New South Wales’ second city, Newcastle is often seen as Sydney’s little brother.

Although there are some negatives – fewer jobs, a smaller international airport – there are plenty of benefits to this. Commutes are quicker, tower blocks shorter and the beaches are bother prettier and quieter.

Best of all, the house prices in Newcastle are much, much lower. Not a touch lower, much lower.

We’ve made a few tables to show just how much cheaper. Everything below has come from the June 2026 figures from Carto and Real Estate figures.

Sydney and Newcastle’s most expensive property suburbs

Looking at the two data sources, here’s a combined list of the ten most expensive suburbs in Newcastle and Sydney.

We’ve looked only at the data for houses (so no units, townhouses, villas etc), excluded anywhere with fewer than 10 sales, and taken the prices reported in June 2026.

Because of this, places like Watsons Bay ($17.8m, but only four sales) and Centennial Park ($9.6m, but only nine sales) aren’t included.

Okay, so the top ten suburbs are all in Sydney, let’s expand list to the 20 most expensive suburbs:

Still no Newcastle. To save you from table overload, I’ll skip the next ten, the ten after that and even the 41-50 list. We finally meet our first Newy suburb just before we get to 60th on the list:

• 57. Roseville Chase – Sydney – $3.9m
• 58. Bar Beach – Newcastle – $3.8m
• 59. North Curl Curl – Sydney – $3.8m

Bar Beach, one of Newcastle’s most prestigious and exclusive suburbs, is barely a blip on the radar in Sydney.

Newcastle’s most expensive suburbs vs Sydney’s

Newcastle’s next most expensive suburb – Merewether – has a median house price of $2.15m right now.

That doesn’t come in the top 100 in our combined list. Or the top 150. It’s not even in the 200 most expensive suburbs – and, to remind you, that doesn’t include any suburbs with fewer than 10 sales (so no Castlereach, no Millers Point, no Cecil Park).

If we extend to top 250 suburbs in Sydney and Newy, though, you’ll find Newcastle’s second most expensive suburb:

• 247. Belfield – Sydney – $2.2m
• 248. Merewether – Newcastle – $2.2m
• 249. Croydon Park – Sydney – $2.1m

Coastal living, incredible surf waves, beachside cafes and ocean baths. And it only comes in at 248th. For people in Newcastle, it’s wildly expensive, but if you have a Sydney budget it isn’t anywhere close to being costly.

Third in Newcastle is The Junction, Merewether’s neighbour, at $1.9m, but we’ll let you imagine how much scrolling is involved to find out where that would come in the list.

Getting a mortgage for a house in Newcastle

Want to escape the huge prices in Sydney and buy one of the best houses in Newcastle? Answer a few quick questions here and one of our mortgage brokers will be in touch to help you on the process of buying a home in Australia’s best city.