A question I get asked all of the time is: what is the cost of living in Australia compared with the UK? Now I can’t tell you about the cost of living in Perth, or how much it costs to live in Sydney, but I thought it might be useful for me to write a post that outlines our living costs in Brisbane in full detail. This will give you an idea of the cost of living in Brisbane, Australia for a family of five but I hope it gives you a good starting point to think about what your living costs in Australia might be for your family beyond your moving costs.

[I know that the cost of living is rising everywhere, and Brisbane is no exception. This post about our living costs in Brisbane was updated in February 2024 with up-to-date living costs.] 

Living costs Australia: The cost of living in Brisbane, Australia

This post is about MY own living costs in Brisbane and it relates to our lifestyle in Brisbane. Please remember, everybody’s spending and lifestyle are totally different. Some families love having a top TV package with all of the movie channels, and others are happy with freeview. Some people love an expensive mobile phone and others prefer a basic phone on pay-as-you-go. Some love eating out in restaurants, and others always eat at home. Some families like a posh car, others (like mine!) drive beat up old cars! For this reason, I can’t tell you exactly what your cost of living in Australia is going to be, but hopefully this post about our monthly outgoings when living in Brisbane will get you thinking about what your living costs in Australia might be.

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I’ve also created a download to accompany the post, so as you read my post you can create your own estimated monthly budget. Get access to my FREE Resource Library to get this PDF and more

The cost of living in Australia vs the UK: Is Australia more expensive?

I often hear people talking about how expensive Australia is and how the cost of living in Australia is much higher than the UK. I do feel that the cost of living is higher here but our wages are higher so that evens it out for us. 

I also think there are some things you need to bear in mind. If you move from a small village in Derbyshire to central London you would find it expensive. If you move from that small village to central Sydney you would find it expensive. If you move from London to Sydney, the cost of living will be more comparable. Sometimes when people talk about how expensive it is in Australia, they are comparing their lives in very different locations. Some of Australia’s cities ARE very expensive, I’m not going to lie. But it is costly to live in central London too, so keep things in perspective. 

>> Check out episode 10 of the New Life in Australia podcast: Australia is expensive: True or false

Want to learn how to reduce your energy consumption and save on your electricity bill in Australia? Check out this post!

Comparing our family’s cost of living in Brisbane, Australia vs UK cost of living

When I compare our cost of living in Australia vs UK, some of our living costs in Brisbane are much higher than they were in Hampshire in the UK and others are a bit lower. We have higher outgoings here overall, but that’s mainly because we’ve made some lifestyle choices to spend more money on some extra things – these are things we couldn’t afford in the UK (like running a second car and sending our kids to a private school). Our income here in Brisbane is more than double what it was in the UK so that allows for the extra expenses and the higher costs in some areas.

In Brisbane, we are leading a totally different lifestyle – one which we absolutely LOVE! So while living costs should be a consideration, it’s also really important to think about the lifestyle benefits you’ll gain after you’ve moved too – to me they are priceless. 

Try not to worry too much about living costs in Australia. What I mean by that is read this post, but don’t let it panic you if the figures seem high. Until you get here, it will be very difficult for you to predict exactly what YOUR outgoings are going to be – much of it will depend on which suburb you move to as rental costs can vary even in the same city. Plus you likely won’t know what your income is going to be yet, so checking out Brisbane house prices and Brisbane living costs (or whichever city) can be stressful until you get a clear idea of what salary you’re likely to earn so it can be hard working out the cost of living in Brisbane for a family before you arrive.  

When we were researching moving to Brisbane, I remember reading a list of somebody’s Australian living expenses in a forum and it freaked me out. I felt there was no way we’d be able to afford to live in Australia and for a long time we stopped looking into it. All because I read one person’s post. I don’t want you to read my outgoings and make assumptions about whether you can or can’t afford it – I just want to give you some basic information as a starting point.

