Housing serviceability

Having financial security and access to housing

Release date and time

15/09/2025 11:30am AEST

Released 15/09/2025

Metric

Proportion of housing costs to household gross income, by tenure type

Why this matters

Beyond homelessness, another way of measuring housing stress is serviceability. A range of data is useful for measuring housing serviceability as people rent, buy or access housing in a variety of ways.

Progress

The rate of annual growth in rental prices has slowed from a peak of 7.8% in March quarter 2024, with a 4.5% rise over the 12 months to the June quarter 2025. The easing in annual rental price growth reflects stable vacancy rates and slowing growth in advertised rents across most capital cities. The rate of annual growth in rental prices has also been moderated by an increase in the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), reducing the amount of rent payable by eligible tenants.

Throughout the year to the June quarter 2025, mortgage interest charges rose by 4.5% for employee households. Annual growth for mortgage interest charges has continued to slow, down from a peak of 91.6% in the year to the June quarter 2023.

Housing costs as a proportion of household gross income increased between 2022 and 2023 for owners with a mortgage (from 14% to 16%).

Between 2003 and 2023, housing costs as a proportion of household gross income has:

remained similar for households renting from private landlords (from 19% to 20%)
remained similar for households renting from a state or territory housing authority (from 16% to 19%)
remained similar for owners with a mortgage (16% in both years).

Housing costs as a proportion of household gross income, by tenure type (a)
	Owner - with mortgage (%)	Renter - private landlord (%)	Renter - state or territory housing authority (%)
2003	15.5	18.9	15.8
2004	16.1	18.4	16.2
2005	16.6	18.0	16.6
2006	17.4	17.8	17.2
2007	17.8	18.1	17.3
2008	19.6	18.7	17.3
2009	17.2	19.1	16.7
2010	18.3	19.7	15.6
2011	18.6	20.6	17.5
2012	17.6	20.7	16.5
2013	16.7	19.5	17.3
2014	17.2	19.8	18.1
2015	16.1	20.3	20.2
2016	16.3	20.2	19.6
2017	15.9	20.4	20.3
2018	16.2	20.3	20.5
2019	15.2	19.7	20.4
2020	14.9	19.2	19.7
2021	13.8	18.9	21.0
2022	14.5	18.9	20.2
2023	16.1	19.8	19.2

Housing costs as a proportion of household gross income, by tenure type (a)

["","Owner - with mortgage","Renter - private landlord","Renter - state or territory housing authority"]

[["2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023"],[[15.53445117],[16.11403965],[16.64681842],[17.39940291],[17.79025788],[19.6226314],[17.16314056],[18.31025863],[18.56615759],[17.60564399],[16.68602217],[17.2350437],[16.08631572],[16.28406066],[15.87566553],[16.22487951],[15.19658141],[14.93621108],[13.84989167],[14.45292286],[16.14232273]],[[18.88637915],[18.35240258],[18.00446965],[17.8157915],[18.07831538],[18.681915],[19.12084953],[19.70181597],[20.64370065],[20.66276747],[19.45508373],[19.84438507],[20.32146601],[20.1500597],[20.38152864],[20.33233012],[19.71576981],[19.2160154],[18.89992729],[18.87894181],[19.84683602]],[[15.79928929],[16.20596668],[16.58712063],[17.18602322],[17.26962327],[17.34512072],[16.67448841],[15.57502601],[17.49608495],[16.54752399],[17.32190085],[18.1412329],[20.17892116],[19.55953132],[20.26847832],[20.53131782],[20.4466334],[19.69304453],[20.95109682],[20.24235826],[19.22579175]]]

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HILDA results are custom analysis of the HILDA survey, funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services and managed by the Melbourne Institute. Housing costs presented only include mortgage and rent payments, other costs such as rates or body corporate charges are not included.

Data Source

Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey

Differences across groups

In 2023, the proportion of housing costs to household gross income varied by family composition. The share of household income allocated to housing costs was:

higher for single parent households (22%) than for couple only households (15%) for owners with a mortgage
higher for lone person households (26%) than for couple only households (16%) for renters.

Disaggregation

Further information on housing costs as a proportion of gross household income is available in each annual HILDA Statistical Report.