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Cost of Living in Australia
- Overview
- Our Family
- Housing
- Schooling
- Cars & Travelling
- Food & Drink
- Sport & Recreation
- How it adds up
- Electrical & Furniture
- Links to Retailers
- City Comparisons
- Disclaimer
Page last updated: July 2007
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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. - Mortgage = $26,592 pa *
- Council Rates (City of Joondalup) = $1250 pa
- Water Rates = $850 pa
- Water Usage Charge = $250 pa
- Building Insurance ($325,000 cover) = $550 pa
- Contents Insurance ($85,000 cover) = $410 pa
- Electricity = $1,200 pa
- Gas = $500 pa
- Phone = $600 pa
- Broadband internet = $600 pa
Total of these housing costs: $32,802 per annum, or $630 per week. * 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- Annual Tuition Fees = $4,600 (Year 11)
- Other costs (approximate) = $800
Examples of "other costs": - Building Levy ($180pa)
- Camp fees ($190)
- netball/athletics/swimming carnivals - $30-$50 each
Total for private secondary school: $5,400 per annum, or $104 per week. 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 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.
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: Each car is driven about 15-20,000 km per annum. Total running costs, ignoring depreciation: amount to about $4,000 pa (Pajero) and $2,500 pa (Daewoo), total $6,500 for both ($125 per week). 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 From Duncraig a 2-zone "MultiRider" ticket, would work out at $25.50 per week (10 trips). Links - RAC for car prices and running costs.
- Transperth for train fares and zones.
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Food and DrinkHere are a few general observations, comparing prices in Perth to the UK; - Beef and lamb is cheap, while fish costs more than you'd expect in a city next to the ocean.
- Seasonal fruit and veg is cheap as a lot is grown locally.
- Packaged goods like cereals and biscuits are relatively expensive.
- Wine is a bit cheaper (assuming you buy Aussie wine). Beer is about the same price as UK.
Total food & drink (for our family of 4): About $250 per week. 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: - Family membership of the local tennis club = $270 pa
- Golf (9 holes, public course) = $12 pw
- Swimming/yoga/gym (1 session) = $10 pw
- Cub Scouts = $250 pa
- Winter kids sports (Soccer & Netball) = $200 pa
- Summer kids sports (Teeball & Surf Club) = $200 pa
The total cost of all this activity: $2,064 per annum or $40 per week. 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: | Mortgage | $511 | | Other housing costs | $119 | | Schooling | $108 | | Cars | $125 | | Food & Drink | $250 | | Sport & Recreation | $40 | | Total | $1,153 |
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: - Clothes
- Eating out
- Holidays
- New furniture
- Electrical goods
- Home Improvements
----- Electrical & FurnitureBelow, we have listed some prices of household goods recently advertised in Perth: | Kitchen & Laundry | | Washing Machine | Whirlpool 6.5kg Front Loader | $900 | | Dryer | Hoover 5kg Auto Sensing | $450 | | Dishwasher | Dishlex 5 program | $800 | | Microwave | Sharp 34 Litre 1200W | $250 | | Fridge | Westinghouse 420L Frost-Free | $1050 | | TV/VCR/DVD | | TV | Sharp 68cm Pure Flat Stereo | $800 | | TV | Philips 76cm Widescreen real Flat TV | $3700 | | VCR | Sony 6 head HiFi | $300 | | DVD | Philips DVD (DVD+RW,CD-RW,MP3-CD) | $250 | | DVD | Panasonic DVD recorder (DMR-E50) | $1000 | | Computers | | Desktop | Acer Pentium4 2.6GHz | $1500 | | Notebook | Toshiba Pentium4 | $2400 | | Printer | Canon Bubblejet 4800x1200dpi | $140 | | Printer | Epson Stylus Photo 915 | $450 | | Scanner | HP Scanjet 3670 | $250 | | Cameras | | Digital Camera | Kodak 2 Mega Pixel | $250 | | Digital Camera | Sony 5.0 Mega Pixel | $900 | | Camcorder | Sony Digital8 Handycam | $1000 | | Camcorder | Panasonic 1.7 Mega Pixel 3CCD | $2800 | | Phone | Panasonic cordless | $179 | | Other Indoor | | Vacuum Cleaner | Hitachi (small) | $100 | | Vacuum Cleaner | Dyson Upright | $750 | | Outdoor | | Lawn Mower | 4 stroke petrol | $400 | | Outdoor Setting | Cheap plastic - table & 6 chairs | $100 | | Outdoor Setting | Aluminium, table & 6 padded chairs | $700 | | Barbeque | Cheap 4 burner | $180 | | Barbeque | Deluxe 6 burner | $700 |
These are indicative prices advertised in Perth, July 2007. Please check with retailers if you need to know exact current prices of particular products. ----- 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 Mercer HR Consultants' 2004 Cost of living survey, Australian cities compare as follows:Mercer Cost of Living Survey Australasian city index (New York as base of 100) | | Sydney | 91.8 | 130 | | Melbourne | 77.5 | 110 | | Brisbane | 72.7 | 103 | | Adelaide | 72 | 102 | | Perth | 70.7 | 100 |
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----- 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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