Cost of Living in Sydney

Before I signed the contract with our company for my relocation to Australia, I deliberately studied the cost of living in Sydney so I can negotiate on my package. I joined a yahoo group called PBOZ which are Filipinos based in Australia and I’m glad that most of them were responsive and have somehow helped me in finalizing my package. Unfortunately, the contract signing was made 6 months before I moved to Sydney and the prices have gone up bizarrely.


But for those who are seriously considering working or living in Sydney, I have here an estimate on the cost of living and some websites you can refer to that may help you prepare on the expenses and the way of living here. I have to warn you, this is a long post but very informative.


Rent, depending on the suburb, may take up 20-30% of your salary. Refer to realestate.com and domain.com. Rents are quoted weekly and are paid fortnightly (every other week) or monthly (computed as weekly rate/7*365/12). At the moment, a rent for a 2-bedroom unit with 2 toilets and a carspace in our suburb which is an hour away from the city is averaging A$400/wk. There is a refundable bond that you need to pay before moving in and it costs about the same as the monthly rate.

Groceries for two may cost about A$150-$200 per month depending again on how much you like to eat. A kilo of t-bone steak is about $21, a kilo of pork is $16, a whole chicken is $5.5 per kilo, a kilo of prawn is $22. A bottled water ($2.8 for 1.5 liter) costs 10 cents more than a bottle of softdrinks and 10 cents cheaper than a kilo of chicken wings. If you have a baby or a toddler, you need to allot for nappies (cheapest is $14 for 24 pack junior size), formula ($14.95 Promil stage 3) and baby food. Two big supermarkets are Coles and Woolworths. I have noticed that prices also differ on the suburbs, like a kilo of chicken wings from the same store in the west costs $1.99 while in the north its $2.99.

Lunch food from cafeterias can cost about $6-12/meal and the serving is big so you can have the other half for dinner unless you’re a big eater. Lunch can be cheaper if you buy after 2pm, you can get a rice meal with 3 viands for only $3-4. Lunch at a restaurant may cost about $20-$30 and you pay more if you eat a fine dining restaurant. Most restaurants have websites so you can check out the location, menu and the prices, and sometimes it’s better to book before going just to make sure you don’t have to wait to be seated. A cheeseburger meal at McDonald’s costs $4.25 while a tall frappucino at starbucks costs $4.80. On a side note, to go or take out is take-away in Sydney and table napkins or tissue is called serviette.

Home Phone rates can vary depending on your plan and the service provider. We’re subscribed to Optus bundle “Optus One: Home Phone + Mobile”. For $69 a month, it includes line rental, up to 120 local calls, and $120 worth of mobile use. We don’t really get to use our landline but we think it’s necessary to have one. I am not a text or a call person either so I don’t used up the $120 worth of my mobile plan, even though I used it to call my folks in PI or my sister in LA. There are installation fees and reconnection fees but may be waived if they have ongoing promotions which happens once in while. If you subscribe to the mobile alone, the cheapest plan is at $19 with $49 worth of calls but if you want to control your mobile expenses, you may opt for prepaid lines. Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and Three are some of the biggest telecom providers.

To save on the internet connection fee, you may bundle it with your phone and/or mobile from the same service provider.

Electricity and Gas are billed separately and are paid quarterly. You may get a discount if you get them together from the same provider. We pay an average of $120 for each quarterly. Electricity is a bit cheaper by night so we usually do our laundry and ironing at night. The gas is used for the stove and the water heater. Providers are AGL, Energy Australia, TRUenergy and OriginEnergy.

Leaving your child in daycares may let you think twice because of the hefty fee. I initially checked day cares within the city and the lowest quote I got was at $90/day and the most expensive was at $110/day. So we settled to put Maku at the CFK Daycare centre which is only 4 blocks away from our apartment where it’s cheaper by $10. Since we are not citizens or permanent residents of Australia, we are not able to avail of the child care benefit where the government subsidizes a fraction of the fee but hopefully we can get a tax offset. Flying a relative from Manila to Sydney back and forth and staying for at least 3 months (or until visa expires) is much cheaper than paying for a daycare. Unfortunately, it is not very easy getting a visa.

