Cost of Living in Australia: 2026 Data and 10-Year Outlook

G’day, Joaquin here. After years of moving families between states, I can tell you the cost of living in Australia is not one number, it is six very different ones. What you pay to live in Sydney barely resembles what you pay in Adelaide, and in 2026 those gaps are wider than I have seen them. The city you choose shapes your rent, your weekly shop and your transport bill far more than most people expect before they work out how much they are shifting.

This is the national overview. I will put Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth and Brisbane side by side on the numbers that actually hit your bank account every week: median rent, groceries, transport and a realistic weekly budget. We are a Melbourne removalist business, so the local detail in the city sections runs deepest there, but the figures below are current 2026 data for every capital, each one sourced and dated so you can trust it.

If a move is already on the cards and Melbourne is in the picture, you can get a free estimate from our team of removalists Melbourne in a couple of minutes. For now though, let us work out where your dollar actually stretches the furthest in 2026.

Cost of living across Australia’s capitals in 2026

Each capital tells a different money story in 2026. Sydney sits clearly at the top, driven by the highest rents in the country and pricey everyday costs. Melbourne runs second on overall budget but is actually the cheapest of the six on house rent, a quirk worth knowing if you are weighing a move.

Adelaide is the standout for value, kindest on rent, groceries and transport at once. Brisbane is close behind and has a trump card no other capital can match: a flat 50c public transport fare. Canberra and Perth land in the middle, comfortable capital living without Sydney’s sting.

Rent is the lever that moves your budget most, so start there. The ladder below ranks the six capitals on median weekly house rent for the March 2026 quarter.

Two numbers jump out. Sydney’s $800/wk house rent is 36% higher than Melbourne’s $590/wk, and Perth has surged to second place after a 5.7% jump in the March quarter, the steepest of any capital. Melbourne, despite its big-city reputation, is the cheapest of the six on house rent.

Rent is only part of the picture though. The table below brings the full weekly budget together: rent, groceries, transport and a realistic all-in figure for a single renter in each city.

Renters in Victoria who have to move before their term ends should read breaking a rental agreement in Victoria, which sets out the notice periods and when no costs apply.

Sources: rent = Domain Rental Report, March 2026 quarter (median weekly house rent). Groceries and overall budget derived from Numbeo, June 2026 (single person, weekly), lower-confidence crowd-sourced data, treat as indicative. Transport = published 2026 fares: Brisbane 50c flat fare (TransLink), Sydney Opal weekly cap ~$50, Melbourne/Canberra/Adelaide daily caps annualised. Typical weekly budget = rent + groceries + transport + utilities, dining and incidentals for one person.

The all-in numbers tell the story rents alone do not. Adelaide lands cheapest at about $985/wk for a single renter, while Sydney runs roughly 23% dearer at $1,210/wk. Brisbane and Melbourne sit almost level near $1,010, but they get there differently: Melbourne wins on rent, Brisbane wins on transport with that 50c flat fare saving a commuter around $45 a week versus Sydney.

For a family, scale these up. A household of four typically runs to $1,900 to $2,400 a week all-in across the six capitals, with the same ranking holding: Adelaide and Brisbane easiest on the budget, Sydney the heaviest. The city sections below break each capital down in detail, starting with our home turf, Melbourne.

Cost of Living in Melbourne (2026)

Melbourne stays a notch cheaper than Sydney, but it is no bargain. The pressure point is rent: the rental market is the tightest it has been in years, and that flows through to almost everyone we move. We shift families into Melbourne suburbs every week, so this is the breakdown we wish more newcomers had before they signed a lease.

Everything below is framed weekly, the way Australians actually budget, with property values shown as totals. Every figure carries its source and date.

What renting costs in Melbourne right now

Rent is the line that decides whether the rest of the budget breathes. Melbourne has done something no other capital has: units now ask more than houses, driven by a wave of demand for inner-city flats while the vacancy rate sits at a punishing 1.0%.

The unusual house-versus-unit flip is worth flagging before you assume a flat will be the cheaper option. It is not, at least not on the median.

Source: Domain Rental Report, March 2026 quarter.

The practical takeaway: budget around $590 to $600 a week for a typical place, and more if you want space or an inner suburb. Where you land varies enormously by postcode, so it pays to weigh rent against commute before you commit. Our best suburbs in Melbourne guide sets out where the value sits across the metro.

Buying: median house and unit prices

If you are weighing a purchase, Melbourne has been one of the softer capital-city markets. Values eased slightly over the March 2026 quarter rather than running away, which is rare relief for buyers.

Houses still sit near the million mark; units are well under two-thirds of that. These are total values, not weekly figures.

