Cost of Living in Australia

Overview

This is not an easy question to answer and everyone's situation is different, so you need to be prepared to take some time and do plenty of research on the subject.

The key elements to this puzzle are:

Your Current Situation
- How much money do you have to bring to Australia?
- How many dollars will that buy at the current exchange rate?
- What size loan will you need?

This is all about the exchange rate, the relative cost of houses and your expectations in terms of location and size/quality of house.

Your Future Situation
- How much will you earn after tax?
- What will it cost to live day-to-day?

Going forward, unless you have an income from overseas (or expenses to pay), you can forget about the exchange rate - now it's all about what you can earn, versus what it's costing to live to a certain standard.

"Standard of Living" versus "Quality of Life"
Many migrants to Australia (especially from the UK) are looking for an easier life - less work and more leisure.

Without doubt, this is much harder to achieve now than it was a few years ago, mainly because the poor exchange rate has reduced their overall wealth and they have to get a bigger mortgage than they would like. Some recent migrants are finding it very hard to get by and are working longer hours in Australia just to pay the bills.

In general, though, most of us have some choices in the work/leisure balance. It should be noted that while some things are relatively expensive in Australia, there are a lot of leisure activities that are free or very cheap.

Disclaimer

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.

Housing

• Sydney: $555,000
• Canberra: $495,000
• Melbourne: $490,000
• Darwin: $472,000
• Perth: $460,000
• Brisbane: $415,000
• Adelaide: $370,000
• Hobart: $350,000

The average house price in Australia is $470,000 ( averaged over the 8 capital cities).

What's an Average House?

• A single-storey 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house in Padbury (suburb median $470,000).
• A double-storey house with a pool on a large block in Gosnells (suburb median $315,000).
• A 2 bedroom apartment close to the river in Applecross (suburb median $1.25 million).

How Australia Compares

In New Zealand the average is $365,000 NZD⁶, equivalent to about $285,000 AUD, so Australia is 65% more expensive than New Zealand.

Of course, we are only looking at the numbers here - it does not take into account the size or quality of the "average" house in each country.

Also, this is not a direct comparison of "Housing Affordability" between countries - that needs to take into account earnings, income tax and mortgage rates.

Mortgage Payments

The current Cash Rate Target (Base Rate) set by the Reserve Bank of Australia³ is 3.50%, resulting in a typical mortgage rate of around 5.9%.

So, an average home loan will cost you around $1830 per month - that's $21,960 per year or around $422 each week.⁴

Renting

A good way to assess rents is to look at the yield ie. the annual rent as a percentage of the house value. The average yield in Perth is around 4-5%. So, as a rough guide, if you're looking to rent in a certain suburb, where the median house price is say, $700,000, you can expect to pay $700,000 * 4.5% = $31,500 per year in rent. This comes to $605 per week.

A 100% mortgage on the same house would cost over $1000 per week. Add in rates, water rates and a few repairs and you would be paying around $1200 per week as a home-owner.

Clearly, renting is usually a lot cheaper than owning; in our example $605 versus $1200 per week.

An Example...Our House

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, roughly doubling in that perod. Since then prices have fluctuated, but in mid 2012 they're basically back where they were 5 years ago. Our house is probably in the $725,000 - $750,000 range (see the house).

Sources

Household Bills

We have two school-age children, one dog and we run two cars, so that probably makes us a fairly typical Australian family.

Running the Home

• Council Rates (City of Joondalup) = $1693
• Water Rates = $892
• Water Usage Charge = $416
• Building Insurance ($418,000 cover) = $675
• Contents Insurance ($113,000 cover) = $425
• Electricity = $1,700
• Gas = $750
• Phone = $1300 ^
• Broadband internet = $600
• Foxtel Pay TV (Basic + Sport) = $840

Total of these housing costs:
$9,291 per year = $774 per month = $178 per week.

^ 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...something I keep meaning to do!

Healthcare

We now also have "Basic Hospital" cover with another company, AHM. This pays some of the costs for in-hospital procedures, surgery etc.

We do not visit the doctor all that 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 pages)

• Ancilliaries (Medibank Private Extras) = $87 per month
• Hospital cover (AHM) = $127 per month
• Other (GAP) expenses = $100 per month (estimate)

Total for family healthcare:
$3,772 per year = $315 per month = $73 per week.

Pet Health

Total for pooch well-being:
$500 per year = $42 per month = $10 per week.

Education

Here are the education costs for one child in a private high school and one in a state high school.

State High School

There's a stationery order (about $60) at the start of each year, plus the cost of any excursions or incursions (eg. plays put on at the school).

A contribution towards the P&C (Parents and Citizens Association) may also be requested ($60 this year at my son's primary school).

Total for state high school (approx):
$400 per year = $33 per month = $8 per week

Private High school

• Annual Tuition Fees = $7,985 (Year 12)
• Other costs (approximate) = $1400

Examples of "other costs":

• Resources Fee ($375 per year)
• Building Levy ($550 per year)
• Camp fees ($220)
• netball/athletics/swimming carnivals - $30-$50 each

Total for private secondary school:
$9,385 per year = $782 per month = $180 per week.

