FEATURE ARTICLE

On this page:
Households that own their home outright
Households that own their home with a mortgage
Households that rent their home
Further information


HOUSING COSTS FOR NORTHERN TERRITORIANS ON A PAR WITH OTHER AUSTRALIANS

As for most Australians, the provision of housing for Territorians and their families involves substantial expenditure throughout most of their lives. Housing costs are often the largest regular expense to be met from household income.

This article examines changes in tenure type over the ten years to 2007–08, and differences in tenure type across NT Statistical Subdivisions (SSDs) in 2006. Tenure type describes whether a dwelling is rented, owned outright or owned with a mortgage. It also examines housing costs as a proportion of gross income for NT households that own or rent their home and finds that housing costs for Territorians in 2007–08 were generally on a par with those incurred by households elsewhere in Australia when measured as a proportion of gross income, regardless of tenure type.

For the purposes of the analysis in this article, housing costs are defined as the sum of rent payments, rate payments (water and general) and mortgage or unsecured loan payments (if the initial purpose of the loan was primarily to buy, add or alter the dwelling). NT households in very remote areas are excluded from the analysis presented except in SSD comparisons. Households with nil or negative income are also excluded from calculations of housing costs as a proportion of gross income.

Households that own their home outright

Between 1997–98 and 2007–08, the proportion of households in the NT that owned their home without a mortgage increased from 10% to 19%. Over the same period, the proportion of households that owned their home outright nationally declined from 40% to 33%, but remained significantly higher than the NT proportion.

According to the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, the proportion of occupied private dwellings in the NT that were owned without a mortgage ranged from a low of 1% of all occupied private dwellings in Bathurst-Melville SSD to a high of 36% in Finniss SSD.




NT households that owned their home without a mortgage spent on average about 2% of their gross income on housing costs in 2007–08. This was the same proportion spent by households that owned their home outright in all states and territories except New South Wales where this type of household spent an average of 3% of their gross income on housing costs.

Households that own their home with a mortgage

In 2007–08 about 38% of NT households owned their home with a mortgage, about the same proportion as in 1997–98 (39%), and similar to the proportion of households that owned with a mortgage nationally (35%).

According to the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, NT SSDs with the highest proportion of occupied private dwellings owned with a mortgage were Litchfield Shire at 53% of all occupied private dwellings in that region, followed by Palmerston-East Arm at 45%. In contrast, no occupied private dwellings were owned with a mortgage in Bathurst-Melville and very few were owned with a mortgage in East Arnhem (1%).



NT households that owned their home with a mortgage spent on average about 16% of their gross income on housing costs in 2007–08. Households that owned their home with a mortgage in the other states and the Australian Capital Territory incurred similar housing costs as a proportion of gross income, ranging between 16% and 19%.



Households that rent their home

In 2007–08 about 42% of all households in the NT were renting. This was at least 10 percentage points higher than for any other state and the Australian Capital Territory.




According to the 2006 Census of Population and Housing, 92% of all occupied private dwellings in Bathurst-Melville SSD were being rented. This was the highest proportion of dwellings being rented for any NT SSD. Litchfield Shire SSD had the lowest proportion of dwellings being rented at 13% of all private dwellings in that region, followed by Finniss SSD with 23%.




On average, NT households that rented spent about 16% of their gross income on housing costs in 2007–08. Households that rented in the other states and the Australian Capital Territory incurred similar costs as a proportion of gross income, except in New South Wales where households that rented spent an average of 19% of their gross income on housing costs.Further information

Further information on housing occupancy and costs can be found in Housing Occupancy and Costs, 2007–08 (cat. no. 4130.0).