Source: Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) Home Value Index, March 2026.

The top end of the market behaves very differently from the median, so do not anchor a budget on a single citywide number. If you are aiming high, benchmark against the richest suburbs in Melbourne before you set expectations.

Groceries and inflation

Grocery prices have been the quiet driver of cost-of-living stress. Headline inflation is running hot again, and food, while not the worst category, keeps creeping up.

Victorian households sit roughly in the middle of the pack nationally on the weekly shop, below New South Wales and above Western Australia.

Sources: Finder average grocery bill, 2026; Australian Bureau of Statistics, Consumer Price Index, year to April 2026.

Food inflation at 2.8% is the gentlest of the big three, which is the silver lining here. Housing at 6.3% is doing most of the damage, so the grocery shop is not where Melbourne budgets blow out. Strong supermarket competition and markets like Queen Vic keep the weekly spend manageable.

Getting around: myki and the car

Public transport in Melbourne is unusually cheap to run right now. The full-fare myki daily cap rose to $11.40 on 1 January 2026, but a half-price fare period runs from 1 June 2026 until 1 January 2027, dropping the cap to $5.70.

For a five-day commuter, that is the difference between roughly $57 and $29 in a normal week. Driving is a different story once you tally fuel, registration and insurance.

Source: Transport Victoria myki fares, 2026 (half-price fare period 1 June 2026 to 1 January 2027).

Running a car adds fuel on top of fixed costs. Transport was the single biggest contributor to inflation in the year to April 2026 at 6.6%, largely fuel. If you are weighing a move and want to sanity-check the petrol side, our fuel cost calculator takes the guesswork out.

Utilities

Energy bills are one of the few lines heading the right way. The Essential Services Commission cut the Victorian Default Offer for 2026-27, with the average residential electricity bill falling about 5%.

That puts the typical default-offer power bill near $1,591 a year, roughly $30 a week before gas, water and internet. Most households who shop around pay less.

Sources: Essential Services Commission, Victorian Default Offer 2026-27 (final decision, May 2026); gas, water and NBN figures are typical Melbourne household ranges.

The lever that matters most here is electricity, since it is the largest energy line and the one falling. Gas swings hardest with the heating season, so a winter budget should run higher than a summer one.

Salaries and what a weekly budget really looks like

Wages have not kept pace with rent, which is why the budget feels tighter even when pay rises. Full-time ordinary earnings nationally sat at $2,051.10 a week in November 2025, up 3.8% over the year, while housing costs climbed 6.3%.

Pulling the lines together, here is a realistic weekly picture for three Melbourne households in 2026. Rent uses the Domain median, the rest blends the figures above.

Indicative budgets built from: Domain rents (March 2026), Finder grocery spend (2026), Essential Services Commission utilities (2026-27) and Transport Victoria myki fares (2026). Earnings: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earnings, November 2025. Totals are illustrative; individual costs vary by suburb and lifestyle.

The pattern is the same across every household type: rent eats the budget first, and everything else has to fit around it. For a fuller postcode-by-postcode view of where your money stretches furthest, the Melbourne cost of living guide goes deeper than we can here. Pick the suburb to suit the rent, not the other way around, and the rest of the budget tends to follow.

Cost of Living in Sydney (2026)

Sydney is the most expensive place to live in Australia, and the gap is widening. We move families into the Harbour City often enough to see where the money really goes, and in 2026 it is rent that does the damage. House rents and unit rents are both sitting at record highs, the rental vacancy rate is near zero, and a typical household is paying more for power, water and groceries than it did a year ago.

None of that stops people coming. The wages are higher here too, and for a lot of the families we relocate the trade-off is worth it. Below is the weekly picture for 2026, broken down the way a household actually budgets it: rent, groceries, transport, utilities, salaries and the all-in weekly cost for a single person, a couple and a family.

Rent and housing in Sydney

Rent is the line that decides whether Sydney works for you. In the March 2026 quarter the median house rent held at a record $800/week and the median unit rent held at a record $750/week, the first time in five years rents stayed flat for two quarters running.

The flat reading is not relief, it is a ceiling. With the vacancy rate at a record 0.8%, there is almost nothing to move into, so prices have stopped rising mainly because tenants have hit the limit of what they can pay. For families we move into the inner and middle rings, competition for a decent listing is still fierce.

Buying is a different scale of money. The median Sydney house price is $1.79 million (down a token 0.04% on the quarter, up 6.6% year on year) and the median unit is a record $848,227. Those are property values, not weekly figures, and they put a freestanding house out of reach for most first-home buyers without help.

