Costs of Living in Melbourne

[gwolst77]

Hi

 

Just in the final stages of accepting an offer to relocate to Melbourne and start a new job. Been reading through various post regarding the cost of living in Oz and how it's much more expensive it is than the UK.

 

Could someone tell me the equivalent Australian companies (and there websites) for the companies listed below, and I will start making price comparisons for certain items which I will then post the results back on here.I hear what people are saying about the cost of living, but the UK is very expensive compared to just two years ago and it is getting expensive all over the world. I have just got back from a holiday in Florida and I can tell you the US is just as expensive as the UK comparing a shop in Wal-Mart to a shop in Asda.

 

Comet/Curries/Dixons

Tesco/Sainsbury's

Debenhams/John Lewis

Top Shop/Top Man/H & M

Next (I know they have a online presence in Oz)

Ikea

 

 

My situation is that I will be going out for a couple of months first to setup home and then come back for the wife and two kids (aged 4 and 8 months) around November/December. So I will obviously be setting up home with a container to follow on at some point. Some of the larger items in our UK house would probably end up being replaced in the next 12 -18 months (TV, sofa, living room furniture) so I will buy them new in Oz, and looking at the rental market most of the type of houses we are looking at have white goods, so we will probably not be taking those either. Some items we are considering either to sell and replace with new once in Oz or ship. However if I have space in my container I am going to pack it with as much as possible and decide what to do with once in Oz

 

If someone could please give me ball park figures for household bills for a new build 3 bedroom house in Melbourne that would be great (not bothered if they are over estimated as I would rather budget using top end figures)

Just trying to figure out what my monthly outgoings are going to be before food, rent, car etc. Also is there an equivalent of council tax out in Oz and if so how much is it

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Someone who is excited and scared at the same time!

 

:confused:

[CXW]

Comet/Curries/Dixons - ​http://www.thegoodguys.com.au/buyonline/ or http://www.appliancesonline.com.au/

Tesco/Sainsbury's - http://www.woolworths.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/webSite/Woolworths/ or http://www.coles.com.au/

Debenhams/John Lewis - http://www.myer.com.au/ or http://www.harveynorman.com.au/ (debenhams will ship to Australia, as will M&S)

Top Shop/Top Man/H & M - not sure, will leave this one for others

Next (I know they have a online presence in Oz) - not sure, will leave this one for others

Ikea - http://www.ikea.com/au/en/

[gwolst77]

Thanks CXW

[chloe98]

for the clothes shops,- sportsgirl, cotton on, meanest, just jeans, glassons , know they all have websites you can check tho online products tend to be pretty limited. also target have some clothes online you could look at

[chloe98]

meanest was supposed to be jeans west!- stupid phone.

will leave the bill estimate to someone living in Melbourne

[gwolst77]

Thanks can anyone give me a ball park figure for utility bills (gas, electric, council tax or its equivilant, broadband, water etc)

 

I just want to get a ball park figure (I will round up to the nearest hundred) I will then add it to virutal shop at Coles and potential rent figures, so I can get an idea of what money I will have left over each month from my salary (before I start looking at cars etc)

[chloe98]

ok, this is very rough estimate - we are in regional Victoria so maybe city might be bit more expensive(tho maybe not.

gas and elec- 150 per month

phone and internet- 100 per month

pay tv- 80 per month

water- 50 per month

there is no council tax equivalent or rates when renting.

could work out cheaper depending on size of house being heated etc, if has air con etc

also internet and pay tv packages vary ofcourse.

[gwolst77]

ok, this is very rough estimate - we are in regional Victoria so maybe city might be bit more expensive(tho maybe not.

gas and elec- 150 per month

phone and internet- 100 per month

pay tv- 80 per month

water- 50 per month

there is no council tax equivalent or rates when renting.

could work out cheaper depending on size of house being heated etc, if has air con etc

also internet and pay tv packages vary ofcourse.

 

Thanks Chloe

 

When doing the sums I always overestimate, then when the bills come in less it's a nice little bonus.

 

It actually looks like gas and electric are cheaper out in Oz. I currently pay £120 per month for both (and I am on one of the cheapest fixed deals in the UK)

Is pay TV Foxtel out there? I would assume by the name it's Mr Murdochs company and it's the equivalent of Sky back in the UK.

 

Over the moon there is no equivalent of council tax in Oz. That's currently £160 month at the moment

 

Totalling up your figures would you say $500 is more than enough to cover what you've stated above plus a couple of sim only mobile phone contracts (we will be taking our iPhones out there).

