Bills:

Bills are not included in your rental accommodation; they need to be paid separately. You may get bills at different time interval as you have specified to company. You may be billed monthly, after two months or after three month. Bills may include Electricity bills, Gas bills, water bills and phone bills. Normally, they are not too much but it also depends upon usage. Some houses have got central heating system but other doesn’t have, so students use to buy heaters that consume too much electricity. So, you may be billed more in winter for electricity usage.

Normal rates are mentioned below but it may vary according to usage.

Electricity: $12.00 a month per person

Water: $7.00 a month per person

Gas: $5.00 a month per person

Land Line Phone:

In Australia, there are many companies providing land line phone facility like Optus, Telnet. So, phone bills mainly depend upon the plan you have got. Every month you have to pay line rent plus usage charges. I have got Optus connection and pay $50 - $60 a month which is then divided among other fellows, so it becomes cheaper then. So, if you use phone to make local calls (not to mobile phone) and call to your country using calling cards then phone charges should be $10 per person per month.

Internet Connection:

An other important facility is internet; student may need access to internet for collecting data for assignments, online submission, accessing university networks through VPN and so on. Students can also use this facility for searching jobs, searching cheaper accommodation and also for other entertainment purposes. Broadband internet is provided by many companies here and because of competition the rates are very low. You will get a free modem after signing a contract. One modem may give internet access to only one computer so you have to buy a router to create a wireless LAN so others can also share it. Normally all this is already present when you switch accommodation, you just need to pay for monthly internet fee that may vary according to plan.

Normally it is $10 per month per person with at least 10GB download per month.

Some companies like Optus and Telstra provide a plan that will include both Land line and Internet facility and its cheaper rather then getting two separate plans form same companies.

So, according to above estimations; you may expect to pay around $50 per month for facilities including electricity, water, gas, phone and internet which normally many students pay here. Those who are already established and have got good jobs may have more usage and need to pay more.

Some Companies providing Landline and Broadband:

http://www.optus.com.au/ (for land line and internet)

http://www.telstra.com/ (for land line and internet)

Please Note:

All the information related to Bills can better suite to a house where you do not use separate heaters in individual rooms.  You can expect such amount of bills in summer season where as expenses in winters may increase. Please keep your self updated about new articles in this category, i will post some more information about bills soon.

Accommodation Cost:

In this article, I will try to cover all kind of expenses related to accommodation; it is only based on estimation and so varies among individuals. In my view, for living a happy life in Australia; there are two main things which you must have.

i. An Accommodation

ii. A Good Job

Hunting for accommodation is as difficult as hunting for a job. I have seen many people they keep on changing accommodation because of different issues like not good understanding with room mates/partners or because of high cost.

Many students from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, SriLanka, China, Vietnam etc., rent a single house and then share it with other students. Usually 2-3 rooms in a house and two people share a single room; it makes it cheaper. But accommodation near to a university is always expensive, so make sure you balance the cost and convenience.

House Rent:

Normally rent for one person sharing a room is $200 per month, which makes it around $50 a week. Students may get accommodation slightly higher or cheaper then this rate. Rent can be further reduced by increasing the number of people in the house but I won’t recommend it because it may create many different issues and may also affect your studies.

Bond Money Or Security:

Before moving to a new accommodation, most probably you have to pay bond money in advance also. Bond money is usually equal to your one month rent. This money will be kept by tenant or who ever has got the lease with his name. In case of any damages, charges will be conducted from this bond money. And when you are leaving that accommodation then you will get it back; this is how it works among students sharing accommodation.