Rent is the largest bill for most people in Melbourne, and it varies more by suburb and dwelling type than any other cost. The official median for new rental lettings across metropolitan Melbourne was $580 per week in the September quarter 2025. The median is the middle figure: half of new leases cost less and half cost more. Government bodies set or subsidise electricity, public transport and childcare, so their rules and prices are easier to pin down.
Groceries and eating out are harder to pin to a dollar figure because they depend on how each household shops and eats out. The figures below cover each major cost and how fast its price is rising, then use those figures to build sample budgets for singles, couples and families.
Rent in Melbourne
The city-wide median
Homes Victoria, which publishes the state’s Rental Report, put the median for new lettings in metropolitan Melbourne at $580 per week in the September quarter 2025, up $10 on the previous quarter. Regional Victoria was $470 per week in the same quarter. The report counts new leases from rental bond data and excludes student housing, rooming houses, caravans, share houses with multiple bonds, and rooms within dwellings. A single room in a share house therefore sits outside this median.
Rents are rising more slowly: metropolitan rents rose 3.5% over the year to the September quarter 2025, compared with 8.0% a year earlier and a 10-year average of 4.3% a year. Newer asking-rent measures still point upward, though. The Cotality quarterly review uses a different method and reported a Melbourne median of $641 per week in the second quarter of 2026, up 4.9% on a year earlier. That figure cannot be compared directly with the $580 Homes Victoria median. Use the Homes Victoria figure for official lettings data and the Cotality figure as a guide to what advertised listings cost now.
Rent by suburb
Homes Victoria publishes a moving annual rent for each suburb, covering one-, two- and three-bedroom flats and two-, three- and four-bedroom houses. Each figure is the median weekly rent of new leases that started in the 12 months to the named quarter. That spreadsheet is the best place to check a specific suburb before signing a lease.
The table below shows median asking rents (the rent advertised on listings, not the rent in completed leases) for the year to December 2025, as analysed by Domain.
| Suburb | Dwelling type | Median asking rent per week | Change over the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorn East | Houses | $1,050 | Up 16.7% |
| Princes Hill | Houses | $1,000 | Up 18.3% |
| Caulfield | Houses | Close to Hawthorn East | Up 17.6% |
| South Yarra | Houses | $950 | Flat |
| Elsternwick | Houses | $853 | Down 5.3% |
| Moorabbin | Units | $650 | Up sharply |
| South Yarra | Units | $620 | Up 5.1% |
| Middle Park | Units | $550 | Down 9% |
| Burwood | Units | $425 |
The table shows three patterns. First, houses in the inner north (Princes Hill), inner east (Hawthorn East) and south-east (Caulfield) reached or passed $1,000 per week, and their rents rose sharply in a year. Second, units are much cheaper than houses in the same part of town: a South Yarra unit at $620 compares with a South Yarra house at $950. Price direction differs by suburb: Elsternwick houses and Middle Park units fell while Moorabbin units climbed sharply.
Domain also reports that the median asking rent for units across Melbourne rose $30 per week over the year to a record $580 in the December quarter, while the house median fell $10 per week. Rents were higher than a year earlier in about three-quarters of the Melbourne markets it analysed. A tenant willing to take a unit in a middle-ring suburb such as Burwood pays far less than a family renting a house in Hawthorn East, and that choice moves a household budget more than any other.
Electricity bills in Victoria
Victorian households who have not signed a market contract, or whose contract has ended, can be placed on the Victorian Default Offer. The Essential Services Commission (ESC) sets it as a standing price. The ESC describes it as an option for customers who are unwilling or unable to engage in the electricity market, and it states that the default offer "will not necessarily be the lowest price available." Comparing market offers can therefore lower a bill.
The price depends on which of five distribution zones your address falls in. For 2025–26, the ESC reported that default-offer bills rose 1% on average for domestic customers. The benchmark annual bill for a household using 4,000 kWh a year was $1,675 across Victoria. By zone, the benchmarks included:
- Powercor: $1,703
- Jemena: $1,638
- United Energy: $1,579
For 2026–27, the ESC announced on 25 May 2026 that default prices fall in all five zones, saving households about $84 a year on average. The new tariffs apply from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Your distributor appears on your bill, and the differences between zones in 2025–26 show that the same usage costs more in some zones.
Public transport costs
Melbourne trains, trams and buses all use the myki card, and fares are capped each day. Once you reach the daily cap, the rest of that day’s travel is free. Children and young people who hold a Youth myki travel free, and concession fares are half the full fare.
From 1 June 2026 to 1 January 2027, fares are at half price. Melbourne Metro lists the discounted full fares as $2.85 for a two-hour fare, a $5.70 weekday daily cap and a $4.00 weekend cap. The 7-day pass costs $28.50 under the discount, with concession prices of $1.43 for a two-hour fare, $2.85 for the weekday cap, $2.00 for the weekend cap and $14.25 for the 7-day pass.
The standard 2026 fares apply outside that window. Melbourne Info gives a $5.70 two-hour fare, an $11.40 weekday cap, an $8.00 weekend and public holiday cap and a $57.00 7-day pass for full-fare passengers. Concession passengers pay $2.85, $5.70, $4.00 and $28.50 for those same products. The 28 to 365-day pass costs $6.84 per day at full fare and $3.42 per day for concession holders.
For budgeting, the 7-day pass is priced at five weekday caps. A commuter who travels five weekdays gets no saving over capped fares, and the pass only wins for someone who also travels heavily on weekends or whose caps would otherwise be reached on more than five days. If you forget to tap off on a train or Zone 2 bus, the system charges the default fare, which is $5.70 in the standard fare period. Fares change on set dates, so confirm the current schedule on the Public Transport Victoria website.
