What is the best aged care in Australia?

Source: Star Ratings quarterly data extract, August 2026 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing), as held in our data. Star Ratings are published by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Shown as published in August 2026; they may have changed since. See the current rating on My Aged Care.

Why there is no single best home

"Best" depends on who is moving in. A home that suits one person can be wrong for another, even with the same rating. These are the things that decide it:

• Care needs. Someone with advancing dementia may need a secure memory support unit. Someone with complex health needs may need a home with strong nursing cover, which the Staffing rating and care minutes give a sense of.
• Where family lives. Regular visits from family and friends make a real difference to daily life in care, so distance matters. A home the family can reach easily may suit better than a higher-rated home far away.
• Culture, language and faith. Homes vary in the languages their staff speak, the food they cook and the faith life they support.
• Budget. Each home sets its own room prices. What a person pays on top depends on the government's means test. See what aged care costs.
• A room when it is needed. Homes are full most of the time: metropolitan homes ran at 96.1% occupancy in the March 2026 quarter (StewartBrown survey of homes' available beds). The home that looks right on paper may not have a room when you need it.

So the honest question is not "which home is best?" but "which homes, near the people who will visit, can meet these care needs, at a price that works, and have a room soon?"

What the Star Ratings show

Every government-funded aged care home is rated from 1 to 5 stars by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, and the ratings are published on My Aged Care (the Australian Government's aged care service, 1800 200 422). We hold the complete August 2026 ratings for Victoria. For other states we hold an older sample, so we report it separately.

Victoria: every rated home (August 2026)

Three things stand out:

• Five stars is rare, especially in Melbourne. 59 Victorian homes hold 5 stars, and only 9 of them are in Greater Melbourne. 50 are elsewhere in Victoria, and 47 have 60 places or fewer.
• Most 5-star homes are government-run. 42 of the 59 are government-run, and 41 of those are outside Greater Melbourne. In Victoria, 122 of the 124 rated government-run homes are run by public health services. That pattern says nothing certain about any home near you.
• Staffing is where homes differ most. Only 39% of rated Victorian homes score 4 or 5 for Staffing, and 37% score 1 or 2. Residents' Experience is close behind as the sub-rating to read: 52% score 4 or 5.

The four sub-ratings across Victoria

By who runs the home (Victoria)

Care minutes

Every home has two care time targets set from its residents' needs: total care minutes, and minutes from registered nurses. In the January to March 2026 figures in the same extract, 437 of the 702 Victorian homes with published care minutes (62%) met both. Ask every home on your shortlist whether it is meeting both today. See care minutes and staffing.

Other states: an older sample

For the rest of Australia our data is a selection of homes, not every home, and most of the ratings we hold were published in February 2026. Treat these figures as a rough picture only, and check current ratings on My Aged Care.

How the ratings work, in brief

The overall rating combines four sub-ratings, each also scored from 1 to 5:

• Residents' Experience (33% of the overall rating): a face-to-face survey of at least 20% of residents each year about safety, how staff treat them, food, and feeling at home.
• Compliance (30%): regulatory decisions and, as homes are audited, their assessment against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. A Compliance rating of 1 or 2 stars caps the overall rating at that number.
• Staffing (22%): care time from nurses and personal care workers against the home's own targets. Since 1 October 2025 a home must meet both its registered nurse and total care minute targets to score 3 stars or more.
• Quality Measures (15%): pressure injuries, restrictive practices, unplanned weight loss, falls and major injury, and medication management.

Many websites credit the ratings to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. In fact the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing publishes them; the Commission supplies regulatory information used in the Compliance sub-rating. For the detail, see star ratings explained.

Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: how Star Ratings works

What the ratings miss

• Whether a home has a room, and when.
• Room prices and extra fees, which each home sets and publishes on My Aged Care.
• How the place feels: noise, smell, how staff speak to residents, whether people are up and doing things.
• Specific care, such as a secure dementia unit, palliative care skills, or staff who speak a particular language.
• Recent changes. Ratings describe past quarters; a new manager, an outbreak or a run of staff departures can change a home faster than its rating.

How to judge a home yourself

1. Get the assessment first. A home can only offer a permanent room once the free government aged care assessment has approved residential care. See the aged care assessment.
2. Search by area on My Aged Care. The Find a provider tool lists every government-funded home with its current Star Ratings and published room prices. Filter for the care you need, such as dementia support.
3. Read the sub-ratings, not just the overall star count. Residents' Experience tells you how people who live there feel. Staffing tells you whether the home is meeting its care time targets. A 4-star home with 5 for Residents' Experience may suit better than a 5-star home with 3.
4. Read the audit reports. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission publishes reports on each home. A recent report with unmet requirements matters even if the overall rating looks fine.
5. Ring each home and ask about rooms. Ask whether a room is free or expected, the price of the rooms that suit, and how long people usually wait.
6. Visit, ideally twice. Take our tour checklist. Visit at a mealtime if you can, and talk to residents and visiting family.
7. Read the agreements before signing. Check the room price, any optional extra fees and what happens if needs change. See how to choose an aged care home.

The highest-rated homes in our data

These are the Victorian homes that held the top overall rating of 5 stars in the August 2026 data. All have the same overall rating, so they are listed alphabetically, with their four sub-ratings beside them. This is not a ranking and not a recommendation: a 5-star home is not necessarily the right home for your family, and many 4-star homes will suit better. We sell a paid placement service; no home pays us, and homes here are listed by government Star Rating and then alphabetically, not by any relationship with us.

Star Ratings are published by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Shown as published in August 2026; they may have changed since. See the current rating on My Aged Care.

Greater Melbourne (9)

Rest of Victoria (50)

For other states our ratings are older, so we don't single out homes here. Our city pages list every home we hold, with the date of each rating.

Homes by city

Each city page lists the homes in our data sorted by government Star Rating, with any room price the home has published.

• Aged care homes in Melbourne (446)
• Aged care homes in Sydney (63)
• Aged care homes in Brisbane (50)
• Aged care homes in Perth (42)
• Aged care homes in Adelaide (41)
• Aged care homes in Geelong (32)
• Aged care homes in Gold Coast (22)
• Aged care homes in Canberra (19)
• Aged care homes in Newcastle (19)
• Aged care homes in Hobart (18)
• Aged care homes in Ballarat (17)
• Aged care homes in Central Coast (17)
• Aged care homes in Sunshine Coast (16)
• Aged care homes in Bendigo (14)
• Aged care homes in Wollongong (14)
• Aged care homes in Toowoomba (12)
• Aged care homes in Townsville (11)
• Aged care homes in Cairns (11)
• Aged care homes in Launceston (4)
• Aged care homes in Darwin (4)