Sydney family David and Simone Fevre with their children Lachlan, Dylan and Alicia. Picture: Stephen Cooper Source: The Daily Telegraph
SYDNEY families are paying between $2100 and almost $5000 a year more in cost-of-living expenses than any other capital city, an exclusive national study has revealed.
The cost of renting a home has grown at twice the rate of most other cities since 2011 with Sydneysiders now paying up to $1300 a year more in rent than people in Melbourne.
Sydneysiders are also paying $799 more in interest on their mortgages than Melburnians, $924 more than Brisbanites and $610 more than the national average.
But electricity costs have increased the most - by 37 per cent - with families paying $227 more a year than the national average.With the federal Budget tomorrow set to deliver a blow to the family budget, new figures show that a typical western Sydney family continues to pay more for basic goods and services than other Australian families.
While wages have grown across the country, meaning most people are generally better off, families continue to pay a premium for a Sydney postcode.
The second cost of living index compiled by the University of Canberra's National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, commissioned by The Daily Telegraph, shows Sydney is $2556 more expensive than Melbourne, $3664 more expensive than Brisbane and almost $4800 a year more expensive than Adelaide.
It comes as Treasurer Wayne Swan refused to rule out further cuts tomorrow, after already dumping promised tax cuts and up to $600 in extra family tax benefits due to come in this year.
The modelling shows that health expenses in Sydney grew by 10.9 per cent, or $431, and financial services by 10 per cent or $802 since 2011.
Apart from higher rises in the costs of rent, health, electricity and mortgage interest payments compared to the rest of the country over the past two years, they also already pay $493 more in transportation than Melbourne and $814 more than in Brisbane.
Helping to offset these costs has been a 20 per cent reduction in mortgage payments saving about $665 per annum for the average household in Sydney with one in three families having a mortgage.While slightly higher wages in Sydney - mainly due to more people in higher income brackets - compensated partially for the cost of living premium, the median salaries vary little between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, meaning low and middle income families in Sydney are hardest hit.
The other good news was that Sydney families are paying less for food, clothes, interest payments and recreation than they were two years ago and are now paying about the same as the national average.
The modelling, first commissioned in 2011 and updated last week, takes the cost of a basket of goods and services in Sydney and compares them to what the same basket would cost in the other capitals if families sought the same goods.
"Sydney remains the capital of cost of living in Australia," NATSEM principal research fellow Ben Phillips said. "Sydney has the highest cost of living of Australia's capital cities with the average household spending around $2100 more per year than other state capitals and around $4800 more per year than Australia's lowest cost city, Adelaide.
"However, Sydney also has higher wages than most other capitals. While Adelaide may look relatively cheap, Adelaide incomes are around 10 per cent lower."During this period average weekly earnings have increased by around 9 per cent across the nation, implying that households are about 6 per cent better off than two years ago. In terms of average households this means about $4200 per year of extra money to play with once cost increases are factored in."
In 2011, the Gillard government promised to take into account the cost of living in Sydney and deliver policies to ease the pressure.
