KEY FINDINGS
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.
Housing costs for owners with a mortgage remained steady in real terms between 2011–12 and 2013–14, at an average of $453 a week in 2013–14.
Renters saw housing costs rise 4% between 2011–12 and 2013–14. This was led by a rise in housing costs for households renting from private landlords to $376 a week in 2013–14. Those renting from state and territory government housing authorities paid $148 on average a week, which is similar to that paid in 2011–12 in real terms.
On average households spent 14% of their gross weekly income on housing costs in 2013–14. This has not changed since 2011–12. The proportion of gross weekly income that home owners with a mortgage spent on housing costs fell from 18% in 2011–12 to 16% in 2013–14, while renters continued to spend 20% of their gross weekly income on housing costs.
Home ownership levels remained steady from 2011–12 to 2013–14, with 67% of households owning their home, either with or without a mortgage. Of all households, 31% owned their home without a mortgage, while 36% of households had a mortgage secured against their dwelling.
The proportion of all households renting remained stable at 31%. Around one quarter (26%) of all households rented privately, with 4% of households renting from state and territory government housing authorities.
On average, the mean number of persons per household was 2.59 in 2013–14, rising from 2.57 in 2011–12.
The Canadian National Occupancy Standard is a widely used measure of housing utilisation. According to this Standard, around 3% of Australian households required at least one additional bedroom to meet the requirements of the household.. In contrast around three quarters (78%) of all households had one or more bedrooms more than the household required.
Renters were less likely than home owners to occupy dwellings which had more bedrooms than required to accommodate the occupants according to the Standard, with around 60% of renters having surplus bedrooms. Around 85% of home owners had more bedrooms than required by the Standard.
This publication presents the main findings on housing occupancy and costs from the 2013–14 SIH. More detailed data is available in the data cubes, available from the ‘Downloads’ tab of this publication, and details about the survey are available in the Survey of Income and Housing, User Guide, Australia, 2013–14 (cat. no. 6553.0).
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