Warilla, NSW 2528

I have spent a good deal of time around the Shellharbour, Warilla and Warrawong area, Warilla is a little surprise packet with a surprisingly low price tag, though I expect this change in the near future as the urban sprawl in the west of Sydney heads further ad further away from the coast.

Employment options: Shellharbour is 7 minutes away, Campbelltown / Ingleburn is 45 miutes drive with no tolls and no traffic, Taren Point is 55 minutes with no traffic and no tolls, Dapto industrial area is 20 minutes, Wollongong is 15 minutes. All these are also accessible by fast trains with a pretty good timetable schedule if you dont want to drive or car pool

Locale: Minutes to very good beaches, bays and fishing spots, water skiing, fishig and encellent concrete boat ramps with excellent parking facilities for cars and boat trailers in the actual suburb. Nice parks, good sports facilities, NRL games locally at St George Illawarra home ground. Great shoppig centres in Shellharbour and a shopping centre for all the basics you could need at Warilla itself. Wollogong is nearby for even more options for shopping , dining and nightlife. Plenty of big clubs nearby taking care of all extra activities like Golf, Bowls, Cinemas, restaurants etc

Transport: Buses, trains and plenty of places to park with limited traffic congestion make this as easy as it can be.

Schools: A number of Public Schools are around but I was not impressed by what I saw at home time outside the schools with kids swearing, wearing inappropriate clothing, earings and general lout behavioyr, some of these kids were 8 or 9 and not a parent in sight to pick them up, not a good feeling at all, I certainly would not send my kids to the public schools in the area, there are some affordable private schools nearby and they had a much better outlook and more appropriate behaviour outside the school, plenty of parents around to collect their children.

House Prices: Up until about 2009 you could pick up a brick 3-4 bedroom house on a large block for around $240k, 4 years on these are selling for $300k-$330k, 40% increase in 3 years, would have to be one of the best performing suburbs around over the last 3-4 years while most other areas are losing value, compared to Quakers Hill which has not made 40% in the last 10 years, this is excellent. Still very affordable, and now that people from Sydney south and Capmbelltown are starting to realise it does not take them that long to drive there they are also moving into the area and taking advantage of cheap housing without being too far from Sydney. I talked to someone who used to live at Miranda and Worked at Liverpool who told me it used to take 75 minutes each way and to get a train meant changing at Sutherland, then at Sydneham, then sometimes again at Lidcombe, now they spend 55 minutes to drive or one fast train that goes straight to liverpool, they sold there house on the kigsway for $555k which was a 18 minute drive to the beach and bought a 4 bedroom house at Warilla with ocean glimpses for $460k ad it is in a culdesac. That is the reason that Warilla although an old suburb is getting a new lease of life as people desperately try to recapture some "family time" and old school values of what is important in life.

There are limited restaurants in Warilla but lots of options less than 10 minutes all around.

Council rates are pretty good, around $1100 a year ( $2500 miranda, $1400 Quakers Hill, $4000 Bondi), rental return is good, you can buy a house for around $280k and rent it out for $320 p/w, with all fees and charges you only have to contribute less than a $100 a week to pay it off. Because it is an affordble area, no problems getting tenants and they seem to know how to do basic maintenance in this area for some reason they are not prone to calling the handyman for basic things.

There is a down side, there are a lot of single parents in the area, I was amazed by the amount of mums without wedding rings pushing double prams around with toddlers taggig along behind who looked like they had not celebrated their 21st Birthdays, and there is an element of housing commission in the area, thought his is being reduced gradually with the governement selling and opting for single house options and engouraging the general public to give government agencies leases, though I would never personally go down this option.

On the whole, if you are after a coastal lifestyle without a huge price tag and you are sick of paying expensive tolls and battling ever increasing Sydney traffic, then what a smart option Warilla is. It has been a well kept secret amongst the locals who i suspect would be quite happy for it to stay that way.

On weekends what better way to spend a saturday than to take a 2 minute drive to your local boat ramp for a choice of water activities and then go home for a BBQ, swim at the beach with time to shower and head off to watch an NRL game and enjoy a few beers as you can get the bus back home to your door.

Beats sitting in traffic and getting a one arm sun tan in your car looking for a parking spot at the sydney beaches and then looking at your watch to make sure you dont get a parking ticket.

A coastal gem which will not be a secret for much longer. Definitely worth looking at.

