$550,000
The middle price for a room in Victoria
Based on 451 Victorian homes that publish a price
The cheapest tenth of rooms are under $350,000. The dearest tenth are over $900,000.
Aged care in Victoria — what the data shows.
What a room costs, what the quality figures actually say, and whether paying more gets you better care. Every answer below comes from the government’s own published data on 752 Victorian homes. Open any card to see the working.
Data as at . These figures describe the sector as a whole — we do not publish findings about individual homes.
What it costs
about 1 in 5
Rooms priced above $750,000
Based on 1,630 priced rooms in Victoria
A threshold meant to be the exception now covers close to a fifth of rooms.
$14 a day
What a typical home spends on food, per resident
Based on 434 Victorian homes reporting food spend
Most homes spend between $12.00 and $20.00. Below $12.00 puts a home in the bottom tenth.
What you get for it
4 stars
What a typical Victorian home scores
Based on 673 rated Victorian homes
Four stars is ordinary here rather than exceptional — three quarters of Victorian homes have it. Three stars puts a home near the bottom.
about 3 in 5
Victorian homes that meet their staffing target
Based on 609 Victorian homes with a target and reported figures
A typical Victorian home provides about 3 hours 37 minutes of care per resident per day, including 48 minutes from a registered nurse.
about 1 in 5
Homes you would judge wrongly using the 215-minute rule of thumb
Based on 609 Victorian homes with a target and reported figures
This is the most common way families misread the staffing figures. Compare a home with its own target, which we show on every profile.
Does a dearer room get you better care?
No
Whether paying more gets you a better-rated home
Based on 392 Victorian homes with both a price and a rating
Homes charging under $400,000 average 4.1 stars. Homes charging over $800,000 average 3.9.
Star rating by what the home charges
Under $400k4.10stars31 homes
$400–600k3.93stars170 homes
$600–800k3.88stars113 homes
Over $800k3.90stars78 homes
The cheapest band comes out slightly ahead on staffing too: 3 hours 58 minutes of care per resident per day against 3 hours 37 minutes for homes over $800,000. A higher price mostly buys a bigger room in a better suburb in a newer building — none of which is what the star rating measures.
The practical version: set your budget from what you can afford, then compare homes on quality within it. Stretching on the assumption that a dearer room means better care is not supported by any figure the government publishes.
Who runs Victorian homes
Not for Profit47.4%309 homes
For Profit32.7%213 homes
Government19.9%130 homes
Ownership tells you less than you would expect. Government-run homes average 4.26 stars and not-for-profits 3.87, against 3.8 for for-profit homes — but the difference between two homes in the same group is usually far larger than the difference between the groups. Check the home, not the owner.
Source: Aged Care Circle analysis of Department of Health and My Aged Care data (652 Victorian homes with a recorded owner) · As of
Looking at a particular area?
Victorian costs by suburb breaks these prices down to suburb level, for suburbs with enough separate homes to report without identifying any one of them.