Sydney’s most expensive, cheapest areas for childcare revealed

Parents in one part of Sydney pay $75 less for childcare than what parents in other parts of the Harbour City stump up. See how your area compares here.

North Sydney is the most expensive suburb in the city to work and raise a child, new analysis reveals, with daily daycare fees almost $75 higher than what parents in the Sydney’s west stump up.

The Daily Telegraph has compared the average cost of childcare, as reported by comparison site Care For Kids, across 50 postcodes across the greater Sydney region – from Katoomba, to Campbelltown, and the Central Coast – and found the cheapest services are largely located in west and southwest Sydney.

Meanwhile the priciest suburbs are scattered across the lower and upper north shore, with North Sydney followed by Mosman at $180.62 per day, Macquarie Park at $163.69 per day, Chatswood ($163.58) and Pymble ($163.50).

Mount Druitt has the cheapest childcare with at least one service – Yawarra Community & Child Care Centre – charging just $72 a day, followed by Kingswood, where parents pay $110.75 a day on average, and Blacktown at $112.70.

Parents in some suburbs could potentially save thousands of dollars a year just by shopping around in their local area or going a few suburbs over, especially if they are ineligible for the childcare subsidy.

North Sydney is the most expensive suburb for childcare costs, analysis shows. File picture

In Glenmore Park families are charged $154.63 a day on average but in neighbouring Penrith childcare is $30 cheaper.

Five of the fifty suburbs have a gap of more than $100 a day between the cheapest and most expensive options, all clustered in northern Sydney and the eastern suburbs with the exception of Wyong on the Central Coast.

The exorbitant and wildly varying cost of childcare has sparked calls for a government-funded $10-a-day cap on fees, a scheme that if enacted could cost more than $20 billion and mark one of Labor’s biggest reforms since the NDIS.

Thrive By Five cheaper childcare campaign director Jay Weatherill said a universal cap for all families regardless of income has majority support among the voting public, and would “pay for itself” through productivity benefits to the wider economy.

“We don’t ask that question (of means-testing) about Medicare, or public schooling, because we believe that those things are important for all of us,” he said.

“It would be politically suicidal not to support it.”

Thrive by Five Director and former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Enmore dad Matt Green is paying more than $40,000 a year in daycare fees for two-year-old daughter Stevie, and the out-of-pocket costs are forcing him and wife Jess to seriously consider if they can afford having a second child.

The couple, both ambitious white-collar professionals, aren’t eligible for a rebate and the price has come as “a bit of a shock”, Mr Green said.

Matt Green with his two-year-old daughter, Stevie. Picture: Tim Hunter

“We’ve had the conversation around one of us leaving work – or lessening our work – to try and balance out the cost burden, but then we came to the conclusion, why the hell should we have to sacrifice our careers to have a child?” he said.

“It’s nonsensical, we shouldn’t be in this situation in Australia.

“We want to have another child, but … we don’t know how we can afford it.”

The Greens are not alone, with a poll by advocacy group The Parenthood finding that for 58 per cent of mums, dads and would-be parents, cost of childcare is the single biggest factor in their decision to have more kids – or any at all.

Executive director of The Parenthood Georgie Dent said daycare fees are “a big factor that is giving parents cause to reduce their family plans”.

“More broadly, it is really clear that the drastic drops we’ve seen in birthrates is related to the cost-of-living crisis … it’s a structural factor that parents-to-be consider,” she said.