SEC. 04 — HOUSING

Australia Cost of Living Calculator

Enter a salary, a city and a suburb — see how far it actually stretches.

— SALARY-TO-RENT RATIO DASHBOARD
DATA AS OF —
—%
Gross salary spent on rent
—
<25% comfortable 25–30% moderate 30–40% stretched 40%+ severe

—

Adjust the inputs on the left — every figure on this page recalculates from your salary, city and suburb.

01 · RENT.WK/YR Rent
$—/wk
Monthly—
Annual—
02 · SAVE.EST Estimated savings
$—/yr
Per month—
After tax income—
Est. living costs—
03 · LOAN.CAP Mortgage affordability
$—
Borrowing capacity, ~5.5× gross salary
Suburb median price—
Max affordable (20% dep.)—
—

Cost comparison

Annual rent + living costs, this suburb against the wider market.

How it works

This calculator estimates affordability using four inputs, run through a fixed set of formulas — nothing is looked up live.
  1. Gross annual salary

    What you enter — before tax, before super. Everything downstream is calculated from this figure.

  2. Estimated tax

    Your salary is run through the current Australian resident tax brackets plus the 2% Medicare levy to get after-tax (net) income.

  3. Housing costs

    The city's median weekly rent is scaled by your chosen suburb's inner/middle/outer tier multiplier, then annualised. The same scaling applies to the city's median house price to estimate mortgage affordability.

  4. Average living expenses

    A national weekly baseline for non-rent costs (groceries, transport, utilities, insurance) is adjusted for the city's relative cost of living and the household size you select.

Net income minus annual rent minus living expenses gives estimated savings; annual rent divided by gross salary gives the salary-to-rent ratio shown on the dial.

Worked example

Sarah earns $110,000 a year and is looking at a middle-ring suburb in Melbourne — Brunswick, renting alone. Here's exactly what this calculator works out for her, using the same formulas as the live tool above.
Weekly rent
$673
Annual rent
$34,999
Tax + Medicare
$25,988
Net income
$84,012
Annual living costs
$33,800
Estimated savings
$15,213 /yr
Salary-to-rent ratio
31.8%
Suburb median house price
$966,000

At 31.8%, Sarah's rent sits just past the 30% "housing stress" benchmark — the tool would flag this as "stretched." Her borrowing capacity (~$605,000) also falls well short of Brunswick's median house price, so buying there on this salary alone isn't realistic yet without a larger deposit or a second income.

Methodology & assumptions

Data as of . Rent, price and cost figures below are a manual snapshot, not a live feed — they only refresh when someone edits the code. Rents in particular move several percent per quarter, so treat anything older than ~3–6 months with extra caution.

Rent & prices. City-level medians are drawn from national rental market reporting (Cotality, Domain, SQM Research) current as of the date above; suburb figures apply an inner/middle/outer multiplier to that city median as an indicative scaling, not a live listing feed.

Tax. Uses simplified Australian resident income-tax brackets plus a flat 2% Medicare levy. Offsets, HECS repayments and other deductions are not modelled.

Living costs. A national baseline of $650/week for a single adult (groceries, transport, utilities, insurance, incidentals) is scaled by the city's relative cost-of-living index, then by a household multiplier you select (couples and families cost more to run, but not linearly — the multipliers used are 1.0× single, 1.6× couple, 1.4× single parent + 1 kid, 2.3× couple + 2 kids). It does not vary by suburb.

Savings. after-tax income − annual rent − estimated living costs. Excludes debt repayments, super contributions above the mandatory rate, and one-off costs.

Mortgage affordability. Borrowing capacity is approximated at 5.5× gross annual salary, a common rule-of-thumb serviceability multiple that ignores existing debts, dependents and interest-rate stress tests. "Max affordable price" grosses this up assuming a 20% deposit.

This tool is for general illustration only and is not financial, lending or tax advice.

Frequently asked questions

The standard questions people ask about rent-to-income figures and this tool specifically.
How accurate is this calculator?
It's a well-informed estimate, not a precise valuation. City-level rent figures are usually within a few percent of published market reports, but suburb-level figures use a general inner/middle/outer multiplier rather than a real suburb-by-suburb dataset, so treat those as directional. See "Methodology & assumptions" above for the exact formulas and data behind every number.
What assumptions are used?
The big ones: rent and price figures are a manual snapshot (not a live feed), living costs use a flat national baseline scaled by city and household size, tax uses simplified brackets with no offsets, and mortgage affordability assumes a 20% deposit and a rough 5.5× income lending multiple. Full detail is in the "Methodology & assumptions" panel above.
Is superannuation included?
Indirectly. The salary you enter is treated as your gross income before super, and super isn't counted as spending money in the savings figure — which is correct, since it's locked away until retirement. Employer super contributions themselves aren't broken out here; for that detail, use the Salary Calculator.
Does it account for HECS/HELP debt?
No. HECS/HELP repayments are income-tested and would reduce your real take-home pay below what this tool shows, which means actual savings would be somewhat lower than estimated here if you have an outstanding HECS/HELP balance. This isn't modelled in any of the calculators on this site.
What does the "salary-to-rent ratio" actually mean?
It's your annual rent divided by your gross (before-tax) annual salary, shown as a percentage. It's a quick proxy for housing stress — the lower the better. It doesn't account for tax, other debts, or how many people the salary supports.
Why does everyone use "30% of income" as the benchmark?
It's a long-standing rule of thumb rather than a law or hard cutoff. Spending over 30% of gross income on rent is commonly labelled "housing stress," but it doesn't adjust for high earners (who can comfortably spend more) or very low earners (for whom even 25% can be tight after other essentials).
Does the rent figure include bills, or just the lease amount?
Just the lease/rent amount. Utilities, internet, and body corporate/strata fees (for units) aren't included in the rent figure — they're folded into the general "living costs" estimate instead, at a flat national baseline rather than a suburb-specific one.
Why do rent figures differ between this tool, Domain, and realestate.com.au?
Different sources track different things — asking rent on new listings vs. rent actually being paid by sitting tenants, houses vs. units vs. both combined, and different reporting periods. A spread of 5–10% between sources for the "same" suburb is normal, not a sign either source is wrong.
Is a "good" salary-to-rent ratio different for a share house?
Yes, and this tool doesn't model it directly — it assumes one salary covers one lease. If you're splitting rent with housemates or a partner, divide the suburb's rent figure by the number of people contributing before comparing it to your individual salary.

Sources & further reading

The publicly available data and reports this calculator's figures are broadly informed by.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Consumer Price Index & household living cost indexes
Cotality (formerly CoreLogic)
Residential rent and dwelling value data
Domain Group
Rental market reports by city and region
SQM Research
Weekly asking rent index
Australian Taxation Office
Individual income tax rates & Medicare levy
State & territory government data
Rental bond and tenancy authority reporting (varies by state)