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Cost of Living in Australia
Content written by Aussiemove Page last updated: March 2009 |
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 went through a boom period between 2004 and 2007 and are currently coming down in price - this house was valued at around $400,000 in 2004, may have sold for $800,000+ in 2007 but now probably more like $725,000 (see the house). We have two school-age children, one dog and two cars, so that probably makes us a fairly typical Australian family. ----- Running the HomeHere are the main running costs for our home over a year.
Total of these housing costs: * Mortgage - $300,000 (about the Australian average) at 6.06% variable interest rate on a 25 year repayment basis, repayments are $1944 per month, or $448 per week. Link to a Mortgage Calculator at MoneyManager. ^ Phone - comprises a landline service and locals calls with Telstra, calls to Mobile and international with iiNet, our broadband internet provider. We also all have mobiles, which are not included in this. We could almost certainly rationalise all this and save money. ----- HealthcarePrivate health insurance is optional, of course, but I would think the majority of Aussies have some level of cover. Ever since we settled here, we have had "ancilliaries" (aka "extras") cover for dentist, optician etc. - we have been with Medibank Private for the last few years and found their "Blue Ribbon Extras" package to be very good for our situation. We now also have full hospital cover for our family of 2+2, but fortunately have not needed to claim on the policy yet.We do not visit the doctor much and don't need any regular medication, but between us all we do use the services of the dentist, optician, podiatrist, chiropractor and occasionally the physio - there is usually something to pay - a "Gap" - on each visit (read more on our health page)
Total for family healthcare: Pet HealthWhen things go wrong, healthcare for pets can be as expensive as for humans. We estimate vet bills for our middle-aged cocker spaniel are averaging $240 per year. Add to this the $160 or so for clipping and that's $400 per year.Total for pooch well-being: ----- 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 (approx): 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 $12,000 per year for tuition alone. Some private schools, especially Catholic ones, can be quite a bit cheaper. ----- Cars & Travelling
Petrol (regular unleaded) is around $1.10-$1.20 a litre in Perth at the time of writing (Feb 2009). At the same time oil is about US$45 a barrel. 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 per year each, the total cost is $9,000 + $4,500 = $13,500 per year !! Public Transport Links
GroceriesOur main weekly supermarket shopping costs around $200, then there's about another $50 per week spent on additional fresh fuit and veg.Here are a few general observations, comparing prices in Perth to those in the UK;
Click here to see our comparison of prices from supermarkets in the UK and Perth. Total food bill for our family of 4: SpecialsAll supermarkets run weekly and daily specials - the price of individual items can be reduced substantially, sometimes by 30-50%. Therefore, if you are able to allocate enough time to the process, you should be able to reduce your weekly shopping bill significantly - I would guess by about 20% overall.To view some current specials follow these links (if you need to enter a suburb, just enter the capital city you are heading for) : AlcoholAlcoholic drinks are not sold in supermarkets (at least not in WA) - they are generally sold in "bottle shops", which may be attached to a pub/hotel or may be a separate shop. Some of the supermarket chains do have bottle-shops as a side-line, located near the main store.Note that every week retailers have specials which can reduce the price by 20% or more. Also, beer is much cheaper if you buy a "carton" of 24 cans/bottles or a "block" of 30 cans, rather than buying 4 or 6 at a time. Often there are savings to be had by buying wine by the case or half case. Wine casks (wine box in the UK), holding 2, 3 or 4 litres are also fairly popular and work out cheaper in general than bottled wine. Below are some prices of drinks advertised in specials catalogues that dropped through our door in March 2009.
Eating / Drinking OutHere are a few indicative prices seen when eating and drinking out around Perth:
Estimated total for beer/wine, takeaways, eating out for our family of 4: ----- 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 just over $60,000 per year, which requires a gross salary of about $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, how often you eat out and so on. ¹ Also, please note that this only represents 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. ----- Links to RetailersElectricalFurnitureGeneral----- 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 per year, annual licence (road tax) is $490. 6-monthly services are $250. Repairs are running at about $400 per year. I estimate I'm spending $2,250 per year on fuel.
The second car is a 1997 Daewoo Cielo 1.6L, worth about $5,000. Insurance is $320 per year, annual licence is $356. 6-monthly services are $150. Repairs are about $300 per year. Fuel costs are running at about $1,250 per year.