spot, and as the regional go-to hangout spot for teenagers as well it’s often hard to get any personal space when visiting here on weekends or other peak times, which spoils the experience a bit.

Miranda’s retail offerings aren’t isolated just to the Westfield either complex, however. Kingsway itself is packed with services with everything from gyms, to the odd restaurant, to an array of individual speciality stores such as Asian groceries.

The suburb also boasts a disproportionately high quantity of medical services and specialists – orthodontists, digestive and skin specialists, optometrists, podiatrists… if you’ve got some kind of medical issue, there will likely be someone in Miranda who can take care of it for you.

In addition to Woolies and Coles in Westfield, the “second” shopping complex of the Lederer also offers an Aldi and another Coles (are there two Coles closer to one another in any other part of Sydney?) as well as liquor stores, butchers and more.

Add in the more industrial/warehouse-style businesses – and even Putt Putt Golf – further up along Port Hacking Road, and there’s little reason to have to go anywhere outside of Sutherland Shire for shopping vs. simply visiting Miranda unless you need to head to, say, Kmart (at nearby Sylvania, no less).

It also offers a couple of decent places for a drink. Both the faithful Diggers Miranda RSL (cosy and decently priced) and the more modern and done-up Miranda Hotel (more trendy and a good atmosphere making for a solid local) sit on either side of Kingsway and can suit crowds of either persuasion.

All of these services and stores combine to make central Miranda a continually bustling place, with a lot of people visiting from other places as well.

With its occasionally-confusing multi-lane intersections and high use by trucks and tradespeople, it’s not exactly ever going to be the spot for a leisurely drive.

Its station-adjacent area also sees a fair slice of dodgy characters and isn’t the classiest place in the world, with frequently dumped trolleys lining some of its streets and nature strips. Combine this with its traffic incident issues and you might be surprised to find Miranda ranks higher crime-wise than you might think.

Fortunately for those wanting a little peace, all it takes is heading a few streets back either to the north or south of this central hub for things to change pretty quickly.

In Miranda terms, the “high end of town” is ironically on the low end of town, as the suburb gradually slopes down towards the waters of Port Hacking.

It’s here that things begin to kick in for the more traditional back streets dotted with that signature Sutherland Shire greenery, with only noisy President Ave in the way to break up the atmosphere.

The general rule in most suburbs is that the closer you get to the water, the higher-end the streetscape becomes, and that’s particularly true in Miranda.

The size of homes here steps away mostly from apartments – including the occasional older block – to streets that are a blend of the odd older fibro home still remaining and waiting to be knocked down, larger and grander double-story brick builds, and new clusters of narrow modern townhouse and duplex complexes dotted throughout.

This all culminates in its cluster of high-end waterfront and hillside homes along the likes of Matson Crescent, which is home to some certified mansions that garner water views from their perched position.

Both Southern and Northern Miranda’s homes boast quite large blocks in general, however there’s a general tendency towards larger and roomy front lawns with smaller space in the back, instead of vice-versa.

It’s also in these northern and southern portions where its main concentrations of greenery kick in, with several parks/gardens which range everywhere from functional to extremely pretty.

Sutherland Shire Centenary Park is highly oriented towards kids, with lots of playground equipment; Seymour Shaw Park is large and equipped for multiple sports, such as tennis, netball, and the like; Alcheringa Reserve is a swath of relatively uneventful greenery with a small playground; while Miranda Park and Corea Oval are more both a matter of function over form.

It’s Camelia Gardens, however – which technically sits just over the border with Caringbah – that warrants a special mention. This great little botanic gem is awesome both to stroll through and have a bite to eat at, with its popular Teahouse a top little spot for scones or a more involved lunch.

Its gardens and their paths and ponds are home to numerous ducks with their little ducklings in tow, hundreds of fruit bats hanging upside-down overhead, geese, lizards and more in addition to its flowers and warrants a visit in of itself.

Both of its residential slices are generally peaceful, with the sound of the odd leaf blower, mower or the occasional P-plater in a hotted-up VW Polo about all you’re going to hear, which is an entirely different environment to its central area.

It’s certainly the better choice unless you want to immediately walk out your door and be at the train station or shops – and if you can afford it.