If you’re a family moving to Australia or worrying about your upcoming Brisbane living costs, the chances are you will be able to afford it over here. Families just like yours live here quite happily. Depending on your budget and destination, it might involve some compromises (living further from the city or further from a beach etc.) but you can make it work. Try to stop comparing dollars to pounds too. As soon as you get here, you will need to start thinking in AUD anyway and the dollars you earn will convert into dollars that you spend. Pounds (or US dollars or whatever other currency you’re moving from) won’t matter anymore. 

Want to find out how to maximise your money by housesitting when you arrive in Australia?

You can also check out this post about transferring money to Australia. 

Brisbane living cost versus other cities in Australia

When we were planning our move to Brisbane, affordability, weather and lifestyle were all important to us. Other cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra do come with a higher cost of living. We looked into job opportunities and decided that salaries for my husband’s occupation weren’t going to be much higher in those cities yet our outgoings for rent/mortgage would be higher. We chose to move to Brisbane because there were more work opportunities for his role plus the cost of living was reasonable and it ticked all of our other weather and lifestyle boxes. It turned out to be a great choice for us.

Every occupation is different – some people may need to base themselves in a certain city for their type of work. Do your research. Check out house prices, cost of living and salaries (plus all of the extra things like weather, crime levels, access to beaches/parks/cafes etc – all of the things that matter to you). 

Something to remember is that it will always cost more to live closer to the city or closer to the beach so bear that in mind as you’re online looking at the average cost of rent in Australian cities. Again it all depends on the type of lifestyle you’re searching for – city living might be important to you so you might be happy paying more to be close to the CBD. 

We live about 45 minutes outside Brisbane in Moreton Bay because that allows us to have a bigger house. If we lived even further out of the city, we could afford a much bigger plot but then you are adding to your daily commute time so it’s all a balance.

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Living costs in Brisbane, Australia

Want a budget template so you can create your own monthly budget? Click here to get access one in my FREE Resource library. This is where you’ll find lots of PDFs and downloads to make your move easier. 

So what are the costs of living in Brisbane Australia? Here is a breakdown of our living costs in Brisbane. If you’re thinking of moving to Brisbane, please remember – these are our living costs. Yours will be different. Just like in the UK, one family might have outgoings of £1500 a month and another £3000 per month. Everybody lives different lifestyles. I think we are pretty frugal. I have many friends here who spend more than us and many who spend less than us. I think that you tend to end up spending what you have and your lifestyle grows or shrinks to fit your income. 

Cost of living, Brisbane: Here is the breakdown of our bills

Please note: we bought a house after about seven months in Australia so these costs are based on us being homeowners. We rented initially in Scarborough in Moreton Bay, so where possible I’ve listed the costs applicable to renting too but those figures are now a few years old.

Cost of living, Brisbane

Car registration (known as ‘rego’ in Australia) – one of our cars costs $1003 per year, and our electric vehicle is $716 per year. You can pay these as a single annual bill or pay in instalments in Queensland. 

Car insurance (you can also choose to pay this annually for a discount if you prefer) – one car costs $1600 a year and the EV $1100 a year. (Costs vary depending on what inclusions you choose i.e. hire car, what excess you choose, replacement costs of your car etc.) 

Water (including usage for a family of five and standing charges) $450 – $550 per qtr. In Queensland, when you rent you only pay for your water usage so rental water charges will be lower than this figure – find out more here.  For water in other states, Google ‘water charges renting’ + the state. Our bill fluctuates depending on how much rainwater we have stored for topping up our pool and pond – during dry spells we have to use our hose pipe which increases our water bill. 

Electricity – $$$ per qtr *This is a tricky one to answer as we’ve recently moved to a Smart Metre and have just switched our energy plan as the first bill with the Smart Metre last month was absolutely huge! We have also just got an electric vehicle and are about to install ducted air con, so I have no idea what our bill is going to be going forward! We have solar panels which reduce our bill and we are also looking into installing a second solar system and battery. Before getting the Smart Metre installed and adding the additional load to our system, our bills were on average $350 per qtr. 

