As housing affordability becomes an increasingly pressing issue in Australia, one man has come up with a solution of sorts: matching people’s budget and lifestyle preferences with an affordable place to live in one of 600 cities around the world.
The tool takes into account the number of people who will be living with you and whether you would like a one or three-bedroom apartment in or outside of the city centre.
With a budget of up to $1500 a month to spend on rent, while ensuring a “very lean” lifestyle, low pollution and a low crime rate, the best place to live according to The Earth Awaits is the picturesque university town of Heidelberg in Germany.
You can sort by different parameters, so if you are looking for a city to live in with a low budget your best bet is Asuncion in Paraguay, followed by Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For internet speed, the top two options are Saint Petersburg and Cluj-napoca, in Romania.
But if you want to live on a seriously shoestring budget, spending less than $1000 a month on accommodation will send you to Bursa in Turkey, Mangalore in India and Queretaro in Mexico.
Pushing it up to $2000 to $3000 a month brings up two cities in North Carolina – Durham and Raleigh – and, just over the ditch, Hamilton in New Zealand. .
And if you’re wondering when we get to an Australian entry, bumping up the budget to $5000 a month gives you Canberra – our humble nation’s capital – as the option with the best quality of life.
The website breaks down how it comes up with the various metrics. For example, a gym membership is factored into the price of healthcare and the food budget includes two bottles of “mid-range” wine and 10 cappuccinos. The cost of living information comes from the user-contributed global database Numbeo.
It does leave out the logistical difficulties of international relocation, including getting some kind of official permanent residency – the hard bit, especially considering the current global political climate. And then there’s the differing experiences based on background and gender, something the creator is trying to address. The site does, however, allow you to enter your country of origin to get some general visa information about visiting.
Most importantly it also doesn’t factor in the local sentiment to a bunch of Australians showing up with plans to retire, demanding an excessive number of flat whites and free-poured cocktails in badly-mangled Portuguese.