Parts of Miranda (especially to the south) can get particularly hilly, with its aspect from east-to-west towards Gymea particularly tiring on foot. It’s a very car-heavy suburb as a result, as this part of Sydney tends to be in general.

For families, Miranda is pretty solid, and caters to those with kids quite well.

It’s home to multiple daycare/preschool/childcare facilities, and boasts a handful of schools to choose from for older children as well – both in primary and highschool flavours.

With options in nearby Gymea and Caringbah easily accessible as well, there’s plenty of choice on offer.

Crime-wise, as mentioned Miranda is a little dodgier than you’d think, mainly owing to its combination of station/traffic incidents/alcohol around the centre.

This is mostly isolated to the central hub, and it’s far from a “dangerous feeling” suburb in general, however statistically it clocks in with a 0.19% crime per capita rate, which places it in the upper third of Sydney’s suburbs by the numbers

For those looking to live here, Miranda boasts an extremely diverse housing profile with ample selection between freestanding homes, high and mid density living, and every scale in between.

The abundance of new apartments constructed has opened up a massive amount of supply in addition to already-existing cheaper/older options along Kiora Road and elsewhere, so if you’re content with downsizing there’s a wide array of choice on both the high and low-ends of the apartment scale.

Several townhouse and villa complexes, its increasing amount of newer duplexes and mini-designer-townhouse clusters and more complement the suburb’s significant number of freestanding houses.

However, its house market tends to be typically tightly-held, with a low turnover rate that makes supply fairly limited.

Price-wise, Miranda is one of the better-priced Sutherland Shire suburbs considering its location and before you get a little too “deep south”.

While the region as a whole has jumped up in price along with the rest of Sydney, Miranda still makes it possible to typically get a place for $100,000 or $150,000 cheaper than in more “upmarket” neighbours such as Gymea, Caringbah, or Woolooware.

It’s no Engadine, but it’s around middle of the pack, with current median freestanding home prices of $1,675,000.00 putting it right around/slightly under the average price for greater Sydney.

For apartment-hunters, there’s still a decent array of older 2-bedder apartments that sell within the mid-to-high $700k range, with the newer builds typically jumping up to $800k+.

“Price-wise, Miranda is one of the better-priced Sutherland Shire suburbs considering its location and before you get a little too “deep south”.”

Rent-wise it’s also fairly decent, with a median weekly rental figure of around $600 per week for an (older) 2 bedroom apartment – quite good considering all that Miranda offers in terms of amenities.

This again ranges everywhere from its not-insignificant array of public housing all the way up to its newly-constructed 3-bedroom-plus high-end unit blocks to provide yet more flexibility for your weekly rental budget.

It certainly is versatile, with high-end blocks sitting alongside older low-end ones for a true “mingling” of all demographics and income levels.

The Verdict

There’s a lot to like about Miranda, however its greatest strength – its massive array of amenities – also has the negative effect of being the cause for making it so busy. Service and shopping variety is great, but it becomes less enjoyable when you have to shoulder past people continually while trying to browse, after all.

There’s also a continual atmosphere of ongoing construction here that may soon end up with the suburb becoming too busy for its own good, despite the extra supply of apartments probably being needed overall.

If you’re the type who puts a priority on having “stuff to do” without having to travel far however, Miranda is one of the most complete suburbs in all of Sydney. It’s got enough in terms of entertainment to be more than “just shopping”, its dining scene is decent if not amazing, and its natural areas certainly serve their purpose without being overly spectacular (excluding Camelia Gardens).

This is a pretty well-priced suburb that gives value for money considering all it offers right on your doorstep. Traffic and noise issues are mostly isolated towards the centre, and while its commute is also getting a bit more painful, its good connectivity can alleviate that for those who work anywhere else along the T4 line. The trip into the city is a little long, but not too arduous by Sydney standards.

It’s just a wildly different experience whether you’re living in the centre or further to Miranda’s fringes; ideally, Miranda would be a great place to retire if you’re the type who can afford to live in its more premium spots and don’t need to go into the city or drive elsewhere too frequently. Its abundance of medical likewise seems tailor-made for the older market as well.

Families who don’t mind dealing with things that can be a little more hectic in exchange for convenience will no doubt want to consider Miranda, as should basically anyone else who wants a solid, amenity-rich suburb but who doesn’t also have to make the daily drive into the city.