OVERVIEW
This section outlines the sources and methods used by the ABS to produce experimental household level estimates of the imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings among private households in Australia in 2003-04 and 2005-06. In this study, the net imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings has been estimated as:
- the market value of the rental equivalent (referred to as gross imputed rent); less
- the housing costs normally paid by landlords i.e. rates, mortgage interest, insurance, repairs and maintenance.
The market value of the rental equivalent for owner-occupied dwellings can be estimated in a number of ways (e.g. self report, stratification and regression approaches). The Statistical Office of the European Communities, Eurostat, recently reviewed rental equivalence methods and recommended regression or stratification techniques in countries where representative market rates could be obtained (Eurostat 2006). Australia has a well organised and established private rental market and therefore chose hedonic regression to estimate the market value of the rental equivalent of owner-occupied dwellings.
The imputation of gross and net imputed rent has been extended from owner-occupied dwellings to other housing tenures in order to value the in-kind benefit conferred to households paying subsidised rent (e.g. tenants of an employer or of a state/territory housing authority) and households occupying their dwelling rent-free. In general terms, the gross imputed rent for these housing tenures has been estimated as for owner-occupiers. In deriving net imputed rent, actual rent paid is the major housing cost deducted.
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