Costs and fees

How much does a nursing home cost in Australia?

Q: How to avoid aged care fees?

The basic daily fee cannot be avoided. A resident's means assessment sets the means-tested contributions. Completing that assessment is not compulsory, but a person who skips it can be charged at the maximum contribution rate. {{CTA_WIZARD}}

Updated 24 August 2026

The cost of a nursing home in Australia, also called an aged care home, combines resident fees for care and daily living with a separate accommodation cost for the room. Every resident pays the basic daily fee whatever their income and assets, and its maximum is $66.80 a day, or $24,382 a year, on rates current at 23 August 2026. Indexation resets that maximum on 20 March and 20 September each year. What a resident pays on top depends on a means assessment of income and assets and on their entry date. The 1 November 2025 fee arrangements charge a hotelling contribution and a non-clinical care contribution. The 1 July 2014 arrangements charge a single means tested care fee. Both also charge a higher everyday living fee. The room price is agreed in writing with the provider before entry, and the government pays some or all of it for a resident with less means. Total aged care costs therefore differ from resident to resident.

Find your perfect home

Tell us the area and care needs; we match you with rated aged care homes and real availability.

Start the free match

What every resident pays: the basic daily fee

The basic daily fee pays for day-to-day living services in an aged care home: meals, cleaning, facilities management and laundry. The government sets the maximum basic daily fee, pegging it to 85% of the basic age pension's single person rate. The fee is then indexed each 20 March and 20 September, so the ceiling shifts twice a year in step with the pension.

Which fee rules apply depends on when you entered care

Two sets of fee arrangements run side by side in Australian residential aged care: the 1 November 2025 arrangements and the 1 July 2014 arrangements. Which set applies to a person depends on the date they entered care and on their earlier home care history.

A person entering an aged care home from 1 November 2025 onwards. One of 2 different types of fee arrangements applies to that person. The 1 November 2025 arrangements charge a basic daily fee, a hotelling contribution, a non-clinical care contribution and a higher everyday living fee.
A person who moved into an aged care home permanently on or before 31 October 2025. That person's resident fees and accommodation charges continue unchanged for as long as they remain in care. The terms already agreed hold unless that person opts in to the new arrangements.
A person receiving or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024. The 'no worse off principle' protects that person. Where they subsequently move into residential care, they pay under the 1 July 2014 arrangements, which charge a basic daily fee, a means tested care fee and a higher everyday living fee.

The two sets of arrangements differ in how the means-tested part of the bill is calculated. Both draw on the same input: an assessment of the resident's income and assets.

What your means assessment counts

A means assessment values a person's income and assets. It sets how much of their care and accommodation they pay for themselves. The family home, a protected person living in that home, a couple's shared position and a decision to skip the assessment each change what the calculation produces:

The family home is counted at a capped value. Keeping the family home puts a capped amount into your means assessment. That cap is $214,884.00, measured as at 20 March 2026. Where the net market value of the house is lower than that cap, the net market value is counted instead. A house worth well above the cap is still counted only at the capped amount.
A protected person keeps the home out of the asset count. Your home is not counted as an asset while a protected person occupies it. A protected person includes your partner. It also covers a carer who is eligible for an Australian Government income support payment and has been living with you in the home for at least 2 years.
Couples are each assessed on half of everything. Each partner's assessment includes half of the couple's combined income and assets. It makes no difference which partner earns the income or whose name an asset sits in. One partner moving into care does not shift the household's means onto that partner alone.
Skipping the assessment can set fees at the maximum. A means assessment is not compulsory. Without one, a resident can be charged the maximum contribution rate.

You can complete the means assessment before entering care. The fee advice letter it produces stays valid for 120 days, counted from the assessment date. An assessment done far ahead of a move can therefore expire before the move happens.

Care costs under the 1 November 2025 fee arrangements

Clinical care is fully funded by the government under the 1 November 2025 fee arrangements. Two of the charges those arrangements make are set by the resident's means assessment:

The hotelling contribution. The hotelling contribution is a means-tested charge under the 1 November 2025 fee arrangements, capped at the maximum hotelling supplement, $22.15 a day, on rates current at 23 August 2026. The supplement is indexed in March and September each year, so its ceiling moves twice a year. A resident whose assessed income and assets sit under the thresholds pays none of it, and the government keeps paying the full hotelling supplement.
The non-clinical care contribution. Only a resident whose means assessment resulted in them paying the full hotelling contribution may also be asked to contribute towards non-clinical care. The contribution excludes the cost of clinical care. It is capped at $107.32 a day on rates current at 23 August 2026, and the daily cap changes at indexation in March and September.

The non-clinical care contribution also has an end point. A resident stops paying it at $137,917.01 in total contributions, on rates current at 23 August 2026, or after a cumulative 4 years of contributions, whichever comes first. That dollar cap is indexed, changing in March and September. Contributions already made under the Support at Home program count towards the same lifetime cap.

Care costs under the 1 July 2014 fee arrangements

The 1 July 2014 fee arrangements charge the means-tested part of care as a single means tested care fee. That fee is between $0 and $372.03 a day, on rates current at 23 August 2026, and the range shifts at indexation in March and September. Not every resident pays the means tested care fee, and the amount differs from person to person.

