RENT AND LANDLORD TYPE
JUSTIFICATION
Information about rent and landlord type is important for housing policy-making and planning, and for studying the housing conditions of sub-populations of specific interest. The Census is the only source of rent data for small areas and for small groups of the population.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Weekly rent paid for each dwelling has been asked in every Census since 1911. In 1947, householders were also asked to indicate whether the dwelling was rented furnished or unfurnished. Since 1971, in addition to stating the weekly rent, householders have been asked to indicate the type of landlord.
Because of the emergence of rent-buy schemes, and strong user demand for actual amounts rather than range data, a new approach to collecting the data was taken for the 1996 Census. A question collecting actual amounts paid for the dwelling was asked, instead of the range data obtained in the 1991 Census. Type of tenure responses were used to determine whether payments were recorded as rent or loan repayments.
For the 2006 Census, the order of questions was changed to ask the tenure type question before the housing loan repayments/rent and landlord type questions. Sequencing from the tenure type question directs only those respondents who indicate they either have a mortgage or are renting a dwelling to answer the housing loan repayments/rent and landlord type questions. All other respondents are sequenced past these questions.
USER REQUIREMENTS
Users have indicated that the rental question is important for housing policy planning in Australia.
In particular, rent data produced from the Census are used:
- as an aid in the identification of housing needs and the extent to which specific groups (e.g. low income households, aged people and Indigenous people) have access to adequate housing
- by the ABS, to calculate estimates of imputed rent for the National Accounts
- by the ABS, to check if dwelling samples used in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) are representative
- in conjunction with income, as an indication of disposable income.
AVAILABILITY OF NON-CENSUS DATA
Data on rent are available from the Survey of Income and Housing 2005-06, results released in:
Because of small sample sizes, surveys cannot provide small area data.
POSSIBLE CHANGES FOR 2011
The question on landlord type will be reviewed to enhance comparability between the Census and other household collection data, and enable the establishment of benchmarks.
2006 CENSUS QUESTIONS
(Household form only)
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