Source: Domain House Price Report and Rental Report, March 2026 quarter. Rents are weekly medians; prices are total property values.

Groceries and food

Food inflation has cooled from its 2022 peak but it has not gone away. Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 2.8% in the year to March 2026 nationally, with meat the standout: beef up about 13.5% and lamb up about 12.9% on export demand. Fresh fruit and veg, up around 1.9%, stayed the cheapest part of the trolley.

In practice a single person in Sydney spends about $178/week on groceries and a family of four about $240/week, before any eating out. Sydney sits at the top end of the capitals for everyday staples, so it pays to shop the specials and lean on markets for produce.

Source: Finder average grocery bill and ABS food inflation, 2026. Couple figure interpolated from the single and family spends; treat as a guide, not an exact bill.

Transport

Sydney rewards anyone who can stay off the road. The Opal weekly fare cap is still $50/week for adults, held there for the seventh year running, so once you hit it the rest of the week is free. For most commuters near a train or metro line, that $50 cap is the entire transport budget.

Driving is where it adds up. Unleaded 91 has been cycling around $1.67/litre across Sydney in mid-2026 (city average near 167c, cheapest sites around 153c). Add rego, insurance and servicing and a car runs well past $80/week before tolls and parking, which in Sydney are not small.

Sources: Transport for NSW Opal fares 2026; NRMA and FuelRadar Sydney pump prices, June 2026. Car running costs are indicative; tolls and parking are extra and vary widely.

Utilities

Utilities are a steady drag rather than a shock. A typical NSW electricity bill runs about $1,965/year, roughly $38/week, though the AER’s final Default Market Offer for 2026-27 brings residential prices down between 1.3% and 10.1% from 1 July 2026, so this should ease.

Water is set by IPART: a typical Sydney Water household now pays about $1,388/year, around $27/week, after a 13.8% rise in 2025-26. Add gas of roughly $15/week for the homes that use it and an unlimited NBN plan around $18/week, and the basics land near $98/week for a typical household.

Sources: AER Default Market Offer 2025-26 and 2026-27; IPART Sydney Water prices 2025-30 (final report, Sep 2025); typical retail NBN and gas plans, 2026. Bills vary with household size and usage.

Salaries: can you afford it?

The reason Sydney works at all is that it pays. NSW full-time adult ordinary earnings averaged $2,086.80/week before tax in November 2025, the third highest of any state or territory behind the ACT and Western Australia.

That sounds healthy until you set it against rent. A single full-time earner on the NSW average renting a median unit at $750/week is handing over about 36% of gross pay in rent alone, well past the 30% mark that flags housing stress. Two incomes change the maths fast, which is why so many of the moves we do into Sydney are couples and families pooling earnings.

Weekly household budgets for Sydney (2026)

Pulling the lines together gives a realistic weekly cost of living for three household types. These cover rent, groceries, transport, utilities and a modest allowance for everything else (phone, healthcare, the odd meal out). They assume renting, not buying, and a unit for the single and couple.

Sources: Domain (rents, Mar 2026), Finder/ABS (groceries, 2026), Transport for NSW (Opal, 2026), AER and IPART (utilities, 2025-26). Estimates assume renting; budgets shift with suburb, lifestyle and whether you run a car. Where you land matters just as much, so it is worth checking our guide to the safest suburbs in Sydney before you sign.

The short version: Sydney is dear, rent is the reason, and the wages are what make it survivable. If you are planning a move here, price the rent first and build the rest of the budget around it.

Cost of Living in Adelaide (2026)

Adelaide still reads as the affordable capital, but the gap is closing fast as its fastest-growing suburbs fill up. We move families from Melbourne into Adelaide most weeks, and the first thing newcomers feel is the rent: house rents hit a fresh record in early 2026 and the metro median house price now sits just shy of seven figures. Groceries, transport and a night out remain genuinely cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne, so the budget maths still works, it just needs more care than it did five years ago.

Weekly household budgets in Adelaide

Here is how a typical week breaks down for the three most common household types. Rent is the line that moves everyone’s number, so we have used current median rents rather than averages that lag the market.

NR estimate built from REA/Domain median rents (Jan 2026), ABS Selected Living Cost Indexes and Adelaide Metro fares (current as at June 2026). Totals exclude one-off costs (bond, furniture, removalist).

Rent eats the lion’s share, around 53% of a couple’s spend before income tax. That is above the 30% benchmark commonly used for housing stress, so the suburb you choose does more for your budget than any other single decision.

Where you rent decides most of that number, so it pays to weigh the trade-offs before you commit. Our guide to the safest suburbs in Adelaide shows where the value and the liveability actually line up across the metro.

