Changes in the supply of and need for low rent dwellings in the private rental market

Over the past few decades, Australians in general, and lower income households in particular, increasingly have relied upon the private rental market to meet their housing needs. For a number of reasons, many of these households have faced significant affordability problems in the private rental market. This research project focuses primarily on the extent to which the availability of low rent dwellings in the private rental market has contributed to these problems. The results of this research project provide an update to 2001 of an earlier study undertaken for the period 1986 to 1996 (Wulff and Yates 2001). This Final Report presents findings on a number of research questions that follow from the analysis presented in the Positioning Paper. These are as follows: To what extent do low-income renters reside in low rent dwellings?; To what extent do medium to high-income earners utilise existing low rent private rental housing stock (and, hence, to what extent can any mismatch in the availability of, and need for, low rent stock be attributed to the use that is made of that stock)?; and What are the socio-demographic characteristics of low-income households in private rental?