Australia, an expensive home for startups

Both Sydney and Melbourne are almost as expensive as San Francisco for startups and their founders, according to the Expatisan Cost Of Living Index.

The index takes the expenses of a “typical expat” – food, housing, clothes, transportation, health and entertainment – and compares their prices in cities around the world.

Expatisan users enter prices for all of the products in various the cities, which enables the platform to make the comparisons.

San Francisco was just 6% more expensive than Melbourne and 3% more expensive than Sydney.

There was a big difference in the cost of housing in San Francisco, which was 50% more expensive than Melbourne and 28% more expensive than Sydney, but the world’s tech capital was cheaper across food, clothing, personal care and entertainment categories.

Both Sydney and Melbourne are substantially more expensive than other tech hubs around the world.

Berlin is 26% cheaper than Melbourne and 32% cheaper than Sydney, with the housing, food and entertainment categories seeing the largest points of difference.

It’s a similar story in Israel, where Tel Aviv is 15% cheaper than Melbourne and 22% cheaper than Sydney.

Closer to home, Singapore is 5% more expensive than Sydney, and 15% more expensive than Melbourne, due to more expensive housing, transportation and clothing categories.