Please note: Energy bills vary a LOT depending on the house, the time of year, how much insulation you have, whether your hot water is fuelled by gas or electricity, whether you have a pool and how energy efficient your pool system is, whether you have solar panels (and how long ago they were installed), whether you have a big air con system and so much more. It is almost impossible to guess what your energy bill is going to be as it depends on so many things.  

Gas cylinder hire – $99 a year plus gas cylinder refills as and when required which is only very occasionally as we only use it for cooking on the hob. It’s so rare that I can’t even remember the cost but it’s under $200 per refill. In our rental when we first arrived, gas heated our hot water system so our usage bills were higher there. In the area where we live, mains gas supply isn’t common. 

Rates – $590 per qtr. In Queensland, you only pay rates as a homeowner – you don’t pay rates when renting in Queensland. 

Mobile phones – we are on a great legacy deal for cheap phone plans (one from Woolworths and one from Coles) for about $10 a month paid annually (there’s no handset included in this price). It’s worth shopping around and checking out the supermarkets for these, including Aldi. 

Home internet  – $85

Netflix – $23pm

Health insurance for our family of five – $$$* We get subsidised health insurance through my husband’s work so what we pay won’t be comparable to taking it out privately. Before he was a permanent staff member, we had a package that cost us $260 a month through Bupa (this was back in 2015 so that rate will be much higher now). Health insurance will be wildly different in cost depending on factors such as your age and health, whether you want pregnancy cover and what extras you include.

On a PR visa, health insurance isn’t mandatory but there are benefits to taking it out. You can find out more here.

Buildings and contents insurance – $1300 per year (again this will vary a lot depending on your rebuild costs, excess and inclusions). 

Mortgage or rent – Everyone’s mortgage payment will be different depending on the size of your deposit and what rate you are able to secure (if you’re thinking about buying a house in Australia, look for a broker in the Move to Australia Directory). Brisbane house prices have increased a lot over last few years. Our rental when we first arrived (in 2014) was a 4-bedroom, modern property in Scarborough and it cost $440 a week. It was an amazing deal even at the time. Most similar houses I see in the area now seem to cost more like $550 – 1000 pw.  When it comes to buying a property, in Moreton Bay where I live a family home is likely to be about $600k – 1.1m as a very rough guide (of course, there are cheaper options and more expensive options too). Have a look on RealEstate.com.au for info on buying and renting and play around with suburbs to get an idea of pricing. 

Life insurance/trauma cover/income protection insurance – how much this costs depends on what level of cover you decide to take out. You can take this out as a separate policy or include it within your superannuation. For me, I see this as an essential cost for our family, especially with us living a long way away from our family just in case something were to happen to one of us. 

Brisbane cost of living: Lifestyle expenses to budget for 

Fuel – petrol costs are lower here than in the UK. It tends to be around $1.80 – $2.10 per litre (but it can really vary very quickly!) Motormouth is a good site to check local prices. We’ve just got ourselves an electric vehicle so are excited to cut our fuel bill down a lot!

Takeaways and eating out – we find eating out and buying take aways more affordable here. (Dominos pizza is my kids’ favourite take away – the pizzas are smaller than in the UK, but they start at $7 per pizza which is cheaper than we used to pay in the UK). Generally, a take away for our family of 5 costs us $50 – 100 (with fast food like Dominos at the cheap end, and things like Thai/Indian at the top end). 

School – if you’re on a temporary visa in some states you will need to budget for school fees (read this schools post for more info). If you’re on a PR visa or are moving to a state that doesn’t charge temporary visa holders for schooling, you will still need to budget for the voluntary contribution fee even if your children go to a state school. This fee will vary between schools. You’ll also need to budget for books, stationery, school trips/camps and uniforms.

If your kids go to a private school, you can usually set up a payment plan to suit you (fortnightly, monthly or termly). Sometimes private school fees can include books/stationery/ipads/camps/excursions/swimming lessons etc. – it all depends on the school. Private school prices can begin from around $2/3k per child per year in primary (for some church-subsidised schools) with prices going up from there. You can usually get sibling discounts if multiple kids go to the school. How this works varies from school to school i.e. some might offer 5% off the second child only, or they might apply the discount across both. The discount may increase the more kids you have in school. 

