Indicator Rationale

Secure, safe and suitable housing is essential if the physical and mental health of individuals is to be maintained.  Unsuitable housing due to location, overcrowding, tenure insecurity or unaffordability can have serious health impacts.

Unaffordable housing is an issue for many low-income households and may lead to difficulty affording food, healthcare and other basic necessities.  Affordable housing supports physical and mental health and is an important social determinant of health and wellbeing.

Relevant Sustainable Development Goals

Measures

Percentage of dwellings that are government owned or community housing

Percentage of households in the bottom 40% of incomes spending more than 30% of income on housing costs

Percentage of rental households in the bottom 40% of incomes spending more than 30% of income on housing costs

Percentage of mortgaged households in the bottom 40% of incomes spending more than 30% of income on housing costs

Percentage of rental or mortgaged households in the bottom 40% of incomes spending more than 30% of income on housing costs

Percentage of households spending more than 30% of household income on housing costs

Methodology

The housing affordability data set, i.e., the percentage of households in the bottom 40% of the income distribution spending more than 30% of household income on housing costs data, was created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Information Consultancy Services as a customised report at SA1 level.

Methods used to create the measure of dwelling density can be found here.

References

Badland H, Foster S, Bentley R, Higgs C, Roberts R, Pettit C, Giles-Corti B. (2017). Examining associations between area-level spatial measures of housing with selected health and wellbeing behaviours and outcomes in an urban context. Health Place, 43,17–24

Howden-Chapman P. (2002). Housing and inequalities in health. J Epidemiol Community Health. 56: 645-6

Marco E, Burgess S. (2015). Healthy housing. In: Barton H, Thompson S, Burgess S, Grant M, editors. The Routledge handbook of planning for health and well-being: Shaping a sustainable and healthy future. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 97

Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. (2012). Housing and Health Research Summary: Addressing the Social and Economic Determinants of Mental and Physical Health. VicHealth Melbourne

Yates J. (2012). Housing policies and wealth inequality. In: Tomlinson R, editor. Australia’s unintended cities: the impact of housing on urban development. Melbourne, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing