Priced Out

Story

Australia is often called “the lucky country”, but the housing data shows that life is not easy for everyone. Housing costs affect people in different ways. It depends on whether they rent, own a home with a mortgage, own a home fully, live in an expensive state, or have a lower income.

Editor topic: Topic 2 — Social and economic issues

Article format: Five charts

Audience: Readers of The Conversation who want a clear, evidence-based explanation of housing pressure in Australia.

Story pitch

Housing in Australia is often discussed by looking at house prices. But house prices alone do not show who feels the most pressure every week. This visual story uses open data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to show how housing costs are different for renters, home owners, states, and lower-income households.

The story first shows how housing has changed over time, with more people renting privately and fewer people owning their homes outright. Then it compares weekly housing costs and how much of people’s income goes towards housing. This shows that renters and people with mortgages face different types of pressure.

The story then looks at differences between states, where lower-income renters are under the most pressure. The final chart looks at first home buyers by age, showing why younger people are an important part of the housing affordability issue.

Overall, the five charts show that housing pressure is not only about the housing market. It is also a social issue connected to income, renting, age, and location.

Why this story matters

The Australian Bureau of Statistics explains that housing costs include things like rent, council rates, mortgage payments, and loans used to buy or improve a home. The ABS also says housing affordability can be measured by looking at how much of a household’s income goes towards housing costs. This is important because two families might pay different amounts, but the real pressure depends on how much income they have left after paying for housing.

The story is not simply that housing costs are high. The bigger story is that the pressure is uneven — renters, younger buyers and lower-income households carry more of it.

Narrative outline

The story is built around five questions:

  1. How has Australia’s housing tenure changed?
  2. Which tenure groups pay the highest weekly housing costs?
  3. Which groups spend the largest share of income on housing?
  4. Where are lower-income households most exposed?
  5. Why are young first home buyers central to the story?

Navigation: Use the black menu at the top to move from the story page to the five interactive data visualisations and then to the references page.

Prepared for Assignment 3: Storytelling with Open Data.

Data visuals

Data source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia, 2019–20 financial year. Figures below are entered from the ABS graph tables and summary statistics in the public release.

Chart 1: Australia is moving away from outright ownership

Housing tenure, 1999–00 to 2019–20
The clearest long-term shift is the fall in outright ownership and the rise of private renting.
Story point: In 1999–00, 38.6% of households owned without a mortgage. By 2019–20, this had fallen to 29.5%. Over the same period, private renting increased from 19.9% to 26.2%.

Chart 2: Weekly housing costs are highest for mortgage holders and private renters

Mean weekly housing costs by tenure
Costs are adjusted to 2019–20 dollars in the ABS release.
Story point: In 2019–20, owners with a mortgage paid an average of $493 per week, while private renters paid $415. Outright owners paid only $54.

Chart 3: Cost alone is not the full story — income share matters

Housing costs as a share of gross household income
This shows affordability pressure, not just the dollar amount paid.
Story point: Private renters spent 20.2% of gross household income on housing costs in 2019–20, compared with 15.5% for owners with a mortgage and 3.0% for owners without a mortgage.

Chart 4: Lower-income renters face the strongest pressure

Lower-income households spending more than 30% of income on housing
State and territory comparison, 2019–20.
Story point: The national figure for lower-income renters was 46.7%, compared with 13.7% for lower-income owners. New South Wales had the highest lower-income renter pressure at 50.5%.

Chart 5: Young households dominate first home buying

Recent home buyers by age group
First home buyers are concentrated among younger households.
Story point: More than half of first home buyers were in households where the reference person was aged 25–34. This is why affordability pressure is also a generational issue.

Final takeaway

The five charts tell one clear story: housing pressure in Australia is not the same for everyone. People who fully own their homes have less pressure, while people with mortgages pay high weekly costs. Renters also spend a bigger part of their income on housing. This pressure is even worse for lower-income renters, especially in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria. So, housing affordability is not only about house prices. It also depends on income, whether people rent or own, their age, and where they live.

References

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2022