Leafy, affluent and overwhelmingly residential suburb about 21 km north-west of the Sydney CBD, straddling The Hills Shire and Hornsby Shire in the Hills District. At the 2021 census it had about 16,400 residents with a median age of 43 and 57.5% born in Australia — a settled, family-oriented profile in which children under 15 made up 18.3% and people 65 and over 20.0%. Property trackers describe West Pennant Hills as sitting in 'the upper tier of Sydney's suburban property market': median household income is about $3,078 a week, houses make up roughly 90% of current listings and the typical buyer is a family after large homes, good schools and gardens (StMate). Its commercial heart is the compact Thompsons Corner shopping strip at the Castle Hill Road–Pennant Hills Road crossroads, the M2 Hills Motorway runs through the suburb's southern half with its express bus corridor, and Domain reports the suburb is 'winning over families and commuters' drawn by big house blocks, bushland edges and the nearby Cherrybrook metro.
At a Glance
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Hills District |
| Council (LGA) | The Hills Shire |
| Postcode | 2125 |
| Distance to Sydney CBD | Roughly 35–45 minutes to the Sydney CBD by M2 express bus (610X/642X corridor… |
| Median house price | Mid-2026 trackers put the house median in the $2.3M–$2.7M band: $2,690,000 (AusProperty Insights), $2,685,000 (PropertyGo, 24-month median) and $2,340,000 (StMate snapshot, with its 4-bedroom median at $2.34M and 5+-bedroom homes around $3.08M) (mid-2026) |
| Median unit price | $1,380,000 (median apartment price, AusProperty Insights) — note apartments make up only a small share of West Pennant Hills' largely… |
| Typical rent | 4-bedroom houses median around $1,150/wk and 5+-bedroom houses around $1,500/wk (StMate) |
| Price growth | Dwelling values up 96.5% over 10 years (PropertyGo, repeat-sales index); StMate's house trend shows roughly 3.9%/yr compound growth over 4… |
Transport
West Pennant Hills has no railway station inside the suburb: Cherrybrook metro station on the Metro North West & Bankstown Line sits just north on Castle Hill Road in neighbouring Cherrybrook near Coonara Avenue, while Pennant Hills station on the T9 Northern Line is across the eastern boundary. Bus services are CDC NSW routes along the M2 corridor and Castle Hill Road, including M2 express services such as 610X and 642X to the Sydney CBD (642X runs via Castle Hill Road past Cherrybrook station and Pennant Hills Road at Thompsons Corner, where route 622 connects towards Epping Road and Lane Cove) (nine.com.au, 2019; route timetable). The M2 Hills Motorway itself slices through the suburb, giving fast road access towards North Sydney, the CBD and, via the NorthConnex tunnel, the M1 at Wahroonga.
Schools
West Pennant Hills Public School — NSW government primary school, the suburb's local school, located at the Thompsons Corner commercial centre; it traces its origins to the original Pennant Hills Public School first opened in the 1850s on the ridge where Pennant Hills and Castle Hill roads meet. Murray Farm Public School — NSW government primary school just across the southern border in Carlingford whose catchment draws many West Pennant Hills families, and northern pockets near the metro fall within Cherrybrook Public School's catchment in adjacent Cherrybrook. No government high school sits within the suburb: secondary students attend high schools in the immediately surrounding suburbs — Pennant Hills High (Pennant Hills), Muirfield High (North Rocks), Carlingford High (Carlingford) and Cherrybrook Technology High (Cherrybrook) — with the zoned school depending on the street.
Shopping & Amenities
The suburb's main commercial area is Thompsons Corner, the shops, cafes and services clustered around the Castle Hill Road–Pennant Hills Road intersection, which is also the site of West Pennant Hills Public School. The Woolworths-anchored shopping complex on Coonara Avenue — supermarket, restaurants and specialty shops, close to Cherrybrook station — serves the suburb's northern end, and the larger centres of Cherrybrook Village (Cherrybrook), Castle Towers (Castle Hill), Carlingford Court and Carlingford Village (Carlingford) are all minutes away in adjacent suburbs. Koala Park Sanctuary and Cumberland State Forest, both in West Pennant Hills, double as visitor attractions.
Parks & Outdoors
Koala Park Sanctuary, the long-running wildlife park on Castle Hill Road featuring koalas and other Australian native animals, and Cumberland State Forest, a remnant of the Cumberland Plain's original forest managed by the Forestry Corporation, are the suburb's two signature green attractions. Local reserves such as Murray Farm Park, Westmore Drive Reserve and Moolanda Avenue Reserve provide sports fields, playgrounds and off-lead dog areas (StMate), while the suburb's bushland edges and creek valleys back onto larger reserves in neighbouring Cherrybrook, Beecroft and Pennant Hills that locals use for trail walking and mountain biking.
Property Market
The median house price in West Pennant Hills was around Mid-2026 trackers put the house median in the $2.3M–$2.7M band: $2,690,000 (AusProperty Insights), $2,685,000 (PropertyGo, 24-month median) and $2,340,000 (StMate snapshot, with its 4-bedroom median at $2.34M and 5+-bedroom homes around $3.08M) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Premium family suburb: StMate ranks its median house price higher than 93% of suburbs, with houses about 90% of current listings; the 2021 census profile (median age 43, 20% aged 65+) points to an older, settled population on large blocks. Tracker medians spread from about $2.3M (12-month windows) to $2.7M (24-month Valuer General windows) depending on method (StMate; PropertyGo; AusProperty Insights). The suburb's one large infill project — Mirvac's Coonara Community on the former IBM campus — will add houses and apartments at its northern edge (see developments).
New Developments
Unlike the growth suburbs further west, West Pennant Hills is settled and leafy with little new development. Its one landmark project is Mirvac's 'Coonara Community' at 55 Coonara Avenue — the former IBM office campus beside Cumberland State Forest — approved by The Hills Shire Council through successive DAs (demolition DA 585/2021/HC approved September 2021; subdivision DA 1414/2022/ZB; concept masterplan DA 860/2022/JP and housing and apartment-precinct DAs approved November 2022) for 165 houses and attached dwellings plus 252 apartments across four buildings, with federal EPBC Act approval granted on 1 May 2024 (EPBC 2023/09508 statement of reasons; Mirvac project updates). Otherwise change is limited to renovations and infill typical of an established R2-style family suburb.
Jobs & Local Economy
West Pennant Hills is essentially a commuter suburb: local employment is limited to retail and services around Thompsons Corner and Coonara Avenue plus the suburb's schools. The biggest former local employer — IBM's office campus at 55 Coonara Avenue — has closed and is being redeveloped for housing (EPBC statement of reasons). Residents are predominantly professionals commuting via the M2 and metro to Macquarie Park's business and health precinct, Norwest Business Park, Parramatta and the Sydney CBD.
Nearby Suburbs
Cherrybrook, Pennant Hills, Beecroft, Carlingford, North Rocks, Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill
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.
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