Cape Town vs Sydney - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 10, 2024

	Cape Town	Sydney
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1120	$2801
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2628	$6767
🏠 One person rent	$603	$1663
🏘️ Family rent	$1117	$3057
🍽️ Food expenses	$284	$569
🚐 Transport expenses	$137	$410
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$1545	$4399
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Excellent
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	9 km
🎓 Higher education	55	99
😀 Quality of life	59	99
🏙️ Population	3.78M	4.84M

The cost of living in Cape Town is 60% less expensive than in Sydney. Cities ranked 4849th and 312th ($1120 vs $2801) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 2nd and 1st in South Africa and Australia, respectively. Check South Africa vs Australia comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.4 months in Cape Town compared to 1.6 months in Sydney. Cape Town ranked 1st best city to live in South Africa vs Sydney ranked 2nd in Australia, while ranked 5407th and 4th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Cape Town vs Sydney infographic

Share this infographic!

Use the link below to embed the infographic from our site and automatically keep the data layer up to date.

If you prefer to download the image, please credit us as a source.

<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/cape-town/sydney.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Cape Town vs Sydney infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/cape-town/sydney" target="_blank">Cape Town vs Sydney - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Cape Town vs Sydney

Prices for goods and services in Cape Town and Sydney are partly crowdsourced by our visitors, just like yourself. Please consider telling us about your city.

	Cape Town	Sydney
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$7.8	$15.3
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$34	$70.6
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$5.15	$10.3
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.53	$7.41
☕ Cappuccino	$2.32	$3.54
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$1.04	$2.66
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$705	$1992
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$452	$1372
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1367	$4038
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$889	$2523
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$59	$114
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$91.3	$177
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$41.1	$53.8
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.61%	6.38%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1902	$16279
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1292	$9905
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.14	$3.46
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$45.3	$143
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$8.91	$29.6
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.36	$1.4
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.1	$1.71
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.07	$2.86
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$2.52
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.67	$4.82
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.88	$12.5
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.96	$8.94
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.13	$15
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.58	$3.42
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.61	$2.92
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.51	$3.22
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.64	$4.5
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$2.54
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.35	$2.32
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.66	$0.98
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.44	$2.43
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$5.57	$14.1
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.42	$5.08
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.99	$29.8
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$4.24	$6.92
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.42	$5.48
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.24	$2.83
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.59	$2.9
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$36.2	$58.7
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$6.5	$16.9
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$38.2	$67.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$10.4	$20.8
👖 Brand Jeans	$52.1	$78.9
👟 Brand Sneakers	$103	$117
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$201	$2054
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$4270	$18951

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Cape Town

Distance	City	Cost of living
54 km or 33 mi	Paarl	$850
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$649
371 km or 231 mi	George	$790
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$901
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$970
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$741
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$792
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$953
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$859
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$1286
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$703
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$696
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$581
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$627
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$862
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$533
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$774
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$832
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$559
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$788
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$689
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$809
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$717
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$779
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$692
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$690
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$768
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$717
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$674
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$971
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$943
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$718
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$654
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$1079
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$874
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$840
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$997
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$834
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$818
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$790

Cities near Sydney

Distance	City	Cost of living
15 km or 9.2 mi	Dee Why	$2286
19 km or 12 mi	Parramatta	$2472
29 km or 18 mi	Kellyville	$1997
29 km or 18 mi	Blacktown	$1732
69 km or 43 mi	Wollongong	$1532
117 km or 73 mi	Newcastle	$1833
158 km or 98 mi	Bathurst	$1674
168 km or 104 mi	Goulburn	$1748
205 km or 127 mi	Orange	$1500
247 km or 154 mi	Canberra	$2393
301 km or 187 mi	Dubbo	$1815
314 km or 195 mi	Port Macquarie	$1661
377 km or 234 mi	Armidale	$1289
378 km or 235 mi	Wagga Wagga	$1628
436 km or 271 mi	Coffs Harbour	$1913
478 km or 297 mi	Griffith	$1746
597 km or 371 mi	Shepparton	$1717
624 km or 388 mi	Byron Bay	$1958
638 km or 396 mi	Traralgon	$1829
683 km or 425 mi	Gold Coast	$2300
689 km or 428 mi	Southport	$2141
695 km or 432 mi	Pakenham	$1805
701 km or 436 mi	Berwick	$1800
706 km or 439 mi	Bendigo	$1397
706 km or 439 mi	Toowoomba	$1635
707 km or 439 mi	Dandenong	$1876
711 km or 442 mi	Ipswich	$1877
711 km or 442 mi	Cranbourne	$1738
713 km or 443 mi	South Yarra	$1758
713 km or 443 mi	Melbourne	$2397
716 km or 445 mi	Sunbury	$1822
724 km or 450 mi	Frankston	$1799
732 km or 455 mi	Melton	$1795
733 km or 455 mi	Brisbane	$2491
735 km or 457 mi	Tarneit	$1757
736 km or 457 mi	Hoppers Crossing	$1767
775 km or 481 mi	Caboolture	$1925
778 km or 484 mi	Geelong	$1892
779 km or 484 mi	Ballarat	$1357
807 km or 502 mi	Caloundra	$1754