Excerpted from the Australia Career Guide
Cost of Living
Sydney is the most expensive city in Australia and one of the costliest cities in the world, ranked 11th by human resources firm Mercer. Melbourne is close behind at 15th. One important reason for the growing cost of living in Australia is the increasing strength of the Australian dollar against the US dollar. Rising costs are not limited to housing: in the past year alone, the prices of goods and services have increased by nearly 5 percent. Sydney is more expensive for expatriates than Moscow, Paris, Manhattan, Hong Kong or London.
Housing
Housing costs are higher in the country’s capital cities than they are in other parts of the Australian states and territories. These differences reflect variations in local property values, rental prices, urban settlement and tenure patterns. The greatest discrepancy is in New South Wales, where housing costs in Sydney are a good deal higher than they are in the rest of the state. In contrast, Brisbane housing costs are about the same as those in the rest of Queensland.
Australian Cities Average House Prices
| City |
House (in AUD) |
Apartment (in AUD) |
| Sydney, NSW |
628,000 |
480,000 |
| Melbourne, Vic |
534,000 |
440,000 |
| Brisbane, Qld |
434,000 |
362,000 |
| Adelaide, SA |
385,000 |
317,000 |
| Perth, WA |
470,000 |
411,500 |
Transportation
In Australia, as in many large countries, ‘the car is king.’ The vast majority of Australian adults own cars and would not seriously contemplate being without one. Road transport accounts for the majority of domestic passenger trips. A good portion of that travel consists simply of commuters getting to and from work. Needless to say, a car is almost essential to work life in many places in Australia. In the cities, however, there are many other transportation options, and air travel is commonly used to cross from capital city to capital city.
Taxes
Each level of government (federal, state and local) in Australia imposes its own taxes. The most important sources of federal taxation revenue are income taxes and the Medicare levy, both of which are imposed based upon income earned both within and outside Australia.
This is just a short sample of what you’ll find in over 100 pages of information in the complete Australia Guide.
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