DATA SOURCES

The major data sources used to produce household level estimates in the new experimental imputed rent methodologies are:

• the ABS Survey of Income and Housing (SIH)
• the 2006 and 2011 Censuses of Population and Housing, and
• state and territory Valuers General dwelling sales data.

The ABS Household Expenditure Survey (HES) is also used for estimating some housing costs.

SIH

The SIH collects detailed information about the income, assets, liabilities and household characteristics of households in private dwellings throughout Australia.

In the new experimental methodologies, information reported in the SIH on the estimated value of owner-occupied dwellings, the actual rent paid by private market renters, as well as other dwelling and household characteristics, are used in estimating the gross imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings and other households not paying market rents. Housing costs reported in the SIH are also used in the estimation of net imputed rent.

Censuses of Population and Housing 2006 and 2011

The Census of Population and Housing counts the number of people in Australia on Census night as well as collecting information on their key characteristics, including information about the dwellings in which they live and rents paid.

Summary information on median rent by Collection District (CD) from the 2006 Census and Statistical Area 1 (SA1) from the 2011 Census are used in the estimation of gross imputed rent, as well as other dwelling characteristics and quintiles based on the Socio-Economic Index for Areas - Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage.

State and territory Valuers General dwelling sales

Aggregated dwelling sales data from the state and territory Valuers General (VGs) departments has been used to provide an average (mean) dwelling price for the same geographical regions as the respective Census (CD or SA1). To ensure there were sufficient dwelling sales to produce reliable estimates, VGs dwelling sales prices for the financial year before and after each Census were used i.e. sales from 2005–06 and 2006–07 for the 2006 Census and 2010–11 and 2011–12 for the 2011 Census.

HES

HES data has been used in the compilation of net imputed rent estimates. The HES is conducted for a subset of households in the SIH sample in every third cycle of the SIH (that is, six yearly). Households selected to participate in the HES complete both the SIH and HES questionnaires. In the HES a personal diary is used, in which usual residents aged 15 years and over record their expenditure over two weeks.

Information reported in the 2003–04 and 2009–10 HES has been used to estimate average household expenditure on repairs and maintenance and house insurance costs for owner-occupiers, which are used to derive net imputed rent estimates.

Data items used by data source

Gross imputed rent

The data items used for estimating gross imputed rent in the new methodology are listed below. For each of the Census and VGs data items, there is an equivalent data item available from the SIH. These data items are described below.

Data item	Data item description	Data source
Dwelling price	Aggregate dwelling price data from actual dwelling sales	VGs
Dwelling price	Estimated sale price of owner-occupied dwellings	SIH
Landlord type	Type of landlord from whom the dwelling was rented, e.g. through a real estate agent, from an unrelated person not living in the same household, from a family member, or from a state/territory housing authority	Census and SIH
Market rent	Rents paid to real estate agents or an unrelated person not living in the same household (excludes owner/managers of a caravan park for imputed rent purposes)	Census and SIH
Dwelling size	Total number of bedrooms (used in the absence of a measure of the total floor area of the dwelling)	Census and SIH
Type of dwelling	Whether the dwelling was: a detached house; a semi-detached house or other dwelling; or a flat, unit or apartment	Census and SIH
State	The state/territory where the dwelling is located	VGs, Census and SIH
Section of state	Section of state: major urban, other urban, bounded locality, and rural balance	Census and SIH
Location	Statistical Area 1 (SA1) for data from the 2011 Census Collection District (CD) for data from the 2006 Census These equate to regions with between 200 and 800 people	VGs and Census
Socio-Economic Index for Areas (SEIFA)	The Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) is used to indicate the socio-economic condition of the area where the dwelling is located. A higher score indicates that an area has attributes such as a relatively high proportion of people with high incomes or a skilled workforce. SEIFA IRSAD quintiles have been derived using the SEIFA index scores for each 2006 Census CD and 2011 Census SA1	Census and SIH

Net imputed rent

Most housing costs required to estimate net imputed rent for individual households are collected in the SIH. House insurance and repairs and maintenance costs are estimated from data collected in the 2003–04 and 2009–10 HES.

REFERENCES

Household Expenditure Survey and Survey of Income and Housing User Guide, Australia, 2009–10 (cat. no. 6503.0),
Survey of Income and Housing User Guide, Australia, 2013–14 (cat. no. 6553.0),
Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia (cat. no. 2033.0.55.001), and
National Statistics, Census Data, Census Reference and Information.


All references are available on the ABS website <https://www.abs.gov.au>.