Cost of living is a phrase that pops up in our office conversation at Time Out almost daily. It’s so embedded in our nation’s vocabulary that Macquarie Dictionary even named ‘cozzie livs’ as its 2023 Word of the Year. With the majority of Aussies feeling the pinch from rising transport, property and food prices, it might come as a surprise to learn that one Australian city has just been named as the second most cost-effective place to live globally.
We’re as shocked as you are, but we can’t argue with the stats, which come from Compare the Market’s Cost-of-Living Cities Index 2024. To compile the ranking, the data experts compared 42 economically developed capital cities around the world on 11 key factors, including the cash rate, annual average wage and unemployment rate, alongside the average price for everyday essentials like bread, milk, rent, electricity, fuel and public transport.
Digging into the data, it becomes clear why Brisbane was named as the second-most cost-of-living friendly city worldwide, trailing only behind Seoul in South Korea. It’s largely thanks to Queensland’s game-changing 50-cent public transport fare, which was introduced by the state government in August 2024 to help ease cost-of-living pressures. This flat, one-way fare – currently running as a trial until February 2025 – is the third lowest of all cities included on the index, and is far below the average cost for public transport in Melbourne at $5.30 and Sydney at $5.
Other factors that bumped Brisbane up the leaderboard – and also boosted Melbourne into seventh place and Sydney to 13th – include Australia’s comparatively lower petrol costs (averaging $1.68 per litre), a relatively moderate rise in rental prices (117.7 per cent since 2015), and a low unemployment rate (4.2 per cent).
Factors that hindered the performance of the three Aussie cities were relatively high electricity costs, with Brisbane averaging 40 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to 19.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in Seoul. Additionally, Australia’s cash rate stood at 4.35 per cent, which is far higher than South Korea’s 3.5 per cent, yet a far cry from Turkey’s staggering 50 per cent.
The fact that Brisbane ranked as the second most cost-effective city to live in right now, with a total index score of only 6.31, says a lot about our world right now. Essentially, we’re all suffering through this cost-of-living crisis together.
These are the ten most cost-of-living friendly cities in the world:
- Seoul, South Korea
- Brisbane, Australia
- Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
- Madrid, Spain
- Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Bratislava, Solavk Republic
- Melbourne, Australia
- Rome, Italy
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Prague, Czechia and Ankara, Türkiye