Never live or go there it is ugly

We moved from Sydney about 2 months ago and love it. We can walk to the beach in under 10mins, drive to Shellharbour village in 5 mins and we’re so close to the massive Stockland mall! In Sydney a location like this, the prices would be through the roof but we managed to buy a brand new 3bdr for under 500k. You have to be careful where you buy as some areas aren’t great, the area on the Lake Illawarra side west of Shellharbour Road and North of Lake Entrance Road is pretty rough and I probably wouldn’t recommend living there. But all of East Warilla is great and the Barrack Heights side of Lake Entrance road on the west side of Shellharbour road is lovely. I moved from the eastern suburbs of Sydney, where everything was difficult and ridiculously expensive. I love the fact that I can now just pop to the shops or the beach without having to think about traffic or parking. I can walk to the library and swimming pool for classes for my little one. The house prices are really affordable, and the area is rapidly changing and growing with new houses going up everywhere. Warilla beach is ridiculously stunning and I love my walks along the promenade every day. Not to mention, Kiama is only 15 mins away, as is Wollongong! Sydney is only about 1:30 away which is great- still close enough for a day trip! The lake is really close too with walking/cycling tracks all around it.

I really think this area is so underrated- yes there are some dodgy areas and I probably wouldn’t recommend doing your shopping at Warilla Grove, but coming from Sydney even in the most expensive areas, there’s plenty of weirdos and a much higher crime rate overall in Sydney. So far It seems like everyone is very nice and relaxed, happy to stop and say hi, lots of lovely families around and lots of people moving away from Sydney like us, wanting the beachside lifestyle at an affordable, reasonable price.

I have moved back to Wollongong after over 30 years. I originally came from Mount Pleasant and wouldn't of dreamed I'd end up here. The area had quite a stigma about it and south of Wollongong you just didn't go. How things have changed!!!!

I now live at Little Lakes and couldn't be happier. The views are breathtaking and the parks and facilites are second to none. The neighbours care about the area and are always keeping it clean and beautiful with extra gardening on the public areas and picking up any litter.
The bonus is the house prices are the most affordable in the Illawarra for beach side living.

The shopping is the fantastic, a choice of the easily accessable and well managed Warilla Grove or Shellharbour Square which has all the bells and whistles, which is also the best in the Illawarra. The fresh food and produce, makes cooking alot more enticing. The only down side is the lack of good restaurants which is surprising as the area was initially populated by a diverse group of nationalities.

A great place to live!!

I have lived in the suburb of Warilla East for the past 25 years and in that time I have seen the area change dramatically from a sleepy little seaside town back in the 1980s to a lovely piece of paradise which it has become today in 2012.

The suburb of Warilla is (like what many previous reviews have stated) divided into two sides by the Shellharbour Rd. The Eastern side which has the beach, Windang Island, many beautiful parkes, a well maintained main street with many shops which have either been built very stylishly or have been renovated and the pristine Warilla Grove is different to what the statistics say about the area. It is not riddled with Housing Commission at all! Also on the eastern side a small two-three bedroom timber cottage from the 1940s-50s on a less than 500sqm block of land in original condition with an outhouse which backed onto the ocean went on the market for about $1.125.000.000 to $1.450.000.000. This home did sell and got fixed up. Today it looks a very modern home like the rest of the lovely homes on the eastern side. The people I have found on the eastern side have been very friendly and do not look or act like social wellfare bumbs at all. I have also found people driving the likes of Auldi 4WD around the area too.

The western side of Warilla is probably more like what the statistics say about the area. I am by no means saying it is a bad area at all but it is riddled with ex housing commission fibro cottages and is much more of an affordable area. It is important not to judge Warilla by its Statistics because like other suburbs across NSW and even Australia it it has been divide into two different sides.

Warilla is a beachside suburb located between the growing City of wollongong and the increasingly affluent suburbs of Kiama and Shellharbour.

Divided by Shellharbour Road, the suburb is split into two contrasting regions. The East (beachside) of Warilla boasts high end real estate, safe streets and a positive, upbeat populace while parts of the West are riddled with ex-commission firbo housing. Front lawns are adorned with rusting car parts and unsupervised barefooted toddlers roam the backstreets scowling at passing traffic.

Because of this duality, it is risky to trust statistics that encompass the entire suburb. As always, due diligence is necessary, and investors should be forewarned not to paint the whole postcode with the same brush.

The eastern side of the highway is a fantastic place for families and retirees....all facitilites such as banking, doctors, pharmacies and restaurants are all on or around the main street...and within walking distance of one of the best beaches in the Illawarra. Plus the walking track around the beach and lake is a fantastic way to get the whole family out into the fresh air.....we love it and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.... surf's up !!

Can not complain with Warilla, the Eastern side of Warilla is fantastic.
Would'nt want to move anywhere else.