Indicator: Rental Stress

Status:

What we know from research

What the data indicates about Mildura
RENTAL STRESS
The definition of high housing stress according to the relatively sophisticated approach of NATSEM (University of Canberra) is when a family or single person’s “estimated housing costs exceeds 30% of their disposable income and they are in the bottom 40% of income distribution” also taking into account family composition and costs. As a practical substitute the 30% of income ratio is a widely used indicator of housing stress. The former competition ‘watchdog’ Allan Fels recently pointed to the impacts on wellbeing when households are suffering housing stress including poor health, lower school performance, higher crime rates and unemployment. While there has been much comment about the inflation of house prices “far more serious housing affordability problems are being experienced by low-income households that rent their residences. Many Australians spend such a high proportion of their income on rent that they are left without sufficient funds to meet other basic needs such as food, clothing, transport, medical care and education.”
The present findings are consistent with the above conclusion. The housing data shows that high rental stress in the Mildura region is more prevalent than home purchase stress. Although with less renters than Mildura Central, Merbein has 30.3% of its renters under high rental stress, which is comparable to Melbourne’s level of 30.6% of renters. Irymple and Mildura Central follow with 26.9% and 26.7% of renters under high rental stress respectively, which accords with Regional Victoria’s 25.5%. Wentworth and Red Cliffs’ high rental stress levels are at 19.2 and 20.0 per cent respectively, with Ouyen (7.9%) having the lowest proportion of such stress across the region. The final row of the table shows a greater concentration of rental stress among households with limited incomes (below $600/week). The proportion of high stress renters in each city or sub-region increases between 1.5 to 2.0 times within the less than $600 per week household income group.

HOME RENTAL STRESS
Source: ABS 2001 Census of Population and Housing Special Run

Legend
	Upward trend			Progress away from desired direction
	Downward trend
	No observable trend		Progress towards desired direction
	Under construction

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 6 February 2007