 

Thanks again

[Petkula73]

It actually looks like gas and electric are cheaper out in Oz. I currently pay £120 per month for both (and I am on one of the cheapest fixed deals in the UK)

 

 

 

Gas and electricity are generally accepted to be a lot more expensive in Australia than in the UK...

 

Also, you'll need to factor in things like heating and cooling which is where the costs can really stack up. Most houses in the UK now are reasonably energy efficient (double glazed, loft and cavity wall insulation and so on) but that's not the case in Australia. You may find houses feel freezing in Melbourne winters and unbearable in the summer months and you'll need to spend a lot of money to keep them hot or cool. The much maligned carbon tax is not going to make things easier as the tax (and no doubt a nice admin fee) will be passed on to the customers, so prices are set to rise further.

 

With regard to the question about Dixons/Comet equivalents, the main ones are probably Dick Smith, Harvey Norman and JB HiFi. None of them are particularly cheap compared to the UK. There is also www.kogan.com.au , which is an on-line retailer that is somewhat cheaper. I've not bought anything from them, so can't vouch for them, but the general feedback and internet reviews seem positive.

 

Don't waste your money buying clothes in Australia - it'll be much cheaper for you to buy it all in the UK and put it in with any shipping you're sending over. A good example would be shoes. The cheapest, nastiest shoes here are still $50+. You'll get the same ones in Asda or Tesco for under a tenner. If you want a good pair you can pay $200 and up for something you can get in the UK for 50 pounds. What you don't really get here are the mega deals like in the UK. They have the "DFO" outlets but they're not particularly cheap. The average UK high street will have a much better choice for a lot less money.

 

Apologies if this has come across as negative. I absolutely love Australia and the fact clothes and shoes cost more than back home doesn't change that.

[ldticp]

Gas and electricity are generally accepted to be a lot more expensive in Australia than in the UK...

 

Thats not true at all, for example back in the UK we paid around £150 per month gas and electric in Brisbane QLD we pay under $100 per month. Very similar usage.

 

I was going to comment on the rest of the post but all of your information is so far removed from the truth I really didn't know where to start..

 

Cost of living Australia is generally cheaper than the UK in some cases by a lot in some by not much at all. Do a search for my posts previously where I put down typical costs to get an idea of budgets. You should factor in a 2.2 times multiplier so what costs £1 in the UK if exactly the same cost of living would be somewhere around $2.20.

 

We live as a family of 4 in Brisbane, when we moved over here we read all the horror stories on here about cost of living and were terrified we were going to really struggle, in fact it's the opposite. We spend so much less on food and bills here than the UK.

 

Electric: $100 per month

Water: $15 per month

Food: $800 per month

2 Mobile phones, unlimited ADSL2 and home phone: $100 per month

 

Last weekend I bought a new pair of work shoes good quality for $50 down from $100 in the sales, a really nice pair of jeans for $50 and 4 good quality work shirts for $100. In the UK I would expect to spend £50 on equivelent shoes, £50 on the jeans and £60 on the shirts(probably more on the shirts to be honest)

 

The posts on here claiming how expensive everything is over here really irritate me since they ahve zero basis in fact, please feel free to show us proof that equivelent living here is more expensive than the UK. I can 100% guarantee that I can prove living in oz is cheaper.

[Guest Guest62757]

I have been living in Australia for 5 years now in Sydney, Central Coast and now Melbourne (Eastern suburb) I can confirm that my electricity bills for all 4 houses I have lived have ranged from $750 - $1200 per quarter. $1200 being the most expensive because we arrived in August and it was freezing.

 

As for Gas my bills again have ranged from $ 170-$300 per quarter.

 

I have nothing to gain by making these figures up and I can produce the bills.

 

I also am very close friends with the chap that helped set up Uswitch in the UK and is now here in Australia with Make it cheaper, you might have seen him on the tv in the morning on channel 9..well I've had him look through my bills too and and have switched in order to get better deals and my bills seem to be norm according to him.

 

We are a family of 5, 2 adults and 3 young children so yes we are at home more often than a working couple/family.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Thats not true at all, for example back in the UK we paid around £150 per month gas and electric in Brisbane QLD we pay under $100 per month. Very similar usage.

 

I was going to comment on the rest of the post but all of your information is so far removed from the truth I really didn't know where to start..

 

Cost of living Australia is generally cheaper than the UK in some cases by a lot in some by not much at all. Do a search for my posts previously where I put down typical costs to get an idea of budgets. You should factor in a 2.2 times multiplier so what costs £1 in the UK if exactly the same cost of living would be somewhere around $2.20.

