Zetland, NSW 2017

Zetland is an inner-southern suburb of Sydney about 4 km south of the Sydney CBD in the City of Sydney LGA, part of the Green Square Town Centre district and home to the Green Square urban renewal program. It is a residential suburb of medium- to high-density apartments: the Green Square Plaza is surrounded by Sydney's newest high street, Ebsworth Street, along with the Gunyama Park Aquatic Centre, parklands, upmarket apartments, a library and Mirvac-controlled retail. Its name comes from the Zetland Lodge horse-training stables (1874), and the suburb's land history tracks its transformation from lagoon and wetlands drained in the early 1900s for the Victoria Park racecourse, to Nuffield/BMC/Leyland motor-vehicle assembly from 1950, to a naval stores depot, before being redeveloped into today's high-density housing. At the 2021 census it had 12,622 residents (up from 10,078 in 2016) with a young profile — median age 30 versus the national 39 — only 32.3% born in Australia (top birthplaces China 20.5%, England 5.0%), and Sydney's highest number of Brazilian residents, with more than 2% of residents speaking Portuguese.

At a Glance

Transport

Zetland is a transport hub with rail, bus and cycleway connections. Green Square railway station, on the T8 Airport & South Line of the Sydney Trains network, sits on the southwestern edge of Zetland. Frequent bus routes serve the area along Botany Road and adjacent corridors, and the suburb's cycleway network links Green Square to the city. A developer marketing page for The Avenues apartments at 130 Joynton Avenue describes a 10-minute walk to Green Square station — 'one stop to Central and two stops to Sydney Airport'.

Schools

Green Square School — the new government primary school serving the Green Square renewal community, part of the City of Sydney's $1.3 billion investment in public and community infrastructure in Green Square. Nearby government options in immediately adjoining suburbs include Kensington Public School, Alexandria Park Community School and Gardeners Road Public School. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Primary School sits just over the border in adjacent Waterloo (arrivau listing for Green Square by Mirvac).

Universities

UNSW Sydney's main campus is in Kensington, the suburb immediately east of Zetland, so university life is close by but not inside Zetland itself. University of Sydney and UTS are also easily accessible by train or bus from Green Square.

Shopping & Amenities

Green Square's civic and retail heart sits inside Zetland: the Green Square Plaza and Ebsworth Street high street — described as Sydney's first new high street in a century — with retail tenancies controlled by Mirvac, plus the Green Square Library. East Village, the shopping centre at 4 Defries Avenue in Zetland, holds about 61 stores including a Coles supermarket, dining and services for the Victoria Park precinct (eastvillage.com.au; australia-shoppings.com). The Gunyama Park Aquatic Centre complex anchors the suburb's recreation offer, and the Danks Street cafe strip lies just over the boundary in adjacent Waterloo.

Parks & Outdoors

Victoria Park — the parklands created on the drained lagoon and former racecourse land in Zetland's north. Gunyama Park and its aquatic centre — the Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre, described by the City of Sydney as the largest pool complex in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics, with a 50-metre heated outdoor pool set within a larger ocean-pool-inspired beach pool and a 25-metre heated indoor program pool, at the Green Square area in Zetland (City of Sydney; Kensington News). Joynton Park on Joynton Avenue — a roughly 15,000 m² green space (dog-off-leash friendly) with the Tote Park playground nearby, both in Zetland. Green Square's design also includes the park-lined Ebsworth Street corridor.

Property Market

The median house price in Zetland was around ~$2.17M — OnTheHouse automated median house value $2,171,781 for Zetland (2026; based on very thin house sales in this apartment-dominated suburb) (mid-2026). See our full Sydney property price map for how the suburb compares across the city. Zetland is an apartment-heavy market — it recorded about 12,622 residents across roughly 9,382 dwellings at the 2021 census, with medium- to high-density housing dominating. House medians are based on very few sales and swing widely between trackers; Vacancy was a low ~2.3% with strong rental demand from young professionals drawn to the Green Square precinct. Note the 2021-census median age of 30 and 54.2% no-religion share reflect the suburb's young, professional, largely renting population.

New Developments

Green Square urban renewal — one of Australia's largest urban renewal programs, transforming former industrial land across Zetland and Waterloo into a high-density town centre over roughly 20 years, with the City of Sydney committing $1.3 billion to public and community infrastructure including the library, Gunyama Park and schools. Mirvac's Green Square / Victoria Park masterplan precincts built much of Zetland's apartment stock, and new apartment projects continue along Joynton Avenue and Ebsworth Street — e.g. The Avenues at 130 Joynton Avenue and Meriton's Allegra near Gunyama Park. The 2019 NSW Government masterplan for the adjoining Waterloo social-housing estate adds a further large residential pipeline on Zetland's northern edge.

Jobs & Local Economy

Zetland's workforce is dominated by professionals and managers, many commuting to the Sydney CBD or to jobs in the growing Green Square commercial precinct. Green Square Town Centre includes offices, retail and hospitality around Ebsworth Street, and the nearby South Eveleigh/Australian Technology Park technology precinct and UNSW are major adjacent employment generators.

Nearby Suburbs

Waterloo, Kensington, Rosebery, Beaconsfield, Alexandria, Moore Park

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:

• Wikipedia — Zetland
• Wikipedia — Waterloo
• Wikipedia — Kensington
• NSW Government

Corrections are welcome — if something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

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