Unity Jackson-Muir, Real estate reporter
First published 30 Oct 2026, 2:58pm
New analysis reveals the Sydney suburbs tired parents should hit first to maximise their kids lolly-to-step ratio.
New analysis reveals Sydney is home to three of the best suburbs in Australia for parents with keen trick-or-treaters looking to maximise their lolly-to-step ratio.
For kids and teens, Halloween conjures images of running around in costumes after bedtime and gorging on lollies until you’re sick (or at least until your parents try to stop you from being sick).
But for parents, it can be an arduous journey fraught with hyperactive kids barely sticking to the path while being encouraged to begrudgingly use say please and thank you.
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Newtown is Australia’s most densely packed suburb with a new front door every 21 metres.
The average Aussie kid lives in a neighbourhood with 744 homes per square kilometre (sqkm) and a new front door roughly every 37m.
New research looked at the average number of homes packed into each sqkm and found the best suburbs for parents looking to avoid a long walk this Halloween (‘Step’-tember is over now anyway).
The inner Sydney suburb of Newtown came out on top with 2,350 homes per sqkm, putting a new door roughly every 21 metres.
It was closely followed by Paddington with 2,266 homes per sqkm and a door every 21m as well as Erskineville with 2,120 houses and a door every 22m.
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Sydney is home to Australia’s top three suburbs for closely packed front doors. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer
These are the top three suburbs in Australia and have predominantly terrace or semi-detached homes meaning fewer steps between each new front door.
Moving west, Balmain and Birchgrove take out ranks four and five with 1,794 and 1,782 houses per sqkm respectively, putting each new door 24m apart.
Surry Hills and Annandale also have a new door roughly 24m apart with 1,781 and 1,778 houses per sqkm respectively.
Ranks eight, nine and ten are Cooks Hill, Glebe and Leichardt where doors are roughly every 25m.
Oliver Weston is the founder of seobacklinks.com who performed the analysis and said that trick-or-treating in suburbs with closely packed homes makes all the difference.
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The analysis from seobacklinks.com used ABS census data to count houses per square kilometre and the distance between front doors if they were evenly spaced. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer
“If you’re taking the kids out on Saturday night, the number of front doors on your route makes a real difference to how far you walk,” Mr Weston said.
“In Newtown and Paddington most houses are joined to their neighbours, so there’s a door roughly every 21m, while the typical Australian child lives in a neighbourhood where it’s more like every 37m.
“Wherever you live, a short loop through the streets where the houses sit closest together will get you to more doors with less walking,” he said.
Now the only thing for homeowners to do is stock up on candy, stay out of the predicted rain and hope your house doesn’t get egged.
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