 

We live as a family of 4 in Brisbane, when we moved over here we read all the horror stories on here about cost of living and were terrified we were going to really struggle, in fact it's the opposite. We spend so much less on food and bills here than the UK.

 

Electric: $100 per month

Water: $15 per month

Food: $800 per month

2 Mobile phones, unlimited ADSL2 and home phone: $100 per month

 

Last weekend I bought a new pair of work shoes good quality for $50 down from $100 in the sales, a really nice pair of jeans for $50 and 4 good quality work shirts for $100. In the UK I would expect to spend £50 on equivelent shoes, £50 on the jeans and £60 on the shirts(probably more on the shirts to be honest)

 

The posts on here claiming how expensive everything is over here really irritate me since they ahve zero basis in fact, please feel free to show us proof that equivelent living here is more expensive than the UK. I can 100% guarantee that I can prove living in oz is cheaper.

 

For a start you live in Brisbane not Melbourne so how do you know if Petkula's post is incorrect or not.

 

Ok in Melbourne we paid (family of 5)

 

Electric - $450 per quarter (in Queensland we are paying over $1000 per quarter)

Gas - $400 per quarter (in Queensland we are paying $70 per quarter)

Food Shopping $300 per week

Mobiles, phone and internet $360 per month (that's 3 mobiles though)

 

Anyway I agree with regards to clothes it is cheaper to get them in the UK and ship them over, not all clothes but a lot of them especially children's clothes and shoes. These for example http://www.clarks.co.uk/p/20339012 cost me $120 yesterday and that was in the sale, should have been $149.99.

I can't find this particular brand on the AU website although I bought them yesterday (maybe old stock) but look at the price here of other shoes http://www.clarks.com.au/category/senior

I could go on with price comparisons.

 

 

It really doesn't make sense when you can say that you can guarantee 100% that living here is cheaper, I'm sorry but Australia had 3 of the worlds most expensive countries listed in the top 20, http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jun/12/city-cost-of-living-2012-tokyo

 

To the op, you can make it work for you, although things are more expensive you will find it's swings and roundabouts, some things are cheaper but not ALL. We are better off here than we were in the UK.

[rikyuu]

"Mobiles, phone and internet $360 per month (that's 3 mobiles though)"

 

- could probably be had cheaper - $35pm mobile (HTC EVO 3d with significant calls and data), $88pm phone/internet (with 200GB data)

[Guest The Pom Queen]

"Mobiles, phone and internet $360 per month (that's 3 mobiles though)"

 

- could probably be had cheaper - $35pm mobile (HTC EVO 3d with significant calls and data), $88pm phone/internet (with 200GB data)

 

We have 3 on Virgin (Optus inc 3 x IPhone 4) Unfortunately some areas you have no choice but to go with Bigpond/Telstra so we do pay top whack.

[fairystar32]

We do live in Brisbane so maybe not comparable but We used to pay £160 in the UK 3.5 yrs ago and we did pay $210 here and were over $1000 in credit !!!

 

We use about $100-150 pr month so MUCH cheaper than the UK. We are a family of 6 and I stay at home.

 

I have boughts lots of decent shoes for WELL under $200

They are cheaper in the UK but not that much cheaper.

 

Gas and electricity are generally accepted to be a lot more expensive in Australia than in the UK...

 

 

 

Don't waste your money buying clothes in Australia - it'll be much cheaper for you to buy it all in the UK and put it in with any shipping you're sending over. A good example would be shoes. The cheapest, nastiest shoes here are still $50+. You'll get the same ones in Asda or Tesco for under a tenner. If you want a good pair you can pay $200 and up for something you can get in the UK for 50 pounds. What you don't really get here are the mega deals like in the UK. They have the "DFO" outlets but they're not particularly cheap. The average UK high street will have a much better choice for a lot less money.

 

Apologies if this has come across as negative. I absolutely love Australia and the fact clothes and shoes cost more than back home doesn't change that.

[DBC]

I think the cost of living very much depends on the individual circumstances of each family. For example, we have less disposable income in Melbourne than we did in the UK but that was because we had a tracker mortgage and the interest was virtually nothing. We spend a much higher proportion of our income on rent here.

I see that you have kids - we found things like baby formula and nappies to be much higher here than in the UK, however people want to convert the prices. However, classes such as swimming, playgroups etc that I did back home with my little one aren't that much different. The summer months are great as you pack up a picnic, head to the beach or park and that costs nothing. Days out are quite expensive, but so are trips to the zoo, Alton Towers etc back home, it really does depend on what you like to do in your spare time.

