Sydney, Australia
What Sydney is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 10,902 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
10,902 businesses on file · 116 trades · 28 sectors · · built from geonet.sydney on 2026-10-27
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Sydney → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 AU metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 98.6% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
No census subdivision is mapped for au-sydney in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 9 | 2 | 32 | institutions on Dixon Street (2) · George Street (2) · Sussex Street (2) trade on Sussex Street (8) · Pitt Street (4) · Druitt Street (3) · George Street (2)
Chinese Cultural Club · Mandarin Club · Australian Chinese News Weekly |
| French | 2 | — | 7 | institutions on Clarence Street (2)
Alliance Francaise · French Benevolent Society Of NSW The |
| Japanese | 1 | — | 21 | trade on Chifley Square (2) · Pitt Street (2) · O%26%2339%3BConnell Street (2) · Market Street (2)
Japanese Exchange Programme Services Pty |
| German | 1 | — | 8 |
German Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce |
| Greek | 1 | — | 5 | trade on Pitt Street (3)
Hellenic Club |
| Indigenous | 1 | — | 4 | trade on George Street (3)
National Aboriginal Sports Corporation Australia |
| Jewish | 1 | — | 2 |
Friends Of The Hebrew University Jerusalem |
| Estonian | 1 | — | — |
Estonian Socy Of Sydney |
| Finnish | 1 | 1 | — |
Palvelupiste Finnish Community Care |
| Thai | — | — | 27 | trade on Pitt Street (5) · Sussex Street (4) · George Street (3) · Campbell Street (2)
|
| Italian | — | — | 22 | trade on Market Street (3) · Elizabeth Street (2) · Castlereagh Street (2) · George Street (2)
|
| Spanish-speaking | — | — | 9 | trade on Pitt Street (2) · Kent Street (2)
|
| Swiss | — | — | 6 | |
| Malaysian | — | — | 5 | |
| Dutch | — | — | 5 | trade on Castlereagh Street (2)
|
| Vietnamese | — | — | 3 | |
| Filipino | — | — | 3 | |
| Polish | — | — | 3 | |
| Austrian | — | — | 3 | trade on York Street (2)
|
| Arabic-speaking | — | — | 3 | |
| Caribbean | — | — | 3 | |
| Irish | — | — | 3 | trade on King Street (2)
|
| Korean | — | — | 2 | |
| Brazilian | — | — | 2 | |
| Swedish | — | — | 2 | |
| Indonesian | — | — | 1 | |
| South Asian | — | — | 1 | |
| Portuguese | — | — | 1 | |
| Russian | — | — | 1 | |
| Czech | — | — | 1 | |
| Croatian | — | — | 1 | |
| Turkish | — | — | 1 | |
| Ethiopian | — | — | 1 | |
| Scottish | — | — | 1 | |
| Welsh | — | — | 1 |
Where the communities are
Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.
Chinese
French
Japanese
Greek
Indigenous
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 10,902 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel | 1,737 | 15.9% | motel (712) · hotel (579) · auction (349) · fruit (34) · parking (27) · travel agent (12) · diner (8) · airline (5) |
| Business | 1,320 | 12.1% | consulting (496) · accounting (495) · association (179) · government (125) · auction (13) · bank (6) · insurance (2) · foundation (1) |
| Retail | 758 | 7% | jeweler (281) · photography (150) · antiques (132) · flowers (101) · auction (59) · gifts (18) · toys (6) · department store (4) |
| Entertainment | 754 | 6.9% | games (509) · video producer (178) · dj (25) · music instruments (21) · museum (6) · amusement (6) · bank (3) · aquarium (3) |
| Finance | 484 | 4.4% | mortgage (311) · bank (130) · credit union (17) · bankruptcy (15) · insurance (6) · loans (5) |
| Construction | 433 | 4% | insurance (182) · excavating (96) · heating and cooling (56) · machinery (28) · home builder (27) · carpet (14) · roofing (11) · plumbing (8) |
| Health | 430 | 3.9% | chiro (257) · optical (63) · cardiologist (50) · pharmacy (32) · garden (16) · home healthcare (10) · bank (1) · medical supplier (1) |
| Living | 402 | 3.7% | place of worship (199) · auction (77) · daycare (37) · cleaning (32) · furniture (30) · property management (11) · appliances (6) · fire safety (3) |
| Fashion | 377 | 3.5% | clothing (377) |
| Manufacturing | 348 | 3.2% | industrial supplier (276) · salvage (60) · chemical (5) · irrigation (3) · fabrication (2) · insurance (2) |
| Beauty | 316 | 2.9% | dentist (313) · hair stylist (2) · barber (1) |
| Education | 287 | 2.6% | library (129) · school (106) · writing (51) · bank (1) |
| Media | 282 | 2.6% | advertising (258) · signs (22) · books (2) |
| Safety | 276 | 2.5% | home inspector (275) · auction (1) |
| Sports | 247 | 2.3% | golf course (227) · golf equipment (8) · martial arts (6) · boating marine (4) · insurance (1) · fruit (1) |
| Tech | 92 | 0.8% | computers (69) · telecom (18) · wireless (5) |
| Automotive | 78 | 0.7% | insurance (71) · autos (4) · tires (3) |
| Food | 61 | 0.6% | grocer (23) · fruit (17) · seafood (9) · baker (7) · ice cream (5) |
| Agribusiness | 52 | 0.5% | livestock (28) · garden (15) · fertilizer (3) · landscaping (3) · dairy (2) · greenhouse (1) |
| Energy | 27 | 0.2% | natural gas (15) · petroleum (11) · credit union (1) |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