Housing: rent and prices in Adelaide

Housing is the headline. Adelaide was the quiet, affordable capital for most of the 2010s, then it caught up hard. House rents reached a record $600/wk in early 2026 after a 3.4% rise over 2025, and the median house price climbed to $980,815, up nearly 80% over five years.

Units are the relief valve. Median apartment rent sits around $520/wk, and the combined dwelling median of $922,991 sits below the house-only figure, so a townhouse or unit is where most first-home and single-renter budgets land.

Rents: REA Market Insight via InDaily (Jan 2026). Prices: Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) Home Value Index, March 2026. Property values shown as totals, rents weekly.

The trend matters more than the snapshot. With a tight rental vacancy rate and steady migration, we tell families to budget for moderate ongoing rent rises rather than a return to the cheap Adelaide of a decade ago.

Groceries and everyday essentials

The supermarket shop is where Adelaide keeps its reputation. A standard basket runs a little cheaper than Melbourne and noticeably below Sydney, even after the inflation of recent years. A single shopper spends roughly $110/wk, a couple around $200/wk.

Indicative Coles/Woolworths Adelaide shelf prices, June 2026; food was a key driver of the +4.1% Adelaide CPI to March 2026 (ABS).

Food inflation is real but cooling. The Adelaide Central Market and the city’s strong fresh-produce culture also give shoppers a genuine cheaper alternative to the big two chains, which is not something every capital can claim.

Transport costs in Adelaide

Getting around is one of Adelaide’s clearest wins. Public transport is among the cheapest in the country, and car ownership runs lower than Victoria or New South Wales on registration and insurance.

Adelaide Metro fares rose ~3% from 1 July 2025 (Adelaide Metro); fuel from ACCC/state averages, June 2026; car costs annualised then shown weekly per AU convention.

The 28-day pass at roughly $123 is a fraction of what a Sydney commuter pays, and South Australia’s lower registration and insurance are a genuine saving if you are changing your rego between Victoria and South Australia after an interstate move.

Utilities in Adelaide

Utilities are the line where Adelaide loses some of its affordability edge. South Australia has historically carried some of the country’s highest electricity prices, partly offset by very high rooftop solar uptake.

NR estimate from AER Default Market Offer and SA Water schedules; quarterly bills converted to weekly per AU convention, June 2026.

Solar changes the picture for owners. Households that switch retailers each year and run rooftop panels routinely pull their energy line well below the figures above, which is the single biggest utilities lever in this state.

Salaries versus the cost of living

Wages are the other side of the ledger, and this is where South Australia lags. SA records among the lowest average earnings of any state, which tightens the rent-to-income squeeze even though prices are lower than the east coast.

ABS Average Weekly Earnings, November 2025 (full-time adult ordinary time earnings); rent share uses the $600/wk house median.

The takeaway for anyone moving here: Adelaide’s lower prices are real, but so are its lower wages. A renter on the SA average is still putting more than a third of pre-tax pay toward a house, which is why unit living and the right suburb do the heavy lifting on affordability.

Cost of Living in Canberra (2026)

Canberra is famously safe and leafy and well paid, but it is not a cheap place to land. We move families into the ACT most weeks, and the pattern is consistent: high local salaries soften the blow, yet rent and housing still swallow more of the pay packet here than almost anywhere else in the country. The figures below are weekly where they recur (rent, groceries, wages, budgets) and totals where they are property values, all sourced and dated.

A typical weekly budget for a Canberra couple (2026)

Canberra runs on strong household incomes, so the budget below starts from a combined net figure rather than a single wage. Housing is the line that hurts: even on capital-city earnings, rent is the single biggest weekly cost by a wide margin.

Income based on ABS Average Weekly Earnings, ACT, Nov 2025 ($2,249 full-time per worker), netted and adjusted for a dual-income couple. Cost lines from Domain rent (Mar 2026 qtr), Canstar Blue grocery survey (2025) and ACT regulated utility prices (2025-26). Indicative weekly budget, June 2026.

Rent at roughly 30% of net income looks manageable on paper, but that figure leans on two strong salaries. Drop to a single capital-city wage and the same $700 house consumes well over half of take-home pay, which is why so many renters chase a unit at $580 instead.

Housing: rent and property values

Housing is the headline cost in Canberra. House rents reached a record $700 per week over the March 2026 quarter and units held at a record $580, with Domain forecasting house asking rents near $725 across 2026. The rental market is tight: the ACT vacancy rate fell to 0.8% in March 2026, the lowest since mid-2022.

