6525.0 - Experimental Estimates of Imputed Rent, Australia, 2013-14  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 16/12/2015   
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HISTORICAL DATA

For the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) 2013–14 imputed rent estimates have been produced using only the new experimental methodologies.

Revised household level historical estimates for each SIH between 2003–04 and 2011–12 have also been produced. There are three ways by which data analysts can access these new experimental estimates of imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings.

Firstly, aggregate estimates using the new methodology have been published in Data cube 13 - Imputed Rent, available from the Downloads tab of Household Income and Wealth, Australia, 2013–14 (cat. no. 6523.0).

Secondly, the new estimates will be available via customised data requests from data on the ABS internal main unit record files (MURFs) for each SIH between 2003–04 and 2011–12. This is a charged service.

Thirdly, the ABS publishes Expanded and Basic Confidentialised Unit Record Files (CURFs) for each SIH. For more information see Survey of Income and Housing, Australia: CURFs <relevant year> (cat. no. 6541.0.30.001).

For each SIH from 2003–04 to 2011–12, CURF users will be able to derive a modified estimate of gross imputed rent for individual owner-occupied dwellings using the new experimental methodology.

A data cube is available under the ‘Downloads’ tab of this publication that provides rental yields for strata created only using data items available on the relevant CURFs. It also provides a minimum market rent estimate for each state for each SIH year. Section B of Appendix 3 lists the CURF strata for each state and territory.

To create a new gross imputed rent estimate for an owner-occupied dwelling in the historical SIHs, CURF users must use the stratification variables available from the relevant CURF to identify the rental yield. The gross imputed rent estimate is calculated as the estimated sale price of the individual owner-occupied dwelling multiplied by the rental yield for that SIH cycle. Estimates produced that are below the state minimum should be imputed with the minimum market rent for the relevant state/territory (available on the data cube, as outlined above).

The new CURF gross imputed rent estimates that are produced using this method have been aligned with the Main Unit Record File (MURF) estimates for the relevant state and territory in each SIH by adjusting the rental yields for each stratum by the amount necessary to achieve alignment.

A comparison of the resulting household level estimates on each of the historical CURFs indicated that for most households, the difference between the CURF and MURF gross imputed rent estimates was less than 10%.

The housing costs deducted from gross imputed rent to calculate net imputed rent estimates for owner-occupied dwellings have not changed. Therefore, revised estimates of net imputed rent using the new methodology can be calculated by deducting the original housing costs for each dwelling from the revised gross imputed rent estimate for that dwelling.

Gross and net imputed rent estimates for other tenure types will not be revised for SIH 2003–04 to 2011–12 because the impact of the new methodology is minimal on these estimates e.g. 2% in 2011–12.

REFERENCES
UNECE (2011), Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics, Second Edition, ECE/CES/11, Geneva.