Notes on the data: Housing, rent assistance and vehicle access

Low income households experiencing housing stress, 2021

Policy context: A family or individual can be considered to be in housing stress if they are in a low-income bracket and pay more than 30% of their income on mortgage repayments or rent.

Housing stress in Australia is increasing, with the cost to purchase or to rent a house or other dwelling rising rapidly. The Australian Bureau of Statistics report that in the two decades, from 1999–00 to 2019–20, housing costs (adjusted for inflation) for major tenure and landlord types have increased by:

50% for home owners without a mortgage
40% for home owners with a mortgage
27% for state or territory housing tenants
50% for private renters

Costs have continued to rise since 2020.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. Housing Occupancy and Costs, accessed 22 February 2023. Available from https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/housing-occupancy-and-costs/latest-release

Notes:

The data comprise households in the bottom 40% of income distribution (those with less than 80% of median equivalised income), spending more than 30% of income on mortgage repayments, as a proportion of mortgaged private dwellings; or spending more than 30% of income on rent, as a proportions of rented private dwellings.

Income is equivalised; equivalised household income per week can be viewed as an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. For a lone person household it is equal to household income. For a household comprising more than one person, it is an indicator of the household income that would be needed by a lone person household to enjoy the same level of economic wellbeing.

Income varies by State/ Territory: NSW, $902; Vic, $901; Qld, $877; SA, $755; WA, $910; Tas, $736; NT, $1,101; ACT, $1,347.

The data exclude the population in the 6.8% of private dwellings for which mortgage stress data was not calculated (6.4% for rental dwellings) (the proportion excluded were calculated based on the Australian data).

The State/Territory totals do not sum to the Australian total as the 40th percentile income used for Australia is $901, whereas that for States/Territories varies, from $736 for dwellings in Tasmania to $1347 for dwellings in the ACT. A small part of the variation may also be due to data perturbation.

Note:

For caveats regarding these data, please refer to the Income data in the Census available here.

Geography: Data available by Population Health Area, Local Government Area, Primary Health Network, Quintile of socioeconomic disadvantage of area and Quintiles with PHNs and Remoteness Area

Numerator: Households in the bottom 40% of income distribution (those with less than 80% of median equivalised income), spending more than 30% of income on a) mortgage repayments; b)rental payments: or c) mortgaged and rented private dwellings

Denominator: Number of a) mortgage repayments; b)rental payments: or c) mortgaged and rented private dwellings

Detail of analysis: Per cent

Source: Compiled by PHIDU based on the ABS Census of Population and Housing, August 2021 (unpublished data).