On values, the median house is back above seven figures at $1,048,285, up 7.7% over the year, while units sit at $598,702 (Cotality/CoreLogic, March 2026). For renters that means a typical house costs about $36,400 a year, before bills.

Rents: Domain Rental Report, March 2026 quarter. Values and annual change: Cotality (CoreLogic), March 2026.

Renting vs buying. A 0.8% vacancy rate gives renters very little room to negotiate, especially in the inner north and around the parliamentary triangle. Buying suits Canberra’s steady, government-anchored job market, but a house deposit on a $1.05 million median is a stretch even on ACT salaries, so plenty of households rent for longer than they planned.

Groceries and essentials

Canberra’s weekly shop lands mid-pack nationally rather than at the top. ACT households reported an average grocery bill of about $174 per week in a 2025 Canstar Blue survey, close to Victoria ($173) and below New South Wales ($180). Food inflation has cooled too, with the food and non-alcoholic beverages group up just 2.5% over the year to April 2026.

Grocery spend: Canstar Blue supermarket survey, 2025. Food inflation: ABS Consumer Price Index, Canberra, year to April 2026.

The gap on any single item is only cents, but it stacks up across a full trolley. If you have just moved up from Melbourne the weekly difference is barely noticeable; shoppers coming from regional towns tend to feel it more.

Transport

Public transport is genuinely cheap in Canberra, but the city is built for cars, so most households still carry fuel, registration and insurance. A single adult bus or light rail trip on MyWay+ is $3.41 at peak and $2.70 off-peak, with a weekday cap of $10.16 and a weekend cap of $6.22 (Transport Canberra, fares effective 10 January 2026).

The ACT Government also cut the monthly fare cap to 20 paid trips from 8 April to 30 June 2026 in response to cost-of-living pressure, so a daily commuter can hit the cap and ride free for the rest of the month. Driving is where the cost sits: unleaded 91 averaged about $1.85 per litre in May 2026, and transport was the fastest-rising CPI group in the capital at +7.7% over the year to April 2026.

Fares: Transport Canberra, effective 10 January 2026. Petrol: average ACT unleaded 91, May 2026.

Utilities

Canberra’s cold winters lift heating use, but regulated pricing and rebates keep bills in a predictable range. The ICRC reference price puts a typical residential electricity bill at $2,675 a year for 2025-26, roughly $51 per week, after a 10.1% rise from 1 July 2025. Water and sewerage went up about $102 a year for a typical household over the same period.

Home internet tracks the national market, with unlimited NBN plans commonly $70 to $90 per month. Put together, a typical household spends around $95 per week across power, water and broadband, with gas adding $60 to $80 per month if the home uses it for heating.

Electricity and water: ICRC ACT regulated prices, 2025-26. Internet: typical unlimited NBN plans, 2026. Weekly figures derived from annual and monthly charges.

Salaries: why the maths still works

The reason Canberra’s high costs do not crush households is pay. ACT full-time adult ordinary earnings reached $2,249 per week in November 2025, the highest of any state or territory, up 3.3% over the year (ABS). With a large public service and a highly qualified workforce, two-income households are common, which is what keeps the budget on the previous table in balance.

Earnings: ABS Average Weekly Earnings, ACT, November 2025. Inflation: ABS Consumer Price Index, Canberra, year to April 2026.

One caveat worth printing: wages grew 3.3% while prices rose 4.0% over the most recent periods, so real earnings slipped slightly. The buffer is still there, but it is thinner than it was a year ago, and housing at +5.2% is the line doing the damage.

Cost of Living in Perth (2026)

Perth used to be the easy answer when someone asked which capital gave you the most house for your money. That gap has closed fast. After years of falling rents through the mid-2010s, the city has run hot since 2021, and 2026 is the tightest rental market on record. The good news is that wages here are genuinely high, and a few big costs (transport, energy, some groceries) still come in under Sydney.

Below we break Perth down the way an actual household budgets it: rent first, then groceries, transport, utilities, salaries, and worked weekly budgets for a single, a couple and a family. We use weekly figures for anything recurring, which is how rent and pay are quoted in Australia, and we keep property values as totals.

Housing and rent in Perth

Rent is the line that decides whether Perth feels affordable to you. In the March 2026 quarter the median house rent climbed 5.7% (about $40) to a record $740 a week, the strongest quarterly jump of any capital. Units rose 5.3% to a record $695 a week.

The driver is supply. Perth’s vacancy rate tightened to just 0.3% in March 2026, down from 0.5% in December, which is about as close to “nothing available” as a rental market gets. If you are moving here, line up housing early; we regularly see new arrivals competing against a dozen other applicants for the same property.

