Perth sits comfortably below Sydney and Melbourne on housing, close to Brisbane, and above Adelaide. The two things that make it different from every other Australian city are the resources cycle, which moves rents faster here than elsewhere, and the cost of the flights home.
Why we don’t print prices
We used to print a weekly rent and a monthly budget table here. We have taken them out. A figure that was true when a page was written is misleading a year later, and a candidate who plans a move around a stale number is worse off than one who plans around none.
What does not go stale is the shape of a month, and the judgement about which lines will surprise you. For today’s actual numbers use the calculators at the foot of the page, and use them to compare Perth against the city you are leaving. That is the only comparison that decides anything.
The headline
The structural point: a family house within twenty minutes of a tertiary campus is an achievable plan here, which is true of very few Australian cities and untrue of Sydney entirely.
What everyday life costs
The proportions, for one person on a mid-range budget. Proportions move slowly; prices move every quarter. Rent takes just under sixty per cent — comfortably below Sydney and Melbourne, close to Brisbane, above Adelaide.
Two things make this budget different from every other Australian city, and neither is on the chart: the resources cycle, which moves rents faster here than elsewhere, and the cost of the flights home.
The costs that are specific to Perth
Where the money comes back
Housing is the main one, and the commute is the second: shorter travel times mean less fuel, less childcare and more of your day. There are effectively no toll roads in the state. And the best of Perth is free — nineteen beaches, Kings Park, the river paths and the sunsets cost nothing at all, which is why people here spend less on entertainment than their eastern equivalents and enjoy their weekends more.
On the income side, public-health and not-for-profit roles here can salary-package part of your pay before tax — ask payroll on day one. How packaging, tax and superannuation work is national and lives in Pay & conditions.
Plan the bridge as well as the destination: temporary accommodation, a bond of up to four weeks’ rent plus rent in advance, a car, and setting up a home for a hot summer. Then add the line most people leave out — two or three flights a year to see the people you left behind.
These are live and updated continuously. Put the city you are leaving in the other box.
- Numbeo cost-of-living calculator — the most complete comparison tool, and the one most clinicians already use. Crowd-sourced, so treat it as a ballpark.
- Expatistan — the same idea with a cleaner side-by-side. Worth running as a sanity check when Numbeo looks off.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — official and slower, and the one to trust on the direction of travel.
If what you find differs from what we say here, tell us and we will correct it.