Cost of Living

It is difficult to estimate how much money you will need to live in Victoria because it depends on your lifestyle and individual circumstances including:

• whether you are single, part of a couple or have a family
• where you want to live
• what you like to eat and wear
• what you do with your spare time.

On this page:
Expenses to consider
Cost of living report
Shopping in Victoria
Further information

Expenses to consider

Some of the expenses you should consider when estimating your cost of living include:

Household

• Rent or mortgage costs
• Food and groceries
• Expenses involved in owning your own home – such as home and contents insurance, council rates and water rates
• Utilities such as electricity, gas and water
• Telecommunications, including telephone, mobile phone and internet access costs
• Furniture and appliances.

Transport

• The cost of buying, registering, servicing and running a vehicle
• Car insurance
• Public transport costs.

Personal

• Clothing and shoes
• Personal care and cosmetics
• Medical costs and health insurance.

Family

• Childcare
• Education costs including school fees, books, uniforms, camps, excursions.

Other

• Debt expenses including repayments on personal loans, car loans, credit cards
• Savings including superannuation contributions and regular investments
• Pet food, maintenance and veterinary costs (if you have pets)
• Take-away food and restaurants
• Sports and hobbies
• Entertainment including films, theatre, newspapers, magazines, books and music
• Holidays
• Gifts
• Donations to charity.

Cost of Living Report

Melbourne is one of the least expensive cities in the world to live in, and more affordable than other Australian cities such as Sydney, according to the Mercer Cost of Living survey.

The survey - conducted by global financial consulting group, Mercer – compares the living costs in the world’s biggest cities for more than 200 items including food, clothing, household goods, health and personal care, transport and entertainment.

To help you understand how much it might cost you (and your family) to live in Australia, we have provided links below to price summaries from the Mercer survey:

• food and groceries
• domestic supplies
• personal care and cosmetics
• clothing and footwear
• transport.

All the prices displayed are the median price reported and recorded in September 2007. At that time, one US dollar (USD$1.00) was worth about $1.21 Australian dollars (A$1.21). To find out the current exchange rate, visit X-rates.com.

To purchase the full Mercer report, visit the Mercer website.

Shopping in Victoria

Shopping environments across Victoria include:

• shopping centres with hundreds of stores, including large department stores and supermarkets, retail chain outlets and smaller specialty stores
• ‘discount’ centres such as Direct Factory Outlets (DFOs) and Brandsmart where large retail chains offer major discounts on sample, second and out-of-season stock
• shopping strips (high streets), which are retail precincts with shops on both sides of the street
• markets, the most famous of which is the Queen Victoria Market, which has stalls selling everything from clothing to fresh fruit and vegetables, in an open-air or semi-covered environment.

Trading hours

General shopping hours on weekdays are from 9.00am to 5.30pm. Many shops open for extended hours on Thursday and Friday – usually until 8.00pm or 9.00pm. Most stores are open on the weekend and many supermarkets, fast-food stores and petrol stations are open 24 hours.

Shopping tips

• Bartering and haggling over prices isn’t very common in Australian stores, except on expensive items like household appliances and vehicles, or when buying in large quantities.
• In general, refund and/or exchanges are accepted on faulty products, as long as you provide your receipt of purchase.

For information about your rights and responsibilities regarding shopping, visit the Consumer Affairs Victoria website.

Further information

For more information about cost of living, visit the following website:

• Grocerychoice - an Australian Government website that monitors grocery prices across Australia each month and identifies the cheapest places to buy groceries in regions.