AffordaLive's calculator pulls together real-time property data and your own financial picture, so you can see where renting vs buying actually leaves you.
Get an instant A–F grade based on the 30% housing affordability rule, the standard benchmark used by financial advisers and lenders.
Built on benchmark data from ABS Census and Domain sources, plus independently compiled government sales data, covering rental and sale price estimates across all Australian suburbs.
See every dollar: rent, rates, insurance, HOA, maintenance, stamp duty, LMI, and ownership costs all calculated automatically.
Define personal goals (holidays, investments, education) and see exactly how rent vs buy impacts your savings.
Built-in support for stamp duty relief, Home Guarantee Scheme, and LMI waivers. See your real costs as a first buyer.
Enter your own custom figures for total control. Perfect if you want to test scenarios or use local knowledge.
AffordaLive uses the 30% rule, a widely accepted guideline from financial planners and lenders: if your housing cost exceeds 30% of your net (take-home) income, it's considered stretched.
When calculating rent affordability, we include:
When calculating mortgage affordability, we include:
Don't trust the default figures? Switch to Advanced mode and enter your own numbers for:
Perfect for testing "what-if" scenarios or when you have local knowledge of your suburb.
AffordaLive uses a combination of sources depending on what's available for your suburb:
Every figure is labelled with its source, so you always know whether you're looking at Domain Insight data, our own benchmark, or a state estimate.
The free calculator gives you a real-time affordability comparison for one suburb at a time. For a deeper, shareable analysis, AffordaLive generates a personalised PDF report, delivered to your inbox within minutes of payment.
Available as a Rent Report or a Buy Report for a single suburb, covering:
Everything in the Basic Lite Report, for up to 3 additional nearby suburbs: each scored against your income the same way as your own pick, plus a full suburb comparison table ranking every suburb in your report side by side. These are suggestions to compare, not a recommendation that any one of them suits you specifically.
Every suburb in a report (your own pick and, on the Basic Report, the suggested alternatives) gets a score out of 100, based on two factors. Affordability, based on mortgage or rent as a percentage of your income, is the primary factor. Local pricing, based on suburb price compared against the median for its local council area (LGA) using real government-sourced sales data where it's available, is a secondary adjustment. Where a local council-area benchmark isn't yet available for a suburb, this factor is instead scored relative to the other suburbs shown in that report. This is disclosed on the suburb's page rather than presented as an equivalent comparison. A higher score means a suburb is comfortably affordable for your income and reasonably priced for its area. Being cheap isn't enough on its own, and neither is being technically affordable. The two factors are scored independently, so a suburb can be genuinely well-priced for its area while still being a stretch on your income. Where that happens, the report says so directly.
Where a suburb's price is estimated from a nearby suburb with verified data rather than its own independent figures, this is disclosed directly on that suburb's page in the report, with the source suburb and distance named. Never presented as equivalent to independently confirmed pricing.
A Comprehensive tier (available as Comprehensive Lite, single suburb, or Comprehensive, primary suburb plus three comparisons) and a monthly subscription for active buyers are in development: full suburb deep dives, financial readiness scoring, lifestyle fit analysis, and extended stress testing. Not available for purchase yet. See our FAQs for the current status, or get in touch to be notified at launch.
All reports are generated automatically and delivered to your email within minutes of payment. Data is current at the time of generation. Verify figures against live listings before making any decision.
AffordaLive (including both the free calculator and all paid reports) is an educational and planning tool only. All figures are estimates based on standard assumptions and publicly available data. Property prices, rental rates, and interest rates fluctuate.
Suggested suburbs in reports are selected using the same search radius and affordability criteria as your own pick, then scored by affordability relative to your income and by price relative to the local area. Being included isn't a recommendation that any of them suits your specific circumstances. They do not account for lifestyle preferences, employment location, school requirements, commute times, or other personal factors unless you use the Comprehensive Report.
Always consult a qualified financial adviser, mortgage broker, or conveyancer before making any property decision. See our full disclaimer for details.