JordanNash

I am unsure what suburb the other reviewers have been living in. I guess all experiences are subjective, so let me tell you about my experience living at Kingswood.

I spent four months here living in student accommodation at UWS (a huge waste of money, by the way; you will find a cheaper and better room off campus). Within two weeks, a student had been mugged walking in broad daylight from one campus building to another. The large park between the campus and the train station was universally considered to be a no-go zone at night, which meant every night out in the city ended with an expensive taxi ride with rude, money-hungry drivers who would deliberately take longer routes and refuse to stop when asked. Theft from clotheslines and even inside townhouses was a semi-regular occurrence.

The suburb is a hive of degeneracy and a cultural wasteland, filled to the brim with unemployed high school drop-outs propagating petty crime. Shady characters perpetually surround the station, though one occasion where I watched a boy of about 13 emu-bob along the side of the tracks for half-smoked cigarettes and change at least gave me some comic relief.

Shops and eateries are very limited. A handful of overpriced convenience stores, basement-tier takeaway shops and arguably the worst Domino's Pizza I've ever given patronage to is all you'll find. Anything remotely resembling a cafe will require a trip to neighboring Penrith.

I would not recommend this suburb to anyone and am glad to have moved far, far away from it.

I found myself living in Auburn for a year due entirely to the cheapness of the studio apartment I leased, having never set foot in the suburb before the inspection.

The suburb is convenient for someone without a car, located on the outer fringe of Western Sydney. 30 minutes or so will get you to the city, though few train services stop at Auburn Station, and it took 40 minutes to get to UWS Parramatta from my apartment on Station Rd. If you're not within a comfortable distance of the small shopping centre, expect to pay a hefty, convenience store-like markup for groceries at some of the corner stores littered around the suburb.

In terms of restaurants and cafes, you're not going to find much outside of a couple of great kebab shops and a landslide of mediocre ones. Even the Menulog delivery options are limited in this suburb, though Memo's Pizza became a regularly staple for my girlfriend and I. Anything else that's worth consuming will require a trip closer to town.

Unfortunately, what really brings the suburb down is the overall caliber of its inhabitants. The streets are littered with rubbish, discarded household items and furniture. The residents of the apartment blocks are content to dump bags of rubbish anywhere, up to and including elevators and stairwells, so the streets and blocks frequently look and smell disgusting. If your lease comes with an open carspace, expect to have that space stolen by someone else regularly. Drivers are rude and frequently inept regarding the rules of the road, especially right of way at roundabouts, and even have a tendency to park across driveways and on footpaths. The footpaths themselves are littered with standoffish men with hoods up (SO TOUGH, BRAH!) and delinquent youths frequent the area around the station at night. I've never ran into any problems but my girlfriend has.

This was a small, briefly occupied stepping stone for me. Given the rising rental prices in the area, I'd recommend searching in the inner west instead for a friendlier, cleaner and safer environment at minimal extra cost.

PS: If you are moving here for economic reasons, as I did, avoid the apartment block at 95 Station Rd like the plague. It is infested with cockroaches and rats, rubbish is dumped all over the corridors, stairwells and elevators, residents smoke in their apartments so the fire alarms are set off several times a week, the hot water cuts out semi-regularly and the water pressure is terrible. Do not be tempted by the cheap rental prices because there is a reason for it!