Housing stress in Australia
Definition
Housing stress, in its most basic form, defines households that pay a large percentage of their income in housing costs (mortgage repayments or rent).
Whilst there are various definitions for what constitutes housing stress, Keystone Data have defined housing stress as households in the bottom 40% of Australia's household income distribution (the lowest two quintiles), who are spending more than 30% of their gross household income on either mortgage repayments or rent.
All data are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Census of Population and Housing, 2021.
Results
At the time of the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, a total of 1,117,149 households in Australia were defined as having housing stress. This equates to 12.0% of all households in Australia.
At a state and territory level, Queensland had the highest percentage of housing stress with 12.8%, with the Australian Capital Territory having the lowest (7.4%).
The Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) of Sydney - South West (which includes Fairfield, Cabramatta and Liverpool) had the highest percentage of housing stress at 18.4% of all households, while the SA4 of Western Australia – Outback North (which includes Broome, Port Hedland and Karratha) had the lowest (5.9%).
Housing stress by state and territory, 2021
| State/territory | Mortgage stress | Rental stress | Total stress | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dwellings | per cent | dwellings | per cent | dwellings | per cent | |
| New South Wales | 82,434 | 8.7% | 282,193 | 29.9% | 364,627 | 12.6% |
| Victoria | 84,956 | 9.8% | 195,502 | 28.7% | 280,458 | 11.7% |
| Queensland | 53,675 | 8.3% | 185,514 | 30.0% | 239,190 | 12.8% |
| South Australia | 24,349 | 9.9% | 58,638 | 30.8% | 82,987 | 12.0% |
| Western Australia | 33,320 | 8.6% | 71,733 | 27.2% | 105,053 | 10.9% |
| Tasmania | 6,483 | 9.0% | 19,609 | 33.9% | 26,092 | 11.9% |
| Northern Territory | 1,307 | 6.1% | 4,794 | 14.3% | 6,101 | 8.6% |
| Australian Capital Territory | 2,990 | 4.4% | 9,462 | 18.3% | 12,452 | 7.4% |
| Australia (a) | 289,551 | 8.9% | 827,598 | 29.1% | 1,117,149 | 12.0% |
(a) Includes 'Other territories'.
Free housing stress in Australia data
Click the download button below to access housing stress data by state, territory and SA4 for 2021.
Custom data
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