When picking an area to live in, the Domain Liveable Sydney 2016 study said that a name has a lot to do with the ultimate choice. With many neighbourhoods surrounded by similarly-named suburbs, it is still better to live in the area’s namesake itself, as opposed to the north, south, west, or east-named suburbs.

An example of this is Chatswood, which landed in the top 100 most liveable suburbs. This is a far cry from Chatswood West that only ranked 166th in the study.

“The primary Chatswood house buyers want to be able to walk out the door and walk to the train or shops. It is extremely hard to park in Chatswood all day and those in West Chatswood have to walk or catch a bus,” said Ray White Chatswood director Robert McElhone. With Chatswood being a hub of activity close to shopping centres, cafes, schools, restaurants, and the local train station, it commands a much higher median house price of $2.1 million compared to Chatswood West’s $1.66 million.

The same results were seen in Parramatta versus North Parramatta, Caringbah versus Caringbah South, Penrith versus South Penrith, and Cabramatta versus Cabramatta West.

However, some suburbs like Turramurra bucked this trend, partly due to the larger sizes of the suburbs.

“The main suburb may also have more road congestion if it’s more of a centre, while those around it are better in terms of open space and tree cover,” explained Tract Consultants senior town planner Georgia Sedgmen. “Every suburb is a suburb in its own right. So these areas might actually be very different even though they have a similar name.”

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