Changes in supply/demand for affordable housing in the private rental sector, 2016–2021

To access affordable housing, lower-income households rely on private rental sector (PRS) policy settings that facilitate a supply of rental housing which is affordable, available, adequate and in the right locations. The COVID-19 pandemic has generated new challenges within the PRS and has amplified the many inequities in affordability and security that were entrenched prior to the pandemic.

The project will provide policy makers with a robust and in-depth analysis on the long-term structural changes in the supply of affordable private rentals for lower-income households. The project has two aims:

1. To update a data series that has five-yearly, since the 1996 Census, provided careful and comparable analysis about the extent to which the private rental sector (PRS) provides affordable housing for lower-income households (Q1 and Q2 households).
2. To enhance the series by examining the links between changing household formation and mainstream PRS access among lower-income households (Q1 and Q2) and individuals through an in-depth, temporal analysis of the ABS Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) since 2001-02.

The study will replicate an established methodology using customised Census data, extending it to provide a nuanced examination of changing private rental sector access for lower-income individuals/households using the ABS Survey of Income and Housing.

Lead Researcher: Ms Margaret Reynolds, Swinburne University of Technology

Project Number: 51285