1.3 million Australian households in housing need: AHURI

1.3 million Australian households in housing need: AHURI
Staff ReporterDecember 7, 2020

New research estimates 1.3 million Australian households are in housing needs, according to the AHURI, with that figure expected to rise to 1.7 million households by 2025.

According to the AHURI  ‘Housing need’ covers existing households that need support to avoid paying more than 30 per cent of their income in housing costs, as well as an estimate of the number of households that would likely have formed if not for housing affordability constraints.

Research lead, Associate Professor Steven Rowley from Curtin University, said housing need is set to rise in most states and territories by 2025. 

"Our findings show the scale of affordable housing necessary to meet housing need and the challenge faced by state and local governments to deliver such housing," he said.

"In NSW, the number of households estimated to be in need by 2025 rises from 373,000 to 677,500 while in Victoria, the number will approach half a million."

The research, ‘Modelling housing need in Australia to 2025’, was undertaken by researchers from Curtin University and The University of Adelaide and produced a replicable model for housing need assessment. It developed a simulation based around five interrelated models of the housing market, labour market, labour market earnings, household formation and tenure choice. It utilised HILDA, ABS and house price data. 

It estimates that in Australia today 527,400 households are unable to enter market housing and a further 806,100 households require some form of housing assistance to make their housing affordable, which equates to around 15 percent of all current Australian households.

 

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