Note: this is a "middle-tier" private school. Fees for the "top" schools can be around $20,000 per year for tuition alone. Some private schools, especially Catholic ones, can be quite a bit cheaper.

Cars and Travelling

Our family runs two cars; one is an old '97 Mitsubishi Pajero 3.5L 4WD, worth maybe $8,000. Insurance is $600 per year, annual licence (road tax) is $555. 6-monthly services are $270. Repairs are running at about $1200 per year. I estimate I'm spending $2,500 per year on fuel.
 

The second car is a 2011 Hyundai i30 2.0L, bought new for $19,000. Insurance is $520 per year, annual licence is $472. RAC membership (covers both cars) is $200. Annual service is $220. Repairs estimated at $350 per year. Fuel costs are running at about $1,500 per year.

Petrol (regular unleaded) is around $1.30 a litre in Perth at the time of writing (June 2012). At the same time oil is about US$96 a barrel.

Total Car Costs:
Each car is driven about 10-15,000 km per annum. Total running costs, ignoring depreciation: amount to about $5,400 per year (Pajero) and $3,250 per year (i30), total $8,650 for both ($721 per month / $166 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 about $1/km for the Pajero and 56¢/km for the i30. So, based on only 15,000km per year each, the total cost is $15,000 + $8,400 = $23,400 per year!

Public Transport
From Duncraig into Perth CBD (a 2-zone journey), the standard fare would be $3.80 per journey, totalling $38 per week (10 trips). This can be reduced by 25% to $28.50 per week by using a "SmartRider" card.

Links

• RAC for car prices and running costs.
• Transperth for train fares and zones.

Groceries

Here are a few general observations;

• As a new migrant, you will inevitably compare grocery prices with "back home". The fact is, some things are cheaper and some things seem super-expensive (especially with the current exchange rate). After a while, you stop comparing and just modify your shopping to get the best value.
• Australia has nothing like the variety of prepared meals that are available in UK supermarkets.
• A lot of fruit and veg is grown locally and the price fluctuates greatly depending on the level of supply. A recent example; storms in Queensland destroyed most of last year's banana crop and the price of bananas in Perth went from about $3/Kg up to $12-$15/Kg! Peaches and plums can be $6/Kg one day and $2.50/Kg the next day.
• At "growers' markets", fruit and veg can be MUCH cheaper than in the supermarkets. For example, recently in Perth celery has been scarily expensive ($5 for a whole celery), whereas at our local growers' market, celery has been $1.99.

Total food bill for our family of 4:
$300 per week.

Specials

To view some current specials follow these links (if you need to enter a suburb, just enter the capital city you are heading for) :

• Woolworths Supermarket Specials
• Coles Supermarket Specials

Alcohol

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 June 2012.

• Emu Draft Beer (aussie mid-strength 3.5%) - 1 block (30 x 375ml) for $28 = $2.14 per litre
• Full strength aussie beer (5%) - 1 carton (24 x 375ml) normally about $38, on special for $30 = $3.33 per litre
• Imported premium beers (5%) - 1 carton (24 x 375ml) normally $55, on special for $45 = $5 per litre
• Wine - red or white 4 Litre wine cask - 2 for $20 = $2.50 per litre
• Wine - "reasonable" (opinion of author!) bottle of red or white - $10 on special (normally $13)
• Spirits - 700mL bottles of gin, blended whisky etc. - $30

Eating / Drinking Out

• Cup of coffee = $3.90, mug = $4.50
• Full cooked breakfast = $20
• MacDonalds burger/fries/drink meal - $6.95
• Large pizza (pickup) - $5.95
• Gourmet/wood-fired pizza (pickup) - $18.00
• Fillet steak main course with potatoes and a few veg = $35 - $40
• Glass of wine in restaurant = $8
• Bottled full-strength beer in pub or restaurant = $6 - $8
• Pint of Guiness in a pub = $8 - $10

Estimated total for beer/wine, takeaways, eating out for our family of 4: $80 per week.

Sport and Recreation

• Family membership of the local tennis club = $420 per year
• Golf (6 day membership of private club) = $1500 per year
• Leisure Centre membership (Swim + gym + group classes) = $830 per year
• Leisure Centre membership (Group classes only) = $645 per year
• Swimming/yoga/gym (casual) = $12.50 per session
• Winter kids sports (Soccer & Netball) = $250 per year
• Summer kids sports (Teeball & Surf Club) = $250 per year

The total cost for our family:  $2,500 per year = $208 per month = $48 per week.

(We do some of the activities listed, not all of them)

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 up

That's just over $76,200 per year, which requires a gross salary of about $102,000 (one earner) or $46,000 each (two earners) to provide.

** We are not saying that is all you need to earn to get by, because there are many more expenses which we are not able to quantify - see below.

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.

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:

• Clothes
• Holidays
• New furniture
• Electrical goods
• Home Improvements

Electrical and Furniture

These are indicative prices advertised in Perth, June 2012. Please check with retailers if you need to know exact current prices of particular products.

Links to Retailers

Electrical

Harvey Norman

Rick Hart

Furniture

Bed Shed

Freedom Furniture

Furniture Bazaar (WA)

General

Kmart

Big W