What do you include in living expenses?

General Living expenses include; Primary residence expenses, food and groceries, transportation, telephone/Internet/Streaming, medical/healthcare costs and clothing. These are considered the lenders benchmark on general spending per month, known as HEM (household expenditure measure).

Additional living expenses take into account things like rent (if you’re not living in the property you buy), private health insurance, strata fees (for apartments/unit blocks), private school fees. These types of expenses are added to the general living expenses total, which are above the lenders HEM totals.

They are recorded in a home loan application over a monthly period.