Buyers face the same upward pull. REIWA’s preliminary figure has the median house sale price at $890,000 for the March 2026 quarter, up 4.1% on the quarter, with house values running roughly 18% above where they sat a year earlier. REIWA’s own 2026 forecast tips house prices to rise more than 10% across the year.

Sources: Domain Rental Report, March 2026 quarter; REIWA Perth metro market data, March 2026 quarter (preliminary). Verified June 2026.

For a sense of scale on the rules of thumb: at $740 a week, a single full-time earner on the WA average wage would be spending well over a third of their take-home pay on a house rental, which is firmly in housing-stress territory. Sharing or renting a unit pulls that back toward something manageable, and it pays to check which are the worst suburbs in Perth before you sign for a cheaper one.

Groceries and everyday essentials

Grocery prices are the part of Perth’s budget that has stayed close to the national pack. Perth sits very near Sydney on a typical basket, a touch above Melbourne, and broadly level with Brisbane. The bigger story is inflation: Perth’s headline CPI rose 4.8% in the year to March 2026, running ahead of the 4.0% average across the eight capitals, so the basket below is climbing faster here than in most of the country.

Sources: Numbeo Perth basket and ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia (Perth, year to March 2026). Verified June 2026. Prices vary by store and specials.

A single adult typically runs $90 to $130 a week on groceries, and a family of four lands around $300 to $380, depending on how much you cook from scratch. Eggs near $7 a dozen reflect the national supply volatility of the past year rather than anything peculiar to the West.

Transport costs in Perth

Transport is where Perth genuinely undercuts the eastern capitals in 2026. From 1 January 2026 the old zone system was scrapped for a flat “Go Anywhere Fare”: every trip across the whole network is capped at $2.80 with a SmartRider on Autoload, or $3.50 paying cash or contactless. A daily commuter is looking at roughly $25 to $30 a week, well under Sydney or Melbourne.

Most Perth households still drive, though. Running a car adds registration, insurance, fuel and servicing on top of fares. WA registration for a typical light vehicle lands close to $900 a year once you include Motor Injury Insurance and the licence fee, and unleaded petrol has been averaging around $1.75 a litre across the metro area.

Sources: Transperth Go Anywhere Fare (effective 1 January 2026); Department of Transport WA vehicle licensing; metro retail fuel averages. Verified June 2026.

Utilities and bills

Utilities in Perth are moderate and, helpfully, less volatile than the eastern markets because most households are on Synergy’s regulated tariff rather than a contestable retail one. An average WA household electricity bill runs about $2,072 a year, which is roughly $40 a week. The regulated Home Plan (A1) rises 2.75% from 1 July 2026, so budget a little extra over winter.

Water is the line that bites a bit harder here, thanks to the dry climate and the cost of running supply and wastewater. Water Corporation charges went up 2.5% from 1 July 2025. Internet is on par with the rest of the country, with unlimited NBN plans generally landing between $60 and $90 a month.

Sources: Canstar WA energy bill benchmark (Pulse survey, May 2026); Synergy 2026 price changes; Water Corporation 2025-26 pricing. Weekly figures converted from annual and quarterly bills. Verified June 2026.

Salaries in Perth

This is Perth’s saving grace against high rents. Western Australia recorded average weekly ordinary-time earnings of $2,189.20 for full-time workers in November 2025, the second-highest of any state or territory behind only the ACT and ahead of New South Wales. The mining and resources sector keeps that figure elevated.

High pay is what stops the rental surge from being unmanageable for many households. The catch is that the income is unevenly spread: resource-sector roles pull the average up, while service and retail wages sit closer to the national norm and feel the $740 rent far more sharply.

Source: ABS Average Weekly Earnings, Australia, November 2025 (released February 2026, the latest available). Verified June 2026.

Weekly household budgets for Perth

Pulling it together, here is roughly what a single, a couple and a family of four spend a week in Perth in 2026. Rent is the swing factor, so we have used a shared or unit rent for the single, a house rent shared between two for the couple, and a full house rent for the family.

Indicative weekly budgets built from the rent, grocery, transport and utility sources cited above (Domain, ABS, Transperth, Canstar, Water Corporation). Excludes childcare, health and savings. Verified June 2026.

The single figure to watch is rent: it is more than half of the family budget on its own. If you are weighing up the move, families relocating across the country make up a fair share of the long-distance jobs we handle, and running through a change-of-address checklist early keeps the admin side from piling up on moving week.

Cost of Living in Brisbane (2026)

We move families into Brisbane most weeks, and the question we hear most is whether “Brissie” is still the cheaper option. In 2026 the honest answer is: cheaper than Sydney, level with or slightly under Melbourne on housing, but no longer the bargain it was five years ago. Strong interstate migration and an Olympic-decade building push have lifted rents and home values fast.