33 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flight Centre | travel | 26 | 1,500 |
| 7-Eleven | convenience | 15 | 30,000 |
| David Jones | retail | 3 | 37 |
| Sign-A-Rama | specialty | 3 | 800 |
| Sunglass Hut | retail | 3 | — |
| SureSlim Wellness Clinics | health | 2 | 15 |
| Burger King | fastfood | 1 | 11,000 |
| Century 21 Real Estate | realestate | 1 | — |
| Days Inn | economyhotel | 1 | — |
| Dollar Rent A Car | car | 1 | 600 |
| Great Plains | retail | 1 | 6 |
| Laura Ashley | retail | 1 | — |
| Leading Hotels of the World | accommodation | 1 | 400 |
| Max Mara | retail | 1 | — |
| Nine West | retail | 1 | — |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Salvation Army | retail | 1 | — |
| Second Cup | coffee | 1 | — |
| Limited name only | retail | 297 | — |
| Dymocks name only | book | 5 | — |
| Burton name only | retail | 4 | — |
| Cartier name only | retail | 3 | — |
| Coach name only | luggage | 3 | — |
| Esprit name only | retail | 3 | — |
| Marriott name only | upscalehotel | 3 | 2,800 |
| Progressive name only | supermarket | 3 | 150 |
| AllState name only | insurance | 2 | — |
| Florsheim name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Renaissance name only | upscalehotel | 2 | — |
| TUMI name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Armani name only | fashion | 1 | — |
| Aveda name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Centra name only | convenience | 1 | 350 |
| Hallmark name only | greetingcards | 1 | 5,600 |
| Hannaford name only | supermarket | 1 | 150 |
| Hofer name only | supermarket | 1 | — |
| HSBC name only | bank | 1 | — |
| InterContinental name only | luxuryhotel | 1 | — |
| Kingfisher name only | home | 1 | 680 |
| Lacoste name only | — | 1 | — |
| Michaels name only | retail | 1 | 805 |
| Midas name only | auto | 1 | 1,800 |
| Mikasa name only | retail | 1 | — |
| MONTBLANC name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Myer name only | retail | 1 | 60 |
| Radisson name only | upscalehotel | 1 | — |
| Roxy name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Sofitel name only | luxuryhotel | 1 | — |
| Tiffany name only | retail | 1 | 150 |
| Versace name only | designerclothing | 1 | 61 |
| Westin name only | luxuryhotel | 1 | — |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Selling homes
5312Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.
Named in the register
- Campus Realty Pty — 368 Sussex Street
- Carney James Real Estate — 25 Market Street
- Real Estate Employers Federation of NSWThe — Level 16/44 Market Street
- Retirement Realty — 68 Tulloh Street
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Bendelong Apartments Building Five — 5 MacQuarie Street
Managing for owners
5313Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.
Named in the register
- Abetafinish Blasting Services Pty — 14 Seventeenth Avenue
- Atlas Abrasives Pty — PO Box 25
- Avoclean Services Pty — 53- 55 Liverpool Street
- Chandeliers Sparkling Clear — 416 Pitt Street
- Clean and Green Property Services — 47 / 248 Miller Street
- Dallas Jeffrey Services Pty — 285 George Street
- Globe Jockeys — 122 Arthur Street
- Great Mate — 401 Sussex Street
- Kirby Services — Martin Place
- Onyork Enterprises Pty — 89 York Street
- Swan Services Pty — 507 Kent Street
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Acterna Asia Pacific — 157 Walker Street
- BMT and Association — Level 9, 8 Spring Street
- D G Jones and Partners Pty — 38 York Street
- D G Jones Australia Pty — 38 York Street
- Deppro — 117 York Street
- Dial A Carpenter — 173 Palmer Street
- Donald Cant Watts Corke NSW Pty — 21 Berry Street
- JPQS Pty — 491 Kent Street
- Moult G — 55 Clarence Street
- Napier and Blakeley Pty — 309 Kent Street
- Project Risk Management Group P L — 191 Clarence Street
- Rider Hunt Pty — 41 McLaren Street
- Thiess Pty — 26 College Street
- Widnell — 90 Mount Street
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Arrive Wealth Management Limited — 201 Sussex Street
- CU Financial Advisory Services Pty — 60 Pitt Street
- Deposit Bond Specialists — 25 Bligh Street
- Diskcovery Information Management Australia Pty Lt — 115 Pitt Street
- Elmex Pty — 377-383 Sussex Street
- Future Plus — 28 Margaret Street
- Garrisons Financial and Retirement Specialists — 37 Bligh Street
- Godfrey Pembroke Financial Consultants — 60 Margaret Street
- Godfrey Pembroke Financial Consultants — 39 George Street
- Matrix Planning Solutions Pty — 9 Barrack Street
- Southern Cross Loans — 47 York Street
- Vision FPS Pty — 200 George Street
- Vision Home Loans — 2 Bligh Street
- Winchcombe Carson Financial Planning Pty — 15 Bent Street
Who actually owns it
The full property record →From the /property research for this city, which asks a different question: not who trades in property here, but who owns it. An owner is named there only where a document says so. Torrens, private operator; owner $18.70 a title; land values open, sales NC-ND.
