Summary
The Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) collects data from households across Australia to measure levels of housing occupancy and costs and how these change over time.
In 2019–20:
- Two thirds (66%) of Australian households owned their own home with or without a mortgage. This was consistent with ownership in 2017–18 (66%).
- Almost one third (31%) of Australian households rented their home in 2019–20, a decrease from 32% in 2017–18.
- Average weekly housing costs decreased to $493 for owners with a mortgage (down $5 per week from $498 in 2017–18 inflation adjusted) and no change was observed for owners without a mortgage ($54). Housing costs for renters increased by $2 between 2019–20 ($379) and 2017–18 ($377 inflation adjusted).
- Household spending of their gross weekly income on housing costs decreased from 13.9% (2017–18) to 13.6% in 2019–20. While owners with a mortgage spent 16% and renters spent 20% of their income on housing costs. This was consistent with the amount spent on mortgage and rent in 2017–18.
- The average number of persons per household remained stable at 2.6, and the average number of bedrooms per dwelling decreased from 3.2 to 3.1.
- Applying the Canadian National Occupancy Standard for housing utilisation, almost one in twenty-five (4%) Australian households required at least one additional bedroom to meet the requirements of the household, while more than three quarters (77%) of households had at least one bedroom spare.
- One in five households (21%) owned one or more residential properties other than their usual residence. Of those that owned another residential property, almost three quarters (68%) owned a single property, while one in twenty-five (4%) owned four or more properties.
- There was a 6% increase in recent first home buyers where the main reference person for the household was aged under 35 (61%), compared to 2017–18 (55%).
This publication presents the main findings on housing occupancy and costs from the 2019–20 SIH. More detailed data are available in the data cubes, available from the Data downloads section of this publication, and details about the survey are available in the Survey of Income and Housing, User Guide, Australia (cat. no. 6553.0).