Melbourne is cheap. For the same price I paid for a 3 bedroom...

Melbourne is cheap. For the same price I paid for a 3 bedroom terrace in Sydney I could get a 24 square single story home on a 500m2 block 20km closer to the cbd.

Apartments are cheap as chips as is the rent for them. Places like St Kilda you can get a decent new 2 bedroom unit for the same coin as something 35+km from the Sydney CBD which is run down and 30+ years old. Wages for most jobs are no different.

I have a few colleagues that got transferred down to Melbourne rent is $200+/week cheaper than living in an equivalent distance to work in Sydney. Even docklands yes LVR is tight but for people coming from Sydney that type of deposit is just what's expected except up here it would be a 20% deposit instead of paying for 50% of the property.