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COVID-19 and mortgage and rental payments: May 2020
Author/s
Biddle, N, Edwards, B, Gray, M & Sollis, K
Abstract
There is little high quality nationally representative data on the level of housing stress being experienced during the COVID-19 period or on the extent to which Australians have been able to reduce their mortgage and rent payment in light of government policies enabling this.
The data reported in this paper shows that between April and May 2020 the proportion of Australians reporting that they had not been able to pay their mortgage or rent on time increased from 6.9 per cent in April to 15.1 per cent in May.
The level of housing stress is substantially higher for renters than amongst mortgage holders, though this can be explained mainly by differences in socioeconomic outcomes between renters and mortgage holders.