I have shared cost of living in Perth earlier, and now I will share Sydney version. It’s no longer a secret that Sydney is expensive, it is even nominated as one of the most expensive city in the world. Hmm.. that’s true but not completely/
Shared House
About this one, I’m fully agreed that Sydney is bloody expensive. In Sydney, not only shared house, shared room is kinda common as well. Yes it is that expensive that you have to share your private space with other people.
Here is the summary of average accomodation in Sydney :
Cost for a room in a shared house in the city : $300 – $400 per week.
Cost for a room in a shared house in the suburb (20 – 30 mins away form city by train) : $230 – $300 per week
Cost for shared room in a shared house/unit in the city : $120 -$270 per week | the more people you share with, the cheaper it will be
Cost for shared room in a shared house/unit in the suburb : $120 -$200 per week | the more people you share with, the cheaper it will be
Note : Don’t be surprised if you found a room with 4-8 people live inside. Terrible? Indeed.
I myself live in the shared house – shared room with 1 people only, 20 mins away from city by train. It cost $150 per week including bills! I’m lucky I found this house. The room definitely the best compared to other places that I had inspected. It’s clean, tidy, well-maintain, the landlord also provide toilet paper and washing liquids! Simple thing but very useful.
Transportation
To be honest, in my opinion transportation in Sydney is cheaper – for those who has regular activity and not living too far from city. The government, using Opal Card- run a system where in a week, if you already done 8x trip, all the rest trip in the same week will be free. For instance, Monday to Thursday I do round trip to work (2 trip x 4 days = 8 trip) each trip will cost me $3.5 on average. So my transportation expense per week is around $25 – $28. And I can go anywhere, as far as it can be for free on Friday – Sunday. Such a good deal, right?
Note : That free fare will includes on train, bus, and ferry. So I can do weekend getaway to everywhere in Sydney region for free! Wohoo!
Mobile Phone
No difference in any region in Australia, I still spend $40 for 4 GB data package in a month
Meals
I guess there is no significant different food price between big cities in Australia. I can still find a proper $10 meal easily in Sydney. Price for coffee vary from $4 – $7, same as in Perth, and in Melbourne. Oh, for groceries shopping, I spend about $30 – $40 in a week as well as I used to spend in Perth.
So, my average weekly expense is about $230 – $270, depends on how often I go out/eat outside. See? it’s even less than my expense in Perth!
Then what makes Sydney expensive other than it’s accomodation? there’s a thing called t-e-m-p-t-a-t-i-o-n.
As a big city, Sydney has bunch of things to offer. Good food, good cafe/restaurant, good events, etc. For instance, you can eat in a common cafe/restaurant with normal price, but sometimes you want to try new cafe/restaurant with better view, better food or better known restaurant. Then, repeat.
I should say for basic needs, Sydney offers a make-sense price (except for its accomodation), but more than that, be prepared to get squeezed on your wallet.
Long story short, as long as you spend wisely, you’re gonna be survive in Sydney. 😉
