Sydney’s childfree suburbs? The downside of property boom

April 7, 2026 — 5:00am

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Hard to notice perhaps, but the equivalent populations of Coogee and Manly left Sydney last financial year for other parts, driven out by the high price of housing and the lure of cheaper homes in regional NSW and Queensland.

New Bureau of Statistics regional population figures show 90 per cent of the 33,282 people who departed were from the eastern parts of Sydney including the northern beaches, north shore, eastern suburbs and inner west.

The decline in western Sydney was only about 2800.

Counterbalancing the exodus, the regions of Blacktown and south-western Sydney had a net inflow of people from other parts of Australia.

According to the Herald’s Matt Wade, some........

© The Sydney Morning Herald