Cost of Living in Australia
The cost of living obviously varies massively depending on your lifestyle, so let’s just take a look at some averages, so you can see that as a skilled migrant, life in Aus will be very comfortable.
A family with 2 kids, 2 cars and a pet or 2 will serve as a decent example, living in a 4 bed, 2/3 bath house not too far from a city centre. (value roughly AU$ 500,000)
The most important point here is that you could save a lot or spend a lot more than this, depending on how well you control yourself!
Running Costs for the Home:
- Mortgage = $23,000
- Council Rates = $1400
- Water, Electricity, Gas total costs = $2750
- Building Insurance ($325,000 cover) = $550
- Contents Insurance ($89,000 cover) = $360
- Phone, Internet, TV = $1000
Approx A$ 29,000 a year = A$ 560 a week
Hobbies, sports and free time
- Family membership of the local tennis club = $300 per year
- Golf (6 day membership of private club) = $1300 per year
- Swimming/yoga/gym (1 session) = $10 per week
- Cub Scouts = $250 per year
- Winter kids sports (Soccer & Netball) = $200 per year
- Summer kids sports (Teeball & Surf Club) = $200 per year
The total cost of all this activity:
- $2,750 per year = $230 per month = $53 per week.
Food shopping and eating out
Groceries
Weekly supermarket shopping costs around $200, then there’s about another $50 per week spent on additional fresh fruit and veg.
Here are a few general observations, comparing prices in Perth to those in the UK;
- Beef and lamb is cheaper in Aus than in theUK and other countries.
- Packaged goods like cereals and biscuits are slightly more expensive.
- Almost all fruit and veg is grown locally and the price fluctuates greatly depending on the level of supply.
Total food bill for our family of 4:
- $250 per week.
Specials
All 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 – by about 20% – 30% overall.
Alcohol
Alcoholic drinks are not usually sold in supermarkets – 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.
- Emu Draft Beer (aussie mid-strength 3.5%) – 1 block (30 x 375ml) for $24 = $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 whiskey etc. – $30
Eating / Drinking Out
Here are a few indicative prices seen when eating and drinking out:
- Cup of coffee = $3.50, mug = $4.00
- Full cooked breakfast = $19
- MacDonalds burger/fries/drink meal – $6.95
- Large pizza (pickup) – $8.95
- Fillet steak main course with potatoes and a few veg = $30 – $35
- 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:
- $100 per week.
Schooling
Here are the education costs for one child in a local private secondary school and one in a state primary.
State Primary school
No 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):
- $240 per year = $20 per month = $5 per week
Private Secondary school
- Annual Tuition Fees = $4,600 (Year 11)
- Other costs (approximate) = $800
Examples of “other costs”:
- Building Levy ($180 per year)
- Camp fees ($190)
- netball/athletics/swimming carnivals – $30-$50 each
Total for private secondary school: $5,400 per year = $450 per month = $104 per week.
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.
If you go to an Australia migration expo you may be able to find general guidance.
Or you can book one of our Australian visa consultations, which gives a face to face full Australian visa assessment.
Cars & Travelling
Could be a fortune or a pittance depending on what you feel you need to drive!
Check http://www.drive.com.au for prices, and also check:
Public Transport
As an example, from a typical Perth residential area into Perth CBD (a 2-zone journey), the standard fare would be $3.50 per journey, totalling $35 per week (10 trips). This can be reduced to $26.30 per week by using a “SmartRider” card.
Total weekly costs
The weekly “fixed” household spending for a family, rounded up, could be:
| Mortgage | $450 |
| Other housing costs | $15 |
| Schooling | $100 |
| Cars | $125 |
| Food Shopping | $250 |
| Drink & Eating Out | $100 |
| Sport & Recreation | $55 |
| Total | $1,095 |
That’s just over $56,000 per year, which requires a gross salary of about $75,000 (one earner) or $36,000 each (two earners) to provide.
You do then of course also have clothes, other shopping, holidays etc. to factor in ?as mentioned, this can only be a guide and depends on lifestyle, number of little darling vampires (aka kids) you have, and so on.
Average Australian Salaries
Bear in mind that by definition, as a skilled migrant you are in high demand! If you were not, you would not be eligible for a PR visa!
Therefore higher than average salaries can be predicted.
Occupation |
Average Max |
Average Local |
| Accounting | $135,287 | $77,924 |
| Admin & Office Support | $89,736 | $52,825 |
| Automotive | $131,429 | $64,726 |
| Banking & Financial Services | $197,143 | $81,729 |
| Community, Sport & Leisure | $113,978 | $61,846 |
| Construction, Building & Architecture | $194,118 | $110,122 |
| Customer Service & Call Centre | $97,737 | $51,013 |
| Education | $104,510 | $63,600 |
| Engineering | $232,679 | $112,587 |
| Executive | $230,173 | $118,416 |
| Government & Defence | $140,828 | $77,396 |
| Graduate | $83,575 | $48,051 |
| Hospitality, Travel & Tourism | $93,125 | $56,757 |
| HR & Recruitment | $172,500 | $86,354 |
| Insurance | $147,778 | $68,123 |
| IT & Telecomms | $197,029 | $99,506 |
| Legal | $163,412 | $77,228 |
| Logistics, Transport & Supply | $142,431 | $68,921 |
| Manufactureing | $224,633 | $83,386 |
| Marketing | $150,500 | $82,622 |
| Media, Advertising, Entertainment | $146,417 | $75,034 |
| Medical & Healthcare | $156,299 | $80,050 |
| Mining, Oil & Gas | $222,333 | $144,172 |
| PR & Communications | $155,000 | $84,021 |
| Primary Industry | $165,000 | $73,560 |
| Property & Real Estate | $177,500 | $80,256 |
| Retail | $183,333 | $64,831 |
| Sales | $183,125 | $87,276 |
| Scientific | $142,500 | $86,236 |
| Trades & Services | $148,438 | $64,779 |
