How much does it really cost to own a home in Australia?
There’s a lot of focus on buying properties, but being a homeowner involves many costs, which are often hidden at the start. In this conversation, Kate and Owen will unpack many of the costs of home ownership, share some ballpark figures, and discuss how to save, prepare, or mitigate these costs!
For the purpose of this episode, we’re excluding the cost of buying and selling the house. They are pretty big costs, but we’ve done episodes on those topics and need to rein the scope in, or we’ll be here all day.
Plus, we asked our community members about some of the unexpected costs of home ownership that they believe people should know about, which we’ll share throughout this episode.
A huge list of potential home owenership costs
| Item | Cost & Notes |
| Council rates | This was one of the most commonly mentioned unexpected costs from our community.
Rates are a form of property tax levied by councils to fund local infrastructure and services. The value of each property is used as the basis for calculating what each property owner will pay. The services provided vary greatly from council to council, but include:
Rates are one of the main ways that councils get the money they need to deliver essential services and infrastructure to the Victorian community. Usually broken down into:
Explainer on how rates can be calculated: Council rates and charges Examples (from our community)
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| Insurance | If you’re in an apartment/complex this may be included as part of your body corporate or strata fees (please check).
Calculators – Insurance Council of Australia You may need to get an up to date valuation done for the property, or you may be underinsured. Building insurance: also known as homeowners insurance, covers the cost of repairing or rebuilding your primary residence if it is damaged by fire, flood, or storm damage. It covers the main structure, permanent fixtures and fittings (such as kitchen cabinets, plumbing, and carpet), and other buildings on your property (such as garages and garden sheds). Examples (from our community)
Contents Insurance: Contents insurance covers the contents of your home in case they are lost, stolen, or damaged. It includes furniture, clothes, jewelry, and electronics. This is not a must have. Examples (from our community)
You can also combine home & contents insurance.
Ways to save?
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| Owners corporation | An owners corporation (formerly body corporate) manages the common property of a residential, commercial, retail, industrial or mixed-use property development.
Owners of flats, apartments or units are usually members of an owners corporation. This is usually outsourced to a third party company that specialises in this service. Their fees will be packaged in your annual/ Responsibilities of an owners corporation:
Example costs:
Buying an apartment or unit – checklist – Consumer Affairs Victoria |
| Furniture | Most of us have a collection of pieces weve collected from family, share houses, gumtree and Ikea over the years, but furniture adds up, especially when you’re starting from scratch or upgrading.
Cost estimates on the high end (from an interior design company) Our design team recommend the following investment averages based on three different kinds of home. Hint: these figures are all based on starting from scratch for a home that has not one single stick of furniture in it. House type 1
House type 2
House type 3
What about on a budget? Here’s what I found online… This Reddit thread is really helpful Average cost to furnish a house. How much did you spend? : r/AusFinance |
| Emergency repairs
+ Ongoing maintenance (e.g. plumbers & electricians) |
There are a whole heap of unexpected costs that can hit you as a homeowner, and you might like to have some spare cash set aside for things like burst pipes, broken heaters in winter, or leaking roofs.When I asked our community how many times they’d hired a tradie (could be emergency or routine – see next section) over the past two years, here’s what they said:
When I asked what you’d hired a tradie for, here’s what you said:
And on top of those emergency repairs, you’ve got ongoing repairs.
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| Safety systems |
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| Fencing | Average Fencing Costs
These prices are an approximation and do not include installation costs or extra materials such as screws, posts, or gates. Fencing Installation Costs
Source: How Much Does Fencing Cost? | 2024 Cost Guide | Service.com.au |
| Replacing hot water system | This one popped up a few times in our community’s responses, so I thought it was worth including.
Hot water system $2,500 You may have government discounts: Hot water system discounts – Victorian Energy Upgrades Typically, the cost of replacing a hot water system in Australia ranges between $1600 to $3500 (Replacing a Hot Water System in Australia: How Much Does it Cost?) |
| Garden | $1,000 for yard/grass maintenance!$2,000 in gravel because our driveway turned into a clay bog pit when it rained
Mowing Australia’s favourite lawn mowing and gardening service Bunnings trips Trees |
| Pests (e.g. mice & termites) | Termites eeek!
How Much does Pest Control Cost in 2024? | Dentec What are the average costs of pest control services in 2024? | Airtasker AU |
| Extra features like pools and tennis courts | Jim’s Pool CareIf you can do a little bit yourself a monthly program should do fine and costs are usually around $77-$120 per service (depending on state & city) plus chemicals will be extra on to of this. You should also get the benefit of having your pool company on call if something goes wrong.
As a minimum, we will recommend every 4 weeks and during summer more often if possible (every 1,2 or 3 weeks). |
| Time sucks |
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