City comparison
| # | City | Surplus | Wkly rent | Rent % of income | Rating |
|---|
Compare two cities
| City A | City B | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly rent | — | — |
| Monthly living costs | — | — |
| Total monthly cost | — | — |
| Monthly surplus | — | — |
| Rating | — | — |
This tool compares whole cities. For rent, savings and mortgage affordability down to a specific suburb, try the Cost of Living Explorer.
How it works
- Estimate after-tax income
Your gross salary is run through the current Australian resident tax brackets and the Medicare levy, the same calculation used in the Income Tax Calculator, to get a realistic take-home figure rather than comparing rent against gross salary.
- Estimate rent for your housing type
Each city has a benchmark rent, scaled up or down depending on whether you chose a share room, an apartment, or a house.
- Estimate living costs for your household
A national baseline for everyday costs (groceries, transport, utilities) is scaled by each city's relative cost of living, then by how many people that income needs to support.
- Calculate the monthly surplus
Take-home pay, minus rent, minus living costs, per month — this is the main number the ranking is sorted by.
- Apply an affordability rating
A traffic-light rating (Comfortable / Manageable / Stretched / Difficult) combines the rent-to-income ratio with the surplus, so a technically-low rent percentage doesn't hide an unhealthy budget.
Worked example
On this income, Sydney's rent alone takes 30.6% of gross salary for a 1-bedroom apartment — compared to 20.0% in Hobart — and the gap compounds once Sydney's higher general cost of living is factored in too. The difference between the most and least affordable city here is over $1,500 a month, not just a few percentage points of rent.
Data & sources
Methodology & assumptions
Tax. Uses current Australian resident income-tax brackets plus a flat 2% Medicare levy. Offsets, HECS/HELP repayments and other deductions are not modelled.
City rent benchmarks. Each city has a general rent benchmark (drawn from national rental reporting), scaled by a housing-size multiplier: room/share ×0.42, 1-bedroom ×0.70, 2-bedroom ×1.00 (baseline), 3-bedroom ×1.30, 4-bedroom ×1.60. These multipliers are estimated typical ratios, not sourced per-property data.
Living costs. A national baseline of $650/week for a single adult is scaled by each city's relative cost-of-living index, then by a household multiplier: single ×1.0, couple ×1.6, couple + 1 child ×2.0, couple + 2 children ×2.3, family (3+ children) ×2.7.
Affordability rating. 🟢 Comfortable: rent under 30% of gross income with a healthy surplus. 🟡 Manageable: rent 30–35%, or a thinner surplus. 🟠 Stretched: rent 35–40%. 🔴 Difficult: rent over 40%, or a very low or negative surplus. This is this site's own estimation model, not an official financial or government standard.
This tool is for general illustration only and is not financial advice.