APPENDIX 1 ABS HOUSING STATISTICS
ABS HOUSING STATISTICS
In addition to the SIH there are two other ABS household surveys that have collected housing costs data. They are the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) and the Australian Housing Survey (AHS). The purpose and methodology of each survey are different and as a result the measures of housing costs also differ.
For some purposes it is useful to make the distinction, within mortgage repayments, between the interest component and the principal or capital component. The latter reflects the accumulation of a housing asset through increasing the equity in the property held by the household and is an addition to wealth. For practical purposes, the payments of interest and principal on loans and mortgages were not collected separately in the SIH. Some data has been collected in the HES on the split between interest and capital repayments on mortgages. (See table below.)
At a broader level, housing costs might also include a range of other outlays which are necessary to ensure that the dwelling can continue to provide an appropriate level of housing services. These include repairs, maintenance and dwelling insurance. For some other purposes, the cost of providing utilities such as electricity and water may also be required. Although such information is not available from this survey, the HES provides detailed information on the expenditure by households on a wide range of goods and services, and readers are referred to publications from that survey for further information.
The table below summarises what has been collected on housing costs in the past in the HES, SIH and AHS.
FUTURE ABS HOUSING SURVEYS
The AHS was last conducted in 1999, with significant user-funding provided by the Commonwealth Departments of Family and Community Services, the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources, the 6 state housing authorities and Australian Capital Territory Housing. The 1999 AHS incorporated a significant supplementary sample to provide estimates for the housing circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (excluding those living in sparsely settled or remote areas of Australia).
A 1998-99 review of the ABS household survey program concluded that the content of the 1999 AHS was already largely covered in other ABS surveys and that it would be more cost effective to collect the required additional information in existing survey vehicles. The two main topic areas not covered by other surveys were physical information about the dwelling and information about housing mobility. These areas will be covered by a housing supplement to the 2007-08 Survey of Income and Housing. This supplement is expected to be conducted 6 yearly thereafter to provide comparative information for the housing information collected six yearly in the ABS National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS).
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