Surry Hills/Paddington Area Guide

On the surface this seems like the more expensive side of town. The better value places are only to be found in bigger house shares in fairly run down terrace homes. You’ll find these types of terraces in clusters around Devonshire, Bourke, Cleveland and Crown streets and even there five people sharing a 4 bedroom house wouldn’t get much under 200 dollars.

The terrace housing in this area can be pretty shabby. Expect that the bathrooms and kitchens have not been updated in a long time, the flooring is the old lino type and the noise of dripping taps will keep you awake at night.

However, these types of places do tend to be owned by private landlords who have a reputation for being easygoing about things like improvements. Obviously this depends on the person though. If you sign a long term lease they can often ve very reasonable about refurbishing and if you carry out some work yourself you can often get a rent reduction.

Surry Hills is about 15-30 minutes walk from pretty much anywhere central you want to be – Central station, Chinatown, Oxford Street and Centennial Park. Clovelly beach is the nearest place to hit the sand, it’s a 10 minute drive away and the Eastern Distributor can save you time by letting you bypass city traffic.
The area has a great reputation for food with great pub grub on offer at sites such as the Strawberry Hills hotel or Shakespeares.

The typical local is a 20-something in to bands, craft beers and second hand clothing shops. The area is known as being safe. The place known to be a bit scary at the worng time of night is Devonshire Street and perhaps Cleveland.

It leaves a little to be desired on the supermarket front. The only one is Coles which shuts at 10pm.