Homebuilders
- Sumitomo Forestry Australia (Henley, Wisdom, Scott Park Group, Metricon) — 8,038
- ABN Group — 3,764
- NEX Building Group — 3,585
- Parkview Constructions — 2,735
- Meriton Apartments — 2,324
- Hutchies (Hutchinson Builders) — 1,907
Commercial landlords
- Dexus (ASX: DXS) and its managed funds (DWPF, DWAPF) — $20.2bn office portfolio across the Dexus platform, $9.8bn of it on Dexus's balance sheet
- Lendlease International Towers Sydney Trust (LLITST) — A$4.6bn — Towers Two and Three, International House, Towns Place car park
- Lendlease One International Towers Sydney Trust (LLOITST) — approx. A$2.45bn — Tower One, c.103,000 m2
- Crown Resorts Limited — Crown Sydney (hotel resort), plus Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth
9 marquee buildings examined, 8 with an owner established.
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the Sydney (City of Sydney LGA) property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work on the go, mobile services
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 186 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 186 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
services
events
pets
luxury
healthcare
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
travel
construction
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
| Institution | Type | Students | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Macquarie (MQ) | University | — | — |
| Sydney | University | — | — |
| TAFE NSW | University | — | — |
| UNSW | University | — | 1949 |
| University of Technology Sydney (UTS) | University | — | — |
| Western Sydney University | University | — | 1989 |
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Chequers Health Centre — 79 Goulburn Street
- MacQuarie St Homoeopathic Health Centre — 187 Macquarie Street
- A Pitt Street Natural Health Centre — 72 Pitt Street
- Pitt Street Natural Health Centre — 72 Pitt Street
- Sydney Hospital Foundation for Research — Macquarie Street
- Mater Hospital Florist and Gifts — 25 Rocklands Road
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
Funded & hiring here
Companies in this city that have raised money, and the careers pages of employers here, from the /employers research and the company database. For someone looking for work here, this is the shortlist.
Funded here — 5 companies have raised money
A fresh round usually means hiring. Largest raise first; the amount links to its source where one is on file, and the currency is as the source wrote it.
| Company | Raised | Staff here | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| InDebted softwareCollection agencies | $130Mtotal not confirmed from a primary page; acquired Receeve (Hamburg) Dec 2024 | — | Careers → |
| Canva softwareSoftware | $57M | 800 | — |
| OrttoBusiness | $35M | — | Careers → |
| Okendo | $5.3M | — | Careers → |
| StashpayFintech | $695K | — | — |
Careers pages — 33 more employers here
Each link goes to the company's own careers page or official job board, not a third-party listing site. Largest local staff first.
| Company | Staff here | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| WorleyEnergy | 57,600 | Careers → |
| WestpacFinance | 33,288 | Careers → |
| AMPFinance | 5,400 | Careers → |
| HOYTSEntertainment | 4,000 | Careers → |
| Key MediaLiving | 300 | Careers → |
| OFXFinance | 250 | Careers → |
| ANZFinance | — | Careers → |
| Aristocrat softwareGambling industries | — | Careers → |
| Blenheim PartnersBusiness | — | Careers → |
| Casa Systems, softwareTech | — | Careers → |
| CommBankFinance | — | Careers → |
| Downer GroupConstruction | — | Careers → |
| Fairfax MediaMedia | — | Careers → |
| FishburnersBusiness | — | Careers → |
| FreelancerBusiness | — | Careers → |
| iph | — | Careers → |
| Just Social | — | Careers → |
| KyckrBusiness | — | Careers → |
| McGrathNicolLaw | — | Careers → |
| Mitchell & PartnersBusiness | — | Careers → |
| NineMedia | — | Careers → |
| Nuix softwareOffices of lawyers | — | Careers → |
| PICA Group | — | Careers → |
| Raiz InvestFinance | — | Careers → |
| RedBalloon | — | Careers → |
8 more careers pages in Sydney, Australia
| Regional ExpressTravel | — | Careers → |
| SkyCiv softwareSoftware | — | Careers → |
| St. George BankFinance | — | Careers → |
| Time Doctor softwareSoftware | — | Careers → |
| TPG Telecom softwareTech | — | Careers → |
| Virtus HealthHealth | — | Careers → |
| WiseTech GlobalLogistics | — | Careers → |
| World NomadsFinance | — | Careers → |
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 0.5% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 99.9%.
Built from
geonet.sydney— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands