21 Aussie Women On How Much Rent They Pay & What It Gets Them

You may fall into team 'renting is dead money' or maybe you're a firm believer that renting is a universal rite of passage. Either way, there's a lot to unpack around the experience. From unhinged housemates that erode your faith in humanity, to derelict houses that are falling apart but only just affordable, there's a lot of bad that comes with the freedom of renting, and unless you're prepared to relocate far, far away, all we can really do is accept it and pray that the housing market chills the f**k out.

The old adage goes that you shouldn't spend more than 30% of your gross income on rent. The issue with that, however, is that rental prices are increasing at breakneck speeds, while average incomes stay relatively stagnant. And depending on where you live — even state capitals vary greatly, with the average weekly rent for Sydney-siders being $582, compared to Melbourne's $440 — you can find yourself paying up to 50% of your take-home pay.

There's no getting around the fact that rental prices are consistently on the rise, but sometimes it feels like we're paying a lot more than we would — which we definitely are. But it leads us to wonder: how much is everyone Down Under actually coughing up? To drop some of the mystery around money, we asked 21 Aussie women to tell us exactly how much they pay in rent and what they get for it.

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