Cliff-top coastal suburb on the edge of Botany Bay about 14 km south-east of the Sydney CBD in the City of Randwick LGA, wrapped around a sheltered beach cove below the escarpment. At the 2021 census it had 4,817 residents, and Domain's demographic profile describes a young-skewing population (average age band 20–39) mixing long-established local families, health-precinct workers and buyers in the new Prince Henry estate homes. The suburb is defined by its coastline — Little Bay Beach, two golf clubs and rugged headland walks — plus the heritage-listed former Prince Henry Hospital site now being reborn as a residential community, and it was the setting of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's famous 1969 artwork 'Wrapped Coast – One Million Square Feet'.
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Eastern Suburbs |
| Council (LGA) | Randwick City Council |
| Postcode | 2036 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Little Bay is 14 km south-east of the Sydney CBD by road. Express buses give the fastest public option:… |
| Median house price | ~$2.75–2.81M (median house sale price $2,752,012, down 2.7% over 12 months, Andrea Monti, Jul 2026; propertygo reports a $2,805,000 median with dwelling values up 54.8% over 10 years; Domain bed-level medians for the last 12 months: 3-bed $2.275M, 4-bed $2.86M) (mid-2026) |
| Median unit price | No single overall unit median available from trackers retrieved… |
| Typical rent | ~$1,610/week (median rent across dwellings, Andrea Monti suburb data… |
Transport
Little Bay is a bus-only suburb: there is no railway station, light rail stop or ferry wharf within it, and the closest rail connections are well outside the suburb. Five Transdev John Holland bus services serve Little Bay — 390X (La Perouse to Bondi Junction station, express), 392 (Little Bay to Redfern station), 392X (Little Bay to Museum station, express), 394X (La Perouse to Museum station, express) and 399 (Little Bay–UNSW loop), running via Anzac Parade and the Coast Hospital Road corridor toward Maroubra Junction and the city. The old tram line down Anzac Parade to La Perouse was withdrawn long ago and never replaced with rail; the Kingsford light rail terminus is several kilometres away in Kingsford.
Schools
No school operates within Little Bay itself — neither a government nor a private school campus sits in the suburb. Primary-age children are served from immediately adjacent suburbs: Malabar Public School (231–239 Franklin Street, Malabar) is the area's government primary and St Andrew's Catholic Primary School is also in adjacent Malabar, while Chifley Public School sits in adjacent Chifley on the suburb's north side. There is no high school inside Little Bay; government secondary students travel out of the suburb, with Matraville Sports High School in immediately adjacent Matraville among the nearest options.
Shopping & Amenities
Little Bay has no traditional high street or shopping centre of its own — retail is small-scale and scattered (suburb profiles). A cluster of cafes and services has grown inside the Prince Henry estate precinct on the former hospital site, such as Little Lily's Wine and Tapas Cafe at 2–8 Pine Avenue, alongside the estate's community facilities. The suburb's recreation amenities are its standout: The Coast Golf Club and St Michael's Golf Club both operate from Little Bay, and Surf Life Saving Sydney's branch office is based at 16 Murra Murra Place, Little Bay. For everyday shopping, residents head up Anzac Parade to Malabar's village shops or further to larger centres in the immediately adjacent area.
Parks & Outdoors
Little Bay Beach is the centrepiece — a sheltered cove beach that is not a surf beach (no undertow or rip except in strong south/south-east seas) and is not patrolled by lifesavers, with the ring-of-rocks Little Bay Rock Pool (Little Bay Baths) built in the early 1900s still partly intact at the southern end. The suburb's coastline is made for walking: clifftop and rock-platform routes run north past the golf-course headlands toward Malabar Beach and Long Bay in adjacent Malabar, and south around the rocky coast toward Cape Banks and La Perouse (adjacent), where rock fishing is popular though dangerous. The former Prince Henry Hospital grounds — with 19 heritage-listed buildings, the restored weatherboard cottages, the Interdenominational War Memorial Chapel overlooking the bay and the old Coast Cemetery — contribute substantial open parkland within the estate. Golfers have two clubs on the suburb's coastal land, The Coast Golf Club and St Michael's Golf Club, with Randwick Golf Club on the cliffs just over the border in adjacent Malabar.
Property Market
The median house price in Little Bay was around ~$2.75–2.81M (median house sale price $2,752,012, down 2.7% over 12 months, Andrea Monti, Jul 2026; propertygo reports a $2,805,000 median with dwelling values up 54.8% over 10 years; Domain bed-level medians for the last 12 months: 3-bed $2.275M, 4-bed $2.86M) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Housing stock mixes older freestanding homes (including the 1950s war-ballot subdivision areas of the suburb's history) with the new Prince Henry estate's apartments, townhouses and terrace-style homes, which carry a new-estate premium. Median tracker figures land at roughly $2.75–2.81M for houses; the earlier hint range of $2.8–3.6M was at the top edge — 2026 trackers cluster near $2.75–2.81M overall, though premium new waterfront-adjacent estate product sells higher. Domain counts 4,474 residents in its own dataset vs the 4,817 census figure, reflecting boundary definitions. Note the 2022 shark fatality off Little Bay Beach raised local awareness of ocean risks at this unpatrolled beach. Rental figures per Andrea Monti suburb data, Jul 2026: https://andreamonti.com.au/suburb-data/little-bay-nsw-2036/; Domain profile: https://www.domain.com.au/suburb-profile/little-bay-nsw-2036/.
New Developments
The defining development is the Prince Henry urban renewal: the Coast Hospital (Prince Henry Hospital from 1934) closed when services moved to Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick in 2001, freeing the large site for residential use while 19 heritage-listed buildings were retained. The award-winning masterplanned community has since been delivered in stages by multiple builders — Stockland built Manta, the five-storey, 65-apartment entry building with ground-level retail at the main entrance to the Prince Henry redevelopment (Chelva), and later stages include the Bay Terraces townhouse stage (46 two-and-three-storey townhouses) and adaptive reuse of the Heffron and Delaney heritage buildings into 163 apartments (City Plan). The community is still active and selling in 2025–26, with apartment sales and rentals across the estate's Pine Avenue, Harvey Street, Gull Street and Jenner Street addresses described as part of the 'Prince Henry redevelopment' at Little Bay, plus a retirement village component. The Prince Henry at Little Bay Community Association, established by the NSW State Government in 2005, oversees protection of the site's significant natural heritage areas (Prince Henry Community Association).
Jobs & Local Economy
Health and community services are Little Bay's employment legacy: the Prince Henry site still hosts health and community employers — Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) has its national base there and the Aboriginal Health College operates in the suburb — alongside the retail and services of the new estate. Most residents commute out of the suburb for work: express buses run to the Sydney CBD, and the Randwick health and education super-precinct (Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney Children's Hospital, Royal Hospital for Women and UNSW) is about 10 minutes' drive to the north-west in Randwick and Kensington, a major regional employment draw for Little Bay residents.
Nearby Suburbs
Chifley, La Perouse, Malabar, Matraville, Phillip Bay
Sources & method
Researched 4 September 2026 from named public sources — census and government records, transport authorities, council and planning documents — plus published sales data. Where sources disagree on a figure, the guide says so rather than picking one.
Sources cited in this guide:
Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
Back to all Sydney suburb guides.