The one thing that is shocking is the cost of cars - we sold 2 really nice cars back in the UK and have a 2008 Holden estate that cost us $17,000. You definitely get more for your money in the UK in that respect but I really don't miss the fancy cars - they all get you from A to B in the end!

You won't be able to calculate to the penny so don't get too wrapped up in that - most people do find Melbourne expensive, and as I've said, we have less disposable income but we have still had a couple of trips away and love it here. Good luck!

[Petkula73]

I was going to comment on the rest of the post but all of your information is so far removed from the truth I really didn't know where to start.

 

I can't comment on Brisbane having only been to Queensland twice, but my experience of Australia from living in Melbourne is different from yours.

 

My experience of the UK may be different as well, who knows.

 

One thing that is exactly the same price in both countries - good manners cost nothing, but are worth a lot.

[rikyuu]

One thing that is exactly the same price in both countries - good manners cost nothing, but are worth a lot.

 

nah, in the UK, retailers have long known manners are too expensive, so did away with them years ago, they were replaced with the occassional grunt. It was always the customers who had to have manners, thanking the retailers for selling you something and taking your money.

 

Only Aussie retailers can afford manners, in most cases anyway (even if they are useless when it comes to any actual problems).

[gwolst77]

I would agree that Australia on balance is more expensive than the UK (certainly clothes, booze, cars) but I also think some people don't realise how expensive the UK is now days (even compared to last year). I am lucky as I live in East Lancashire (work at home but I cover the entire EMEA region so do travel a lot). So my cost of living is probably less than someonce living in the South East (especially the cost of rent). Just for a bit of balance I thought I would share this months budget with PIO.

 

Rent is £700 a month ($1058) however this property would be at least £850 ($1285) in a northern UK city and probably over £1000 ($1512) in the South East and a lot more the closer you got to London. Now when I compare what I get over here compared to a $300 - $350 per week four bed home at the new Saltwater Coast development at Point Cook (or a smiliar location on the west coast of Melbourne). You just could not get something like that (size, quality etc) in the UK unless you want to spend serious dosh. Factor in the weather during the summer months and all the stuff you can do free (which you normally have to go abroad on holiday to do), you are comparing apples and oranges

 

I currently pay £110 per month for gas and electric (I live in a new build three storey town house that is well insulated and double glazed). I have just given my meter readings and a bill land on my doorstep this morning saying they where taking another £169 out of my account later this month (to cover the shortfall) and upping my month DD to £130 ($196)

 

Water is £59 ($89)

 

Sky, Phone, Broadband £90 ($136) + call charges

 

Mobiles £75 ($113) two contracts T-Mobile

 

Council Tax £160 ($242) I only pay this for 10 months of the year

 

Home Inusrance £33 ($48)

 

Car Insurance £70 ($105) fully comp for 2007 Audi A6 (7 years no claims)

 

Shopping £700 per month ($1058) it will probably be more than this but the figure includes tolietries, household cleaning products etc

[Guest Jewelz]

This may be a better way to compare your leccy and gas bills but add some usage on for cooling in the summer. Winter you will need your heating on. And you will most likely have no double glazing and insulation to keep it warm/cool.

Electricity - $0.2201 per KWH plus $14.46 supply charge plus GST

 

Gas - $0.01513 per unit plus $12.24 service charge plus GST

 

both with AGL - not sure how competitive they are

Our water is covered in our rent

 

We currently rent out our smallish 4 bed house back home in the East Midlands for just over £800 per month and rent a 2 bed unit in Altona for just over $300 a week. Without the fairly generous pay rise my hubby had for coming here I think we would have struggled. And now the LaFFHA is finishing that is going to make a huge difference to the amount of tax we will pay and will be worse off for it.

A lot of things are more expensive like going out for a meal, furniture, clothes & household goods but some things are cheaper like petrol, public transport and some things are free like the use of the electric bbq's which are in every park even out in the bush, there are places you can camp for free, no tv license, no council tax, getting into the national parks and parking are often free unless its in the city or a very popular tourist attraction in which case it can be expensive. Also when there's an event on like for Australia day its all free. Some parks have free entertainment in them on certain days all through summer.

And no MOT every year. Although you do need a road worthy certificate when you sell a vehicle in Victoria.

 

Basically things work out more expensive here, but the wages here are better to compensate. And you can shop around for cheaper things. Meals out might be expensive but they are big portions usually.