Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

HOUSING TENURE

In the 2006 Census, Indigenous households were much more likely to be renting their home (63%), than owning their home with a mortgage (24%) or owning their home outright (12%). This pattern of housing tenure is similar to that observed in the 2001 Census. Indigenous households were more than twice as likely as other households to be living in rental accommodation.

The pattern of housing tenure was similar in Major Cities, Inner Regional, Outer Regional and Remote areas:

• between 11% and 14% of households were owned outright
• between 17% and 27% of households were owned with a mortgage
• and between 59% and 71% of households were rented

In Very Remote areas, the proportion of Indigenous households living in rental accommodation increased (89%). This reflects the types of tenure available on traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands.

Renters

Among renters, fewer Indigenous households were renting privately (45%) than other households (76%). State or territory housing authorities and housing co-operative/community/church groups provided significant shares of the rental accommodation for Indigenous households (33% and 15% respectively). In Very Remote areas, 69% of rented Indigenous households were renting from housing co-operative/community/church groups, 18% were renting from a state or territory housing authority and 4% were renting privately.

Median rents for Indigenous households were lower in remote areas compared with non-remote areas ($180 per week in Major Cities and $45 per week in Very Remote areas). The pattern for other households was similar, with median rent $215 per week in Major Cities and $46 per week in Very Remote areas.

A higher proportion of people in Indigenous households living in rented accommodation were in the lower equivalised household income quintiles than in the higher quintiles. The disparity increased with increasing levels of remoteness, from 45% in the lowest quintile in Major Cities to 64% in Very Remote areas. At a national level, people living in other households in rented accommodation were also more likely to be in the lower equivalised income quintiles, although the distribution across the quintiles was more even. People in other households living in rented accommodation in Remote and Very Remote areas, however, were more likely to be in the higher income quintiles, with 28% in Remote areas and 36% in Very Remote areas in the highest income quintile.

Owned with a mortgage

Almost one quarter of Indigenous households (24%) owned their home with a mortgage in the 2006 Census, compared with one third of other households (35%). Excluding Remote and Very Remote areas, where a very high proportion of housing is provided by housing co-operative/community groups, 27% of Indigenous households owned their home with a mortgage compared with 36% of other households.

For Indigenous households, the proportion who owned their home with a mortgage was lower in remote areas than non-remote areas (27% in Major Cities to 4% in Very Remote areas). The pattern was similar for other households.

For Indigenous households, the median monthly housing loan repayments were highest in Major Cities ($1,300) and lowest in Very Remote areas ($650). The trends were similar in other households with median monthly housing loan repayments of $1,400 in Major Cities and $700 in Very Remote areas.

Of people living in homes owned with a mortgage, a higher proportion of people in Indigenous households than people in other households were in the lowest three equivalised household income quintiles (62% compared with 48%). This pattern was reversed in the highest two income quintiles.

Owned without a mortgage

In the 2006 Census, 12% of Indigenous households owned their home outright, compared with 36% of other households. This lower rate of ownership reflects, in part, the high rates of community owned and/or housing provided by housing co-operative/community groups, particularly in Very Remote areas, and the fact that a higher proportion of Indigenous people live in Very Remote areas.

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