Reference data
The annual cost of holding a home in Australia
What it costs to keep an Australian home for a year, before a cent of the mortgage is paid. Council rates, water, insurance, strata, land tax, maintenance and management, priced at three property values and three property types. Every figure is generated by the same model that runs our holding costs calculator, and the methodology lists every input.
Last updated
Headline numbers
A $700,000 house you live in costs $15,340 a year to hold. That is $1,278 a month, or $295 a week, with no mortgage in the figure and no land tax, because a principal place of residence is exempt from land tax in every state and territory.
Per year
$15,340
Per month
$1,278
Per week
$295
Annual holding cost of a home you live in, before the mortgage
| Property value | House | Townhouse | Apartment |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 | $12,100$233 / week | $14,700$283 / week | $15,800$304 / week |
| $700,000 | $15,340$295 / week | $17,940$345 / week | $19,040$366 / week |
| $900,000 | $18,580$357 / week | $21,180$407 / week | $22,280$428 / week |
An apartment costs more to hold than a house at every value here, because a flat strata levy outweighs the lower insurance premium. The premium is the same number of dollars at every value, $3,700 at $500,000 and $3,700 at $900,000, because both strata and insurance are flat. As a share of the house figure it falls from 31% to 20%.
Where the money goes
Same property value, $700,000, three situations. A house you live in, an apartment you live in, and a house you rent out in NSW.
| Cost | Basis | House, lived in | Apartment, lived in | House, rented out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Council rates | $1,200 + 0.12% of value | $2,040 | $2,040 | $2,040 |
| Water rates | Flat, fixed service charge | $1,000 | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Insurance | Flat, by property type | $1,800 | $1,000 | $1,800 |
| Strata levies | Flat, strata titles only | $0 | $4,500 | $0 |
| Land tax | Flat, by state, investors only | $0 | $0 | $800 |
| Maintenance and repairs | 1.5% of value | $10,500 | $10,500 | $10,500 |
| Property management | 8% of gross rent | $0 | $0 | $1,959 |
| Total a year | $15,340 | $19,040 | $18,099 |
Council rates: $2,040
$1,200 plus 0.12% of property value. Rates are struck on land value, so they climb with the property without tracking it closely. This is the one line every owner pays in every state, and it is the one that varies most between two councils in the same city.
Water rates: $1,000
A flat figure covering the fixed service charge, which the owner pays whether the property is occupied, vacant or tenanted. Usage is not in the model. A tenant normally pays that.
Insurance: $1,800 for a house, $1,000 for an apartment
A house needs full building cover. A strata building already insures the structure out of the levies, so a unit owner is only buying contents and landlord cover. Flood, cyclone and bushfire exposure is not modelled and can move a premium by an order of magnitude.
Strata levies: $4,500 for an apartment, $3,000 for a townhouse
Nothing for a freestanding house. Levies are a flat dollar amount rather than a percentage of value, which is why strata dominates the cost of a cheap unit and barely registers against an expensive one. Special levies for major works are not modelled.
Land tax: $0 on your home, $800 on a NSW rental
Investors only. Your principal place of residence is exempt everywhere in Australia. The model carries a nominal per-state figure rather than a threshold calculation, for the reasons set out below.
Maintenance and repairs: $10,500
1.5% of property value a year, and 68% of the total for a house you live in. It is the biggest number on the page and the only one nobody invoices you for. In most years you will spend less than this and in one year you will spend far more.
Property management: $1,959
8% of gross rent, investors only. At the model’s 3.5% yield a $700,000 property rents for $471 a week, so management takes $1,959. Letting fees and lease renewal fees are on top and are not modelled.
Loan interest: excluded
Interest is a holding cost and for most owners it is the largest one. It is left at zero here because it depends on your loan, not your property. Price it with the mortgage calculator and add it to any figure on this page.
How much the state changes it
Less than most people expect, and for a home you live in, not at all. Land tax is the only input in this model that moves with the jurisdiction, and a principal place of residence is exempt from land tax in every state and territory. Under these assumptions a home costs the same to hold in Hobart as in Sydney.
For an investor the entire spread across eight jurisdictions is $1,500 a year, or $29 a week, on a $700,000 house: $17,299 in the NT, which levies no land tax at all, up to $18,799 in the ACT, which has no tax-free threshold.
Annual holding cost of a $700,000 investment house, by state
| State | Land tax in model | Tax-free threshold | Total a year | Per week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | $800 | $1,075,000 | $18,099 | $348 |
| VIC | $700 | $50,000 | $17,999 | $346 |
| QLD | $600 | $600,000 | $17,899 | $344 |
| WA | $500 | $300,000 | $17,799 | $342 |
| SA | $600 | $936,000 | $17,899 | $344 |
| TAS | $500 | $125,000 | $17,799 | $342 |
| ACT | $1,500 | No threshold | $18,799 | $362 |
| NT | $0 | No land tax | $17,299 | $333 |
The land tax column is a flat placeholder, not a calculation. Real land tax is charged on the aggregated unimproved value of all the land you own in a state, above a threshold, and the third column shows how far apart the states are on that: $50,000 in Victoria against $1,075,000 in New South Wales, on the same property. Thresholds are taken from our land tax guide, which carries the rates, surcharges and trust thresholds this page does not model.
