How many coffees would add up to a home deposit in your suburb?

Would giving up coffee really help you save for your first home? We've crunched the numbers.

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By

Sophie Wallis

Updated

Fact checked

Key takeaways

  • Saving for a Sydney home deposit would mean forgoing 50,935 coffees, equivalent to 140 years of daily buying.
  • Deposit savings vary vastly across cities; Melbourne needs 35,255 coffees while Perth requires 20,256.
  • For elite suburbs like Barangaroo, saving a deposit means giving up 600,467 coffees, requiring much broader financial strategy.

Young homebuyers are often encouraged to give up daily pleasures – like their morning coffee – to buckle down on their house deposit savings.

But how much of a difference does that really make? Finder crunched the numbers to find out exactly how much of your favourite things you would need to give up to afford a home deposit.

By city: How many takeaway coffees does a home deposit cost?

Sydney is notorious for hosting some of the country's most expensive homes. With a median sales price of $1.1 million, Sydneysiders would need to give up 50,935 takeaway coffees to save enough for a home deposit.

That's equivalent to a coffee a day for 140 years – nearly twice the average lifespan.

Alternatively, you could forgo 1,653 years' worth of Netflix (about 20 lifetimes) or 13,625 bottles of wine to achieve the same result.

Among the 5 major capital cities, Melbourne comes in second place, where residents would need to give up 35,255 coffees to build up their savings. Brisbane follows at 25,161 coffees.

By suburb: How many takeaway coffees does a home deposit cost?

Sydney's Barangaroo tops the list of out-of-reach suburbs. With a median sales price of $12.9 million, you would need to give up 600,467 takeaway coffees, 19,487 years' worth of Netflix or 160,625 bottles of wine to save a 20% deposit.

In fact, the top 20 priciest suburbs are all located in New South Wales.

In Victoria, you would need to give up 161,971 coffees to afford a property in the coastal suburb of Portsea. Queensland's Sunshine Beach also comes at a high price, requiring buyers to forgo 97,383 daily cuppas.

Sydney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Adelaide

Perth

Table: All suburbs

Search for your suburb or postcode to see how your area stacks up.

Methodology

Finder used property price data to calculate how many daily items prospective homebuyers would need to give up to save enough for a 20% deposit.

Data sources include the following:

  • The average cost of a takeaway coffee, bottle of wine and restaurant meal in each city was sourced from Numbeo.
  • The cost of a Netflix subscription was sourced from Netflix.
  • The cost of petrol was sourced from Petrol Spy.
  • Property price statistics were sourced from CoreLogic.

Assumptions:

  • Property prices shown for suburbs are the weighted average of house and unit prices based on the proportion of house and unit sales over the past 12 months.
  • Based on data from drive.com.au, the average fuel tank is assumed to hold 62.9 litres of petrol.

Analysis excludes suburbs where property price data is not available from CoreLogic.

Sophie Wallis's headshot
Written by

Analyst

Sophie Wallis is a senior insights analyst with a passion for data storytelling. She spends her time turning complex data into digestible stories and uncovering new consumer trends. When she isn't working, you'll find her planning her next overseas holiday or bingeing on a big novel. Sophie has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Melbourne. See full bio

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