Days out – we find days out here to be cheaper. Annual passes are more affordable at attractions so you can buy them once and then enjoy a year of visits – and the passes usually bring extra perks like discounts on food and drink and in the shop so they have usually paid for themselves by the second visit. As a guide, Australia Zoo costs $139 for an adult annual pass and $99 for a child. At Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, a family annual pass 2 adults and 2 kids is $263). 

Sports and activities – if your kids take swimming lessons, tennis lessons, scouts etc. you will need to budget for this. Classes are usually $17 – $35 per session per child. Some involve uniforms (like the surf club Nippers where a vest was $20 and cap $20 each back when we did it years ago). Sometimes these fees can be paid weekly, sometimes monthly and other times termly depending on the activity. 

Holidays – if you want to save for an annual big holiday, budget for short breaks or want to save for a visit back to your home country, you will need to allow some savings towards your holiday budget. For holiday inspiration in Australia, check out my Discover Australia section.

Hairdressers – I LOVE my hairdressers – Beautiful You in north Brisbane (if you ever go, tell them I sent you!) Follow the link and check out their price list to give you an idea of pricing. I pay about $200 for a cut and colour. My husband pays $30 – $50 for his haircuts depending on where he goes. The kids’ hair cuts are about $20 depending on where we take them.

Clothes –  Kmart, Target and Cotton On Kids are my main go-to stores for the kids for clothes. I personally think kids’ clothes are good value here but I know other people who feel Tesco and the supermarket options were cheaper in the UK. I love Myer for their dresses and I tend to stock up when they have a sale on. We aren’t big spenders on clothes so I don’t really allow a monthly budget for it. Through summer my kids mostly just live in swimwear anyway. They rarely wear socks and my boys hardly ever wear t-shirts in the house, let alone jumpers or jeans! Our clothes spending here is much much less than what it was in the UK. For shoes, outside of school my kids tend to live in thongs (flip flops!) which are super cheap!

Click here to get access to my FREE Resource library. This is where you’ll find lots of PDFs and downloads to make your move easier, including a blank budget template so you can create your own monthly budget for your life in Australia. 

Food prices in Australia

A few years ago, I published this post on Instagram and got a huge reaction to it from people who were astounded at how little I spend on food shopping. I feel we eat really well and I definitely buy plenty of luxuries but I think I keep our cost down by shopping fortnightly. I did the same in the UK too. We have a big fridge freezer here so I can buy lots of things to cook in bulk and the dates on things are usually good enough to last between shops. I pop back to the shops for bits when I need to, but the bulk of our food is bought in those two big shops a month. 

The trolley in the above link cost about $300 at the time. I’ve upped my spending since then as not only have things gone up a lot, I now have three older kids (including two teenage boys), so now I spend about $450- $500 per fortnight. I’ve run out of time for shopping at Aldi which is definitely cheaper, so now I order online via Coles or Woolworths. 

I have friends who easily spend $1000 a week on food though, so I don’t think we do too badly!

This shopping doesn’t include alcohol as you can’t buy that from the supermarket here. We don’t get through lots of booze at home now though anyway since we cut back on drinking a while ago. 

Living in Brisbane: Can you afford it?

I hope that walk through our bills and our cost of living in Brisbane helps you to feel more in control of your move and gives you an idea of the average cost of living in Brisbane. Remember your living costs in Brisbane will be different from mine – it all depends on where you live, how far you commute, how many cars you run and what your lifestyle is like. When you get here and get a job, you’ll know what your budget is going to be and you’ll create a lifestyle that fits that budget. Don’t let the living cost in Brisbane put you off – stop thinking of the Brisbane living costs in pounds or your local currency and just get out here so you can live in Australian dollars!

Don’t forget: Click here to get access to my FREE Resource library. This is where you’ll find lots of PDFs and downloads to make your move easier, including a blank budget template so you can create your own monthly budget. 

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