The Household Expenditure Measure is a benchmark of living expenses produced by the Melbourne Institute at the University of Melbourne and used by Australian lenders when they assess a home loan. It is built from the ABS Household Expenditure Survey as the median spend on absolute basics (food, utilities, transport, communications, children's clothing) plus the 25th-percentile spend on discretionary basics, and it varies by household composition, gross income band and location. Lenders use the higher of the expenses you declare and the HEM for a household like yours, which APRA's guide APG 223 expects them to scale by income, so declaring less than HEM does not lift your borrowing power. HEM excludes rent and mortgage payments; childcare, school fees, insurance, HECS and loan repayments are assessed on top of it. The tables are licensed to lenders, not published. Our borrowing power calculator applies indicative figures by household, and Your Finance Guide's HEM explainer covers how lenders apply it in detail.
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