Major city and regional area housing affordability

Abstract

The pandemic has impacted affordability for renters and first home buyers in cities and regions in different ways.

There has been a modest improvement in rental affordability in some major cities like Sydney and Melbourne (on average), but other cities and regional areas have seen a deterioration in affordability outcomes for both renters and first home buyers.

This research analysis builds on the work in the first State of the Nation’s Housing 2020 report, and more recently in the InSites release (April 2021).

This Lorenz curve analysis includes assessments of affordability as at 30 September 2021, and compares this to affordability as at 30 June 2020.

Since June 2020, NHFIC has enhanced its methodology for modelling income, which means the June 2020 Lorenz curves presented in this analysis could differ to the June 2020 Lorenz curves released in the InSites release.

What Is a Lorenz Curve? A Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of income inequality or wealth inequality developed by American economist Max Lorenz in 1905.

The graph plots percentiles of the population on the horizontal axis according to income or wealth.