Australia Rent affordability calculator

How much rent can you actually afford?

Three different yardsticks answer the question, and this calculator shows all three because they fail in different ways:

• The 30% rule — rent at most 30% of gross monthly income. Simple, ubiquitous, and blind to your debts and location.
• The 40× landlord screen — most landlords and agencies require annual gross income of at least 40 times the monthly rent. This is the ceiling you'll face in practice regardless of your own budget.
• The 50/30/20 budget view — needs (rent, utilities, groceries, transport, minimum debt payments) within 50% of take-home pay. The most honest yardstick when you carry debt, because every debt payment shrinks the rent you can sustain.

Worked example

On a $60,000 salary with $300/month of debt payments: the 30% rule allows $1,500/month; the 40× screen allows $1,500; the budget view lands nearer $1,275 once debts take their share. The honest answer is a range — comfortable near the lowest figure, possible up to the screen limit.

If you have to break the rules

In high-cost cities many renters spend 40–50% of income on housing. If that's you, make the trade-off explicit: smaller emergency fund contributions, slower retirement saving, or less discretionary spending — pick deliberately rather than discovering it in overdraft. And avoid stacking maximum rent on top of maximum car payment; the two ceilings together break the budget that each alone would not.

Weighing a purchase instead? Compare with the rent vs. buy calculator and check what salary you take home with the paycheck calculator.