This section breaks the weekly numbers down the way an Aussie household actually budgets them: rent, groceries, transport, utilities, typical wages, and what a single, a couple and a family realistically spend each week.

Housing and rent in Brisbane

Housing is where the Brisbane budget lives or dies. The median house rent reached a record $680 a week in the March 2026 quarter, up $10 (1.5%) on the quarter and 4.6% over the year. Units sit a little lower at roughly $660 a week. With vacancy near 0.6%, well under the 2 to 3% considered healthy, tenants still face real competition for every listing. Before you chase a cheaper postcode, it is worth knowing which are the worst suburbs in Brisbane on crime, flood risk and schools.

On the buying side, the median Brisbane house value is around $1.11 million in early 2026, with units near $793,000. Cotality has Brisbane dwelling values up close to 18% over the year, so the “cheaper capital” gap with Melbourne has narrowed sharply.

Sources: Residential Tenancies Authority Qld and Domain Rental Report (March 2026 quarter); Cotality/CoreLogic home value index (early 2026). Rents quoted weekly; values quoted as totals.

From a removalist’s point of view, the practical catch in Brisbane is access, not price. Many of the most sought-after homes are classic timber Queenslanders on stumps with steep stairs and narrow side passages, which slows a move and rules out tail-lift shortcuts. If you are weighing the southern capitals against a move north, a little groundwork goes a long way, so it is worth reading how to prepare for a move before you lock in a date.

Groceries and everyday essentials

Brisbane sits mid-pack for groceries. Queensland households spend roughly $175 to $185 a week on a typical basket, close to NSW and a touch above Victoria, so the city is not noticeably cheaper than Sydney at the checkout. Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 3.1% over the year to early 2026, with eggs still the most volatile staple after supply disruptions.

Sources: ABS Consumer Price Index (food and non-alcoholic beverages +3.1% YoY, early 2026); supermarket shelf pricing and Qld household survey data, late 2025 to mid 2026. Indicative checkout prices.

Transport costs in Brisbane

Public transport is Brisbane’s standout saving. The Queensland Government made the 50c flat Translink fare permanent, so a bus, train or ferry trip costs the same regardless of distance (the Airtrain is the exception). A five-day-a-week commuter pays around $5 a week, well under what the same trips cost in Sydney or Melbourne.

Driving is the opposite story. Unleaded 91 averaged about $1.81 a litre across Brisbane in June 2026, and once you stack on rego, CTP, insurance and servicing, a single-car household easily runs to $250 to $300 a week before parking.

Sources: Translink/Queensland Government 50c fare (permanent, 2026); FuelPrice/Petrol Mate Brisbane average (June 2026); typical vehicle running costs converted to a weekly basis. Car costs vary widely by vehicle and driver.

Utilities and internet

Electricity is the biggest and most variable utility bill in a subtropical city that leans hard on air-conditioning each summer. The regulated 2026-27 Default Market Offer for a typical south-east Queensland home is set to fall about 7.2% (around $155) from 1 July 2026, which is a rare bit of relief after several years of increases.

Converted to the weekly framing Aussies budget in, energy lands near $44 a week, with water and internet adding roughly $20 and $19 respectively. Gas is optional for many Brisbane households given the mild winters.

Sources: Australian Energy Regulator Default Market Offer 2026-27 final decision (SEQ residential, effective 1 July 2026); Urban Utilities 2025-26 price schedule; NBN retail plan pricing, mid 2026. Monthly figures converted to weekly.

Typical wages in Brisbane

Earnings give the bills their context. Brisbane is among the capital cities with the highest median weekly earnings at about $1,500 a week (ABS, August 2025), and full-time adult ordinary-time earnings in Queensland sit near $2,000 a week. A working couple, therefore, commonly brings home somewhere around $2,800 to $3,400 a week after tax depending on roles.

Sources: ABS Employee Earnings (August 2025) and Average Weekly Earnings (November 2025, released February 2026). Couple figure is an indicative after-tax estimate, not an ABS series.

Weekly household budgets: single, couple, family

Pulling the pieces together, here is what a Brisbane household realistically spends each week in 2026. These are rounded working budgets for renters, not the absolute floor, and housing is the line that moves them most.

Sources: built from the rent, grocery, transport and utility figures above (RTA/Domain, ABS, AER, Translink, 2025 to mid 2026). Indicative renter budgets rounded to the nearest $5; mortgaged households differ. Excludes childcare, debt and savings.

