Find the Melbourne suburbs that fit your monthly budget
Set your budget and how you live. We add up council rates, water, estimated insurance and electricity, and your commute to the CBD for every suburb in the 31 Metro and Interface councils of Greater Melbourne, plus your rent or mortgage if you add it, and show the ones that fit.
Not sure what to budget? Use your income
Your income stays on this device. We do not send it anywhere or store it. Each suburb then shows its share of your income, and so does your budget below.
For your answers, each suburb's total adds up:
Not included: the purchase price, groceries, phone and internet, and car loans. Estimates are not quotes or bills.
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Insurance, strata and electricity are estimates, not quotes or bills.
How the figures are worked out
Each suburb's yearly running cost uses the same lines as its suburb page, set to your answers, then shown weekly, monthly or yearly.
- Owners pay the 2026-27 council rate (for Victoria, the council's budget average residential rate including any municipal charge, so a typical bill), water and sewerage, home insurance (contents insurance and an owners corporation fee for a unit), electricity and the commute. Renters pay water, electricity, the commute and, in a unit, contents insurance; the landlord pays the rates and building insurance.
- Electricity is the same estimate as our electricity calculator: Australian Energy Regulator usage benchmarks for the household size and climate zone, at each network's 2026-27 regulated prices.
- Driving is the road distance from the suburb to the Melbourne CBD, there and back, on the days you choose, for 48 weeks, at the ATO 2026-27 rate of 91 cents a kilometre, which covers the whole cost of running the car, not fuel alone. Drive times are off-peak, with no traffic.
- Public transport is myki, which is capped statewide: the daily cap on each travel day, or a yearly myki Pass for each commuter where that is cheaper, at 2026 standard full fares (combined days over five count as more than one commuter). We only rank suburbs where a commute is realistic: a train station within 2 km of the suburb's centre, or 16 or more bus and tram departures between 7 and 9 am from stops within 800 m. Coaches and regional buses are not counted. Service counts come from PTV's timetable for a weekday (PTV GTFS, Department of Transport and Planning, CC BY 4.0).
- Your rent or mortgage, if you add it, is added to every suburb the same. We do not hold property prices or rents, so it cannot change between suburbs: a dearer suburb would usually mean a bigger loan or rent.
- Why it differs from the suburb pages. Each suburb page assumes a typical commute pattern and straight-line distance, and leaves electricity out of the total. Here everything follows your answers.