CURRENT INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
The international standards for household income and expenditure statistics have, for several decades, included imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings in the conceptual definitions of both household income and expenditure. The current international standards for household income and expenditure statistics were adopted by the 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2003.
The ICLS standards recommend that, when estimating consumption expenditure, the services of owner-occupied dwellings be valued as the gross rental equivalence. Costs that are normally paid by landlords such as property taxes, property and liability insurance, mortgage interest, water and sewerage charges and repairs and maintenance of the dwelling should be excluded from household consumption expenditure. For the estimation of household income, the ICLS standards recommend that imputed rent be included on a net basis, with the housing costs normally paid by landlords being deducted from the gross rental equivalence.
Where rents paid on rented dwellings are subsidised, the international standards recommend that a rental benefit flow be estimated at the market rental value for an equivalent dwelling less the rent actually paid.
The international standards for the macro-economic statistics (System of National Accounts, 1993) recommend the inclusion of imputed rent for owner-occupied dwellings in the household sector estimates on a comparable basis to the ICLS standards for household level estimates.
REFERENCES
International Conference of Labour Statisticians 2003, Final Report of the 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, Geneva, 24 November to 3 December 2003.
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