The pattern is clear: rent drives the Brisbane budget, transport barely moves it thanks to the 50c fare, and the 2026-27 power price cut takes a small edge off utilities. A couple should plan for roughly $1,100 to $1,200 a week, a family closer to $1,400 plus, and either should keep a buffer for a tight rental market where the next lease renewal rarely comes down.

Thinking of moving to Melbourne? How its costs compare

Here is the honest read after years of moving families into the city: Melbourne is the rare capital that gives you a big-city lifestyle without Sydney’s price tag. On housing, the gap is the headline. Melbourne’s median house value sat near $1.05 million in early 2026, against roughly $1.75 million in Sydney, so you are looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars less for a comparable home (CoreLogic Home Value Index, March 2026).

Rent tells the same story. A Melbourne house rents at about $580 a week versus around $780 a week in Sydney, and units sit near $560 a week against Sydney’s $720 (Domain Rent Report, March 2026 quarter). Across groceries, utilities and dining, Melbourne lands a notch below Sydney and a notch above Adelaide or Brisbane. You pay for the trams, the food scene and the events calendar, but not Harbour City money.

The practical takeaway is to lock a move-in budget before you commit. Once you know the weekly rent or mortgage, the bond, the first utility connections and the removal day itself, the move stops being a guess. A smaller load might only need a man with a van, while a full house calls for a truck and crew, so it pays to fold the right removal option into the plan so there are no surprises on the day.

Sources: CoreLogic Home Value Index (March 2026); Domain Rent Report (March 2026 quarter); Numbeo cost of living (2026). Property shown as a total value, rent shown weekly per Australian convention. Figures are medians and round; individual suburbs vary widely.

Frequently asked questions about the cost of living in Australia

Which is the cheapest capital city to live in?

Perth and Adelaide are usually the cheapest of the mainland capitals. Both pair median house values near or below $1 million with lower rents, utilities and dining than the eastern cities, so your weekly budget stretches further (CoreLogic, March 2026).

Which is the most expensive capital city in Australia?

Sydney is comfortably the dearest. Its median house value sat around $1.75 million in early 2026, with house rents near $780 a week, putting housing well above every other capital and dragging up the overall cost of living (CoreLogic and Domain, March 2026).

How much does a single person need to live in Australia?

A single renter in a capital city generally needs roughly $1,300 to $1,800 a week to cover rent, food, transport, utilities and a little discretionary spending. The range turns on rent: a Sydney unit can cost $200 a week more than a Perth one (Numbeo and Domain, 2026).

How much does a family of four need to live in Australia?

A family of four in a capital typically budgets around $2,400 to $3,300 a week once rent or a mortgage, groceries, schooling extras, transport and bills are in. Housing is the swing factor, so cheaper cities like Adelaide and Perth sit at the lower end (Numbeo, 2026).

Is Melbourne cheaper than Sydney?

Yes, on almost every line. Melbourne’s median house value runs about $700,000 below Sydney’s, house rent is roughly $200 a week less, and groceries, utilities and dining all sit a notch cheaper, while keeping a comparable big-city lifestyle (CoreLogic and Domain, March 2026).

What is the biggest cost of living in Australia?

Housing is the largest single expense by a wide margin. Rent or mortgage repayments dominate most household budgets, and the gap between cities is driven almost entirely by housing rather than groceries or transport, which vary far less (ABS and CoreLogic, 2026).

How much has the cost of living risen in 2026?

Headline inflation has cooled from its peak but living costs keep climbing. Annual CPI was running in the low single digits in early 2026, with rents and insurance among the faster movers, so most households still feel real pressure on the weekly budget (ABS Consumer Price Index, March 2026; RBA, 2026).

Which capital has the cheapest public transport?

Brisbane is the standout. Queensland’s flat 50-cent fares make it dramatically cheaper than Melbourne or Sydney, where a monthly commute runs closer to $200. Adelaide and Perth also sit well below the eastern capitals (Translink Queensland, 2026).

Plan the move with the numbers in front of you

The cost of living in Australia is really a story about which city you choose, and housing is the line that decides it. Sydney sits at the top, Melbourne offers the same big-city life for noticeably less, whether you land in a house or an inner-city flat that needs apartment removalists, and Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane keep the weekly budget lighter again. There is no single right answer, only the one that fits your work, your family and your budget.

If those numbers have you eyeing Melbourne or a move within Victoria, the smart step is to price the move itself before you commit, so it sits inside your move-in budget rather than blowing it. We move families into these suburbs every week and can give you a clear figure up front. Grab an instant removalist quote and start your next chapter knowing exactly where you stand.