Australia Guide : Cost Of Living
The cost of living in Australia is the topic for this installment of our guide to emigrating to Australia…
It’s human nature to convert prices back to your home currency when you first arrive somewhere new and prices in Australia can seem cheap when doing this. However, once you start earning Australian Dollars you’ll find that the money doesn’t go as far as you first hoped. Living is less expensive in Australia, but that you may well earn less and will possibly be taxed more.
Yet despite having less money coming in, most immigrants find that their overall standard of life improves after moving to Australia. It’s consisently highly in the various international quality of life indexes that are carried out, and low in the the level of expensive ones, with Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide doing particularly well when two such indexes are cross-referenced.
Approximations vary depending on whether you opt to live in the more expensive major cities or the cheaper provinces, but a sensible outlay for rental or mortgage for a family of four would be around $500 a month. On top of that would be about $150 for water and electricity (which is considerably less than you would expect to pay in other countries with a similar level of development).
The price of food is similar to the US and around 25 per cent less than most European countries. Approximately $700 should be sufficient to feed a family of four for a month in most areas. As for schools and health care, the former are free and the latter is subsidized for all citizens and immigrants.
Manufactured goods tend to cost more than you would expect, particularly imported goods, including automobiles, electronics and clothes, which are generally more expensive than in Europe or North America. Also, if you plan on doing a lot of traveling, be aware that, despite petrol being well-priced, transport costs can be high due to the larger than normal distances between locations (particularly outside of the major cities).