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Cost of Living in Australia
Page last updated: July 2007 |
OverviewMany prospective migrants want to know about the cost of living in Australia. If you're coming from Europe, especially the UK, you probably already have the idea that living is less expensive in Australia, but that you may well earn less over here and will possibly be taxed more.Of course, just as people's incomes vary enormously, so does their ability to spend it, so how can we give a meaningful guide to the cost of living? Our approach is to show you the actual living expenses of our own family, living in Perth. This should give you a reasonable starting point for working the cost of living for your own circumstances. Note that apart from housing, the cost of living does not vary that much from city to city. Your individual lifestyle will have a much greater bearing on how much you spend. ----- Our FamilyOur family lives in Duncraig, 18km north of Perth CBD and 2km from the beach. The suburb is popular with migrants because of the reputation of local schools, attractive parks and good quality housing. Our house is fairly typical of this area - on a 710sqm block, single storey, 4 bed, 2 bath with lounge, dining, family & games rooms, plus concrete swimming pool - the house was built around 1980 and has had some minor renovations since then. As most will be aware, Perth house prices have been booming for the last few years - this house was valued at around $400,000 just 3-4 years ago, but is probably more like $750,000 now - July 2007 (see the house). We have two school-age children, one dog and two cars, so that probably makes us a fairly typical Australian family. ----- HousingHere are the main running costs for our home through 2007.
Total of these housing costs: * Mortgage - $300,000 (about the Australian average) at 7.50% interest on a 25 year repayment basis, repayments are $2216 per month, or $511 per week. Link to a Mortgage Calculator at MoneyManager. ----- SchoolingHere are the education costs for one child in a local private secondary school and one in a state primary. State Primary schoolNo official fees, but each family at our school is asked to pay $20 "voluntary contribution", plus $25 to the P&C (Parents and Children association).There's a stationery order (about $50) at the start of each year, plus the cost of any excursions or incursions (eg. plays put on at the school). Total for state primary school: about $200 pa (State High School about $300 pa) Private Secondary school
Examples of "other costs":
Total for private secondary school: Note: this is a "middle-tier" private school. Fees for the "top" schools can be $12,000pa for tuition alone. Some private schools, especially Catholic ones, can be quite a bit cheaper. ----- Cars & Travelling
Petrol (regular unleaded) is around $1.25-$1.35 a litre in Perth at the moment (July 2007). (At the same time oil is about US$74 a barrel. Roughly, petrol goes up 1 Aussie cent per litre for each US$ per barrel of oil.) Total Car Costs: Of course, if you change your car every few years, depreciation becomes a significant cost. On this basis, overall running costs obtained from the RAC are (approximately) 60¢/km for the Pajero and 30¢/km for the Daewoo. So, based on only 15,000km pa each, the total cost is $9,000 + $4,500 = $13,500 pa !! Public Transport Links
Food and DrinkHere are a few general observations, comparing prices in Perth to the UK;
Total food & drink (for our family of 4): Click here to see a few prices from supermarkets in Perth. ----- Sport and RecreationOf course, this will vary enormously between families, but the following list is not at all unusual:
The total cost of all this activity: Even if your family is not actively into sport, you might need to consider the costs of music or dancing lessons, etc. ----- How it adds upThe weekly "fixed" household spending for our family is:
That's $59,956 pa, which requires a gross salary of approx $80,000 (one earner) or $36,000 each (two earners) to provide. Remember this is just an example for our family - in some areas your own costs will be similar - eg rates and utility bills probably don't vary that much between families and groceries won't be hugely different, unless you have very expensive tastes. You can estimate the size of mortgage you will have and calculate your repayments. But the other categories can be very different depending on how many cars you run and their age and model, whether your kids go to state or private school, and so on. Also, please note that this represents just our "fixed costs" each week, there are plenty of other expenses, some are luxuries and they will vary enormously according to your income and tastes, so we haven't tried to quantify their dollar value, but consider the following:
----- Electrical & FurnitureBelow, we have listed some prices of household goods recently advertised in Perth:
These are indicative prices advertised in Perth, July 2007. Please check with retailers if you need to know exact current prices of particular products. ----- RetailersElectricalFurnitureGeneral----- City ComparisonCare must be taken when comparing cost-of-living between Australian capital cities. In our opinion, mortgage/rent costs should be looked at separately, as the median house price can vary enormously and tends to obscure the other living costs.According to ----- DisclaimerInformation on this website is intended to give the reader an overview of many aspects of life in Australia, such as healthcare, real estate, tax, superannuation etc. While we at Aussiemove.com have performed a large amount of research on each subject area, we do not claim to be experts in those fields and we recommend that migrants discuss their requirements with companies specialising in those fields before making purchases, investments or other decisions concerning their move. The content of this website is general in nature - no specific advice is intended. We provide links to other companies as a service to our readers. We have taken reasonable care to ensure that each linked website does not contain offensive or inappropriate material. However, we are not responsible for the accuracy of any of the material in any linked website, or the advice that may be contained therein. ----- |
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Our family runs two cars (both pretty old!); the first car is a 1997 Mitsubishi Pajero 3.5L 4WD, worth about $12,000. Insurance is $450 pa, annual licence (road tax) is $490. 6-month services are $250. Repairs are running at about $400 pa. I estimate I'm spending $2,250 pa on fuel.
The second car is a 1997 Daewoo Cielo 1.6L, worth about $5,000. Insurance is $320 pa, annual licence is $356. 6-month services are $150. Repairs are about $300 pa. Fuel costs are running at about $1,250 pa.