Childcare costs
Childcare fees in Victoria are reduced by the federal Child Care Subsidy (CCS), which Services Australia pays directly to the service. For 2026–27, families with income up to $88,520 receive a 90% subsidy. The rate falls by 1 percentage point for every $5,000 of income above that, and reaches 0% at $538,520.
The subsidy applies to the lower of the service’s hourly fee or an hourly rate cap. For centre-based day care for children below school age, the 2026–27 cap is $15.19. A family pays the gap if the centre charges more than the cap. The Department of Education lists the 2025–26 caps, which are indexed to CPI each year, at $14.63 for centre-based care under school age and $12.81 for school-age children. Family Day Care was $13.56 per hour and In Home Care was $39.80 per family.
A worked example from the 2025–26 settings shows the mechanics. A centre charging $15.50 per hour, with the 90% subsidy applied to the $14.63 cap, receives $13.17 per hour in subsidy. The family pays about $2.33 per hour: $1.46 for the part of the capped fee the subsidy does not cover, plus $0.87 for the part of the fee above the cap. Because the cap rises each year while centres set their own fees, the gap above the cap is the part families control by choosing a centre.
By default, 5% of the subsidy is withheld to reduce the risk of overpayment. Families can change this up to twice a year through myGov.
Groceries and eating out
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tracks how fast prices rise, and it supplies the clearest figures for food. In the 12 months to August 2026, food and non-alcoholic beverages in Melbourne rose 2.7%, compared with 3.0% across the weighted average of eight capital cities. Melbourne’s all-groups index rose 3.5% over the year, while national CPI rose 4.0% and the trimmed mean (which strips out large price swings) was 3.6%.
National figures to May 2026 show where the pressure sits. Housing was the largest contributor to annual inflation at 6.5%. Food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 3.3%, meals out and takeaway rose 4.0%, and transport rose 3.3%. These rates show how fast prices are changing. They do not give the price of a grocery basket.
Eating out is rising faster than groceries, so it is the category most likely to push a budget past plan. A household that cooks at home most nights and sets a fixed weekly figure for dining out is better placed than one that lets meals out drift. Melbourne’s slower grocery inflation than the eight-city average gives some relief, though not enough to offset rent.
Sample budgets
The fixed costs below use the figures above. Groceries and eating out are left as a household’s own weekly figure, since the ABS data tracks change rather than price levels.
Single person
A single renter has the widest choice of rent. A unit in Burwood at a median asking rent of $425 per week sits at the low end of the table, while a South Yarra unit at $620 or a Moorabbin unit at $650 sits near the $580 city median. The Homes Victoria median excludes rooms in share houses, so sharing a house with others is a separate option that lowers rent further.
Transport for a full-fare adult is the $11.40 weekday cap in the standard fare period, or $5.70 during the half-price period to 1 January 2027, and the weekend cap is lower. Electricity depends on zone: the 2025–26 benchmark for a household using 4,000 kWh varied by zone, and the 2026–27 default offer is lower in every zone.
Couple
A couple splits rent, which is why a two-income household can afford a unit in a suburb such as South Yarra ($620) or Middle Park ($550) that would stretch a single wage. Both partners pay their own myki fares, so the cap applies to each card separately and transport costs double compared with a single person. If one partner holds a concession card, that person’s fares are half the full price.
Electricity for two uses the same zone benchmarks, so a couple gains from comparing market offers against the default offer. Rent remains the dominant item, and the $580 city median is the reference point for a typical new lease.
Family with children
Many families need a house, and the table shows the range: from $853 per week in Elsternwick to $1,050 in Hawthorn East. Houses in Caulfield sit close to Hawthorn East, and houses in Princes Hill are at $1,000. Asking rents for houses in Hawthorn East, Princes Hill and Caulfield rose between 16.7% and 18.3% over the year, so a family looking in the inner north, east or south-east should plan for rent in the upper part of that range.
Children who hold a Youth myki travel free on myki, which cuts the family transport bill to the adults’ fares. Childcare is the other large item. A family at or below $88,520 income gets a 90% subsidy, while a family earning more gets a smaller rate that falls 1 percentage point per $5,000. Whatever the rate, the family pays any fee above the $15.19 hourly cap in full, so compare centres on their hourly fee before enrolling.
Key Takeaways
- Treat rent as the budget’s anchor. The official median for new lettings in metropolitan Melbourne was $580 per week in the September quarter 2025, and houses in suburbs such as Hawthorn East ($1,050) and Princes Hill ($1,000) cost far more than units in Burwood ($425).
- Choose dwelling type before suburb. In South Yarra a unit asks $620 per week and a house $950, so moving from a house to a unit saves more than moving between suburbs.
- Compare electricity offers. The default offer falls in all five zones for 2026–27, which saves about $84 a year on average, but the ESC says it is not necessarily the cheapest price available.
- Check which fare period applies. Myki fares are half price from 1 June 2026 to 1 January 2027, with a $5.70 weekday cap, and the weekday cap goes back to $11.40 afterwards.
- Compare childcare fees against the $15.19 hourly cap. The Child Care Subsidy is 90% up to $88,520 of family income, but any fee above the cap comes out of the family’s pocket.
- Watch meals out. Meals out and takeaway rose 4.0% nationally in the year to May 2026, faster than food and non-alcoholic beverages at 3.3%.
