Sydney has been named Australia’s best city for remote work, beating Brisbane and Melbourne despite scoring poorly on living costs as flexible work remains a major part of how Australians work.
A new study from accounting software provider Reckon ranked 20 Australian destinations and 20 overseas locations across factors including internet speed, climate, living costs, safety, health access, culture and fitness facilities.
Sydney finished first on the Australian list with an index score of 65.4 out of 100, followed by Brisbane on 62.2 and Melbourne on 59.1.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The study ranked 20 Australian destinations for people looking to work remotely while travelling. NewsWire / John Appleyard Credit: News Corp Australia
The ranking lands as working from home continues to play a major role in Australian working life across many sectors.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released in August 2025 found 36 per cent of employed Australians usually worked from home, unchanged from the year before and well above pre-pandemic levels.
Reckon head of people and culture Jessica Morris said Sydney’s win did not mean cost pressures no longer mattered to remote workers.
“According to our survey, affordability is actually the most important factor for remote workers,” Ms Morris said.
“We asked 1000 Aussies to rank all twelve factors from most to least important when choosing a destination to work remotely from, and living and accommodation costs came out on top.”
Sydney topped Reckon’s ranking of Australia’s best destinations for remote work. NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi Credit: News Corp Australia
Ms Morris said affordability carried a domestic weight score of 18.53 per cent, ahead of safety at 18.15 per cent and health and medical access at 15.66 per cent.
Even so, Sydney came out on top because it performed strongly across most other measures.
It scored a perfect 100 out of 100 for safety, 93.1 for culture and sightseeing, had the fastest internet result in Australia and ranked third for health and medical access.
“So it’s not that affordability doesn’t matter to remote workers; rather, the ranking shows that a weak score on one heavily weighted factor can be outweighed when a city is strong almost everywhere else,” Ms Morris said.
Brisbane ranked second and stood out for its climate score of 98.9 out of 100, the best result in the top 10.
It also posted strong scores for internet speed, medical access and living costs.
“Brisbane had the best weather score of any city in the top 10, though across all 20 Australian locations analysed it ranked third for weather, behind Airlie Beach and Cairns,” Ms Morris said.
The ranking measured destinations across internet speed, climate, living costs, safety, health access, culture and fitness facilities. Credit: Supplied
“Its second place finish on the national index is largely thanks to some of the best internet speeds and fitness access in the country, which outweighed a low safety score of 66 out of 100.”
She said the index did not include business conditions or career prospects, so it could not answer whether workers were choosing destinations for lifestyle over professional opportunity.
“The Work and Wander Index measures liveability and practical factors only, so career considerations like business landscape, employability and turnover aren’t part of our scoring,” Ms Morris said.
She said the results show Australians are prioritising affordability, safety and health access above other lifestyle conditions.
Melbourne placed third overall, despite receiving a perfect score for culture and sightseeing.
“Climate was the clear barrier for Melbourne,” Ms Morris said.
“The city achieved a perfect 100 out of 100 for culture and sightseeing but recorded the worst weather score of any Australian destination in the study.”
That mattered because weather was weighted more heavily than culture in the domestic ranking.
Ms Morris said weather accounted for 14.77 per cent of the index, while culture accounted for 11.41 per cent.
Sydney also remained close to Melbourne on culture, scoring 93.1, while performing better on safety and medical access.
“A roughly seven point edge on a mid-weighted factor can’t make up for finishing last on a more heavily weighted one,” she said.
The top 10 Australian destinations were Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Gold Coast, Canberra, Port Macquarie, Adelaide, Newcastle and Wollongong.
The broader debate around remote work has stayed heated, but recent national analysis has pushed back on the idea that working from home is to blame for Australia’s productivity problems.
The Productivity Commission has argued that well-managed hybrid work is generally neutral or positive for productivity.
Reckon also ranked international destinations for Australians who want to work while overseas.
Working from home remains common in Australia, with ABS data showing 36 per cent of employed people usually worked from home in 2025. iStock Credit: istock
Kuala Lumpur topped the global list with an index score of 68 out of 100, ahead of Auckland on 67.2 and Seoul on 66.6.
Ms Morris said readers should not compare the Australian and international rankings directly.
“Each destination was scored only against the other 19 on its own list, and the international index used twelve factors while the domestic list used seven,” she said.
“Due to the differences in healthcare and security systems across the globe, we used varying sources for health and safety data for international and domestic lists, meaning these scores aren’t comparable.”
For Australians weighing up a local working holiday against an overseas base, Ms Morris said the choice depends on what they want from the experience.
“Australia offers a sense of familiarity, the same time zone as loved ones and work, lower travel fares and no visa complications,” she said.
“International destinations offer the chance to explore diverse landscapes, people and culture.”