We didn’t get a cable subscription because it’s expensive and the daily shows on TV are good enough. We still get to watch House, Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, and some movie shows on Friday and Saturday night. Nat & I were joking because we have this 42” LCD (and recently I got the 26" LCD for our room) and yet there are only 3 good channels. A basic package for cable costs about $37.95/month and includes only 30 “not so good” channels. So you still need to add movie channels which cost an additional $15.95/month and if you have a kid, you need to add channels like Disney playhouse, etc which will cost an additional $16.95/month. You may check Foxtel's website for more information.

Car is not a necessity unless you live in a place that is not accessible by public transportation. Cars are highly-priced in Sydney. The price of a brand new car in US is almost equivalent to a 2nd hand car in Sydney. Since we are not sure of our tenure in Sydney, we opted for a 2nd hand car. Just recently, we have to renew our registration with RTA which is our LTO in PI. It's so convenient that you can just actually do everything online. Since our car is more than 5 years, we needed to bring the car for inspection to a registered e-Safety station and the report is sent to RTA electronically. Everything else is done electronically such as the payment of the greenslip (Compulsory Third Party) and the renewal of the REGO. What's even better is that both RTA and the insurer send you a mail to remind you of the renewal and all you have to do is pay online or over the phone. Last week, I also have to renew our car insurance with NRMA and whew! it was so expensive. On a monthly basis, I need to allocate about $300 for our car maintenance.

The prices of petrol in Sydney is currently averaging at 162.7. With the high cost of petrol plus the very expensive parking fee, it is very practical to commute on your way to the office unless your office is near and has a free parking lot and you don't have to pay for toll fees. Toll fees already cost $3 for one-way and parking fee can go for more than $50 for whole day parking.

Public Transportations are quite reliable as there are trains, buses, ferries and taxis. Everyday, I take the train to the city but I wish the train can be faster similar to HK’s MTR or even our very own LRT/MRT, I’m sure if that happens, it will cut my trip by 10-15 minutes. Usually, there are rail track works overnight or on weekends but there are buses that replace trains so it shouldn’t hinder your trip if you’re taking the train. From our place to the city, I allocate A$36/wk. For more details on the fare and the timetable, you may check 131500’s website. Taxis are very expensive, for a 9km trip from the airport to the city, it would cost about $60. You can also book taxis online or by calling them so you can request for a car seat, or a vehicle that is wheel chair accessible, etc.

If Thursdays are shopping night in Sydney where shops are open until 9pm, Tuesdays are movie day. Malls and other establishments are open until 5pm on weekdays (except on Thurs) and up to 4pm on weekends so you should do your shopping or errands during lunch time or on weekends. Sydney is not a shopping haven. Everything is expensive here (except for some electronics) even the stuff from the weekend market. Before Christmas, I got some ordinary long sleeves which were already on 30% sale for $85 each. With that price, I could have gotten a very, very nice top from Tyler for less! There are limited US brands, mostly are Australian brands that I haven’t heard of. Billabong and Roxy prices are similar to our prices in Manila. I also bought a swimwear from Seafolly and it cost me $120. I don’t shop here except for some winter clothes, I just save the money and spend it one time when I fly to Manila or US. Movie costs $15 but if you go on a Tuesday, you’ll only pay $9 unless you book online and pay additional booking fee of $1. Two big cinemas are Greater Union and Hoyts.

Even with a medicare card, it is still advisable to get a private insurance. Luckily, our company’s paying for our insurance and I get to save at least $120 per month. As we are not citizens or permanent residents of Australia, we don’t have a medicare card so we end up paying first then reimburse later on from the insurance company.

Airfare from Sydney to wherever is very expensive. On our flight to Manila in March, we paid $1300 each and that wasn’t even the peak rate. We we’re planning to come home in December so we can celebrate Christmas with our families but when we checked the rates, it was at least $2300 per head and with Maku already 2 years old by then, we will have to shelter out at least $6300 for our airfare!