The means tested care fee is capped twice over: at $35,910.43 a year, and at $86,185.23 in a lifetime, on rates current at 23 August 2026. Both caps move at each indexation, in March and September. The means tested care fee drops to zero for a resident who reaches the annual cap, which puts a ceiling on what a high-means resident can be charged for care in one year. Where a resident pays no means tested fees at all, the government covers the whole cost of their care and pays the provider direct.

How much does a room cost in an aged care home?

Each provider sets its own room prices. Everyone moving into an aged care home must agree the room price in writing with the provider before entering care. The Elderberry directory lists 2,590 aged care homes run by 708 providers across Australia (pulled August 2026), and each home publishes its own prices. No resident pays above the published price for their room, and a lower price can be negotiated and agreed with the provider.

Room prices are capped at the top by the maximum accommodation payment amount. From 1 July 2026, that amount is $789,686. It applies for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 and is indexed on 1 July each year. A provider that wants to charge more needs the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority to approve the price.

Once the room price is agreed, you have 3 options for paying it:

Pay a refundable lump sum. A refundable accommodation deposit, or RAD, is the agreed room price paid as a lump sum. The balance of the deposit comes back to you when you leave the aged care home. Retention applies to everyone who first moves into residential care from 1 November 2025 onwards and pays a refundable deposit, in full or in part. The provider retains an amount calculated at a rate of 2% a year on the deposit balance. After 5 years, no more retention amounts are deducted.
Pay daily payments. A daily accommodation payment, or DAP, works like a rent payment, and it is not refunded once you leave care. To work out a DAP, the maximum permissible interest rate (MPIR) is applied to the agreed room price, and the result is divided by 365. The MPIR is updated quarterly. The MPIR used for your DAP is locked in on the day you and your provider agree the room price, so the timing of that agreement sets your daily payment. Providers lift the DAP of anyone who first enters care from 1 November 2025 onwards at each indexation, which happens on 20 March and 20 September.
Pay a combination of both. You can pay part of the agreed room price as a refundable lump sum and the rest as daily payments. Paying a deposit in part is one of the cases the retention rules cover. Where the resident first moved into residential care from 1 November 2025 onwards, the provider retains 2% a year on the lump sum portion.

The aged care means assessment counts a refundable lump sum as your asset, even where a family member paid it. That same lump sum sits outside the age pension means test.

What happens if you can't afford a nursing home in Australia?

A resident who is eligible for government assistance as low-means has some or all of their accommodation cost paid to the provider by the Australian Government. The government pays the whole accommodation cost where a resident's income is under $35,521.20 and their assets are under $64,500.00. Those income and asset amounts are current at 23 August 2026 and change with indexation.

A separate safety net sits behind the low-means rules. Financial hardship assistance is available to a resident who cannot meet aged care home costs for reasons beyond their control. Where the application succeeds, the government meets some or all of the resident's aged care costs.

Do you have to sell your house to go into a nursing home in Australia?

No. Selling the family home is one way to raise a refundable accommodation deposit. Renting the home out is one way to help cover a daily accommodation payment. Neither step is required to enter an aged care home.

Selling the family home has a consequence outside the aged care fee rules. A sale brings the home's value into the Age Pension assets test, which is a different calculation from the aged care means assessment.

Common questions

How much money can you have in the bank for aged care?

A resident with income under $35,521.20 and assets under $64,500.00 has their full accommodation costs paid by the Australian Government, on amounts current at 23 August 2026 and moving with indexation. Above those amounts, the resident is expected to contribute towards the room. That assets figure is measured against the assets counted in the aged care means assessment, and each member of a couple is assessed on half the couple's combined income and assets, whoever holds them.

How much money can you have before you have to pay for care?

No amount of savings removes the basic daily fee, because every aged care home resident pays it whatever their means. The care charges on top of it are the means-tested ones. The government pays the whole cost of clinical care under the 1 November 2025 fee arrangements. A resident with income and assets below the thresholds that apply to the hotelling contribution pays none of it. Only a resident paying the full hotelling contribution can be asked for the non-clinical care contribution. Under the 1 July 2014 fee arrangements, the means tested care fee starts at $0, and not every resident is charged one.

How much savings can I have if I am in a nursing home?

Both sets of fee arrangements cap the means-tested part of a resident's bill, whatever their assessed income and assets come to. Under the 1 November 2025 arrangements, the non-clinical care contribution stops at $137,917.01 in total contributions, or after 4 cumulative years, whichever comes first. Under the 1 July 2014 arrangements, means tested care fees stop at $35,910.43 a year and $86,185.23 in a lifetime. Both sets of caps are current at 23 August 2026 and move at indexation in March and September.

How do pensioners afford aged care?

A pensioner's basic daily fee is calculated from the pension itself, at 85% of the basic age pension's single person rate, and it is reset with the pension on 20 March and 20 September. What a pensioner pays beyond that fee follows their means assessment, and the government contributes more where the assessment shows less capacity to pay. That support covers part or all of the room cost, and the whole cost of care for a resident who pays no means tested fees.

How to avoid aged care fees?

The basic daily fee cannot be avoided. A resident's means assessment sets the means-tested contributions. Completing that assessment is not compulsory, but a person who skips it can be charged at the maximum contribution rate.

Find your perfect home

Tell us the area and care needs; we match you with rated aged care homes and real availability.

Start the free match