If you rent it out
At the model’s 3.5% gross yield, rent covers the non-mortgage holding costs in 8 of the 9 combinations below. The exception is a $500,000 apartment, where a flat $4,500 strata levy on a low-value property leaves the owner $478 short before the mortgage is paid at all. Read every row as a pre-mortgage figure.
| Property | Holding costs | Rent at 3.5% | Before the mortgage |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500,000 house | $14,302 | $17,524 | $3,222 spare |
| $500,000 townhouse | $16,902 | $17,524 | $622 spare |
| $500,000 apartment | $18,002 | $17,524 | $478 short |
| $700,000 house | $18,099 | $24,492 | $6,393 spare |
| $700,000 townhouse | $20,699 | $24,492 | $3,793 spare |
| $700,000 apartment | $21,799 | $24,492 | $2,693 spare |
| $900,000 house | $21,901 | $31,512 | $9,611 spare |
| $900,000 townhouse | $24,501 | $31,512 | $7,011 spare |
| $900,000 apartment | $25,601 | $31,512 | $5,911 spare |
All rows are NSW, so land tax is $800 in every one. Add loan interest and most of these positions invert: on a leveraged purchase, interest is normally larger than every other holding cost put together, which is the arithmetic behind negative gearing.
Methodology
Every number on this page is generated at build time by two functions in this site’s source, defaultHoldingCosts() and calculateHoldingCosts(), in src/lib/calculators/holding-costs.ts. They are the same two functions that run the holding costs calculator, so the dollar figures in these tables cannot drift from the tool. Hand-entered inputs are limited to the three price points, the plain-English basis notes, the 0.5% low-maintenance rate used in the sensitivity paragraph (taken from our holding costs breakdown), and the land tax thresholds, which are transcribed from our land tax guide.
The inputs are the calculator’s seed defaults. They are starting values a user is expected to overwrite with their own rate notice, insurance renewal and strata budget. Treat them as a structured budgeting baseline, not as measured national averages.
Every input, in full
| Input | Value used | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Property values modelled | $500,000, $700,000, $900,000 | Round figures chosen for comparison. Not medians. |
| Council rates | $1,200 + 0.12% of property value | Rates are struck on land value, so they rise with the property. |
| Water rates | $1,000 a year, flat | The fixed service charge. Tenant usage is not modelled. |
| Insurance | $1,800 house / $1,400 townhouse / $1,000 apartment | A strata building insures the structure through the levies. |
| Strata levies | $4,500 apartment / $3,000 townhouse / $0 house | A flat dollar amount, not a percentage of value. |
| Land tax | NSW $800, VIC $700, QLD $600, WA $500, SA $600, TAS $500, ACT $1,500, NT $0 | Investors only. A nominal per-state figure, not a threshold calculation. |
| Maintenance and repairs | 1.5% of property value a year | A budgeting rule of thumb, not a bill. |
| Property management | 8% of gross rent | Investors only. Letting and renewal fees are not modelled. |
| Gross rental yield | 3.5% of property value | Converted to a weekly rent, then multiplied by 52. |
| Marginal tax rate | 37% | Used only for the tax-benefit figure on investment scenarios. |
| Loan interest | $0 | Excluded by default. It depends on your loan, not your property. |
How the totals are built
- Council rates scale with property value ($1,200 base plus 0.12% of value). Water, insurance, strata and land tax are flat annual amounts.
- Maintenance is property value multiplied by the maintenance rate.
- Annual rent is the weekly rent multiplied by 52. Weekly rent is the yield applied to the property value, divided by 52 and rounded.
- Property management is annual rent multiplied by the management rate.
- Strata applies to apartments and townhouses only. Land tax and property management apply to investments only. Zero lines are dropped from the total rather than shown as $0.
- The total is the sum of the lines that apply. Monthly is the total divided by 12, weekly is the total divided by 52, both rounded.
- For investments, the position before the mortgage is total holding costs minus annual rent.
What these figures are not
- These are not survey figures. No council rate notice, insurance quote or strata levy was collected. They are the calculator's seed defaults, which exist so that a user has something sensible to overwrite.
- Maintenance is the largest line and the softest one. At the headline scenario it is $10,500, or 68% of the total, and nobody invoices you for it. Drop the rate to 0.5% a year, which is what our breakdown post gives for property under ten years old, and the $700,000 apartment falls from $19,040 to $12,040, a swing of $7,000.
- There is no council-level or suburb-level detail. Council rates vary more between two councils in the same city than this model varies between states.
- The land tax column is a flat per-state placeholder. Real land tax is charged on the aggregated unimproved value of all the land you own in a state, above a threshold, so two investors with identical portfolios in different states can differ by tens of thousands.
- Loan interest is excluded. For most leveraged owners it is larger than everything on this page combined.
- Strata levies are one number. Real levies range widely by building, and one-off special levies for major works are not modelled at all.
- Investment figures assume every cost is deductible in the year incurred, which is how the ATO treats ongoing holding costs. Capital improvements are depreciated instead and are not modelled. Owner-occupier figures carry no deductions because none are available.
Reviewing and reuse
Last reviewed . First published . The assumptions are reviewed whenever the calculator’s defaults change, and this page regenerates with them.
Quote or reproduce any figure here with a link back to this page. If you need a scenario we have not published, a different value, yield, maintenance rate or state, the calculator will produce it and the inputs are carried in the URL, so the result is linkable.
Run your own numbers
Put in your property value, state and property type, then overwrite the rates, insurance and strata with your actual figures. Free, no sign-up.
- Property holding costs in Australia: complete breakdownEvery cost category in prose, with strategies to cut them.
- Land tax guide: rates and thresholds by stateThe real calculation behind the land tax column.
- Mortgage repayment calculatorThe interest figure this page leaves out.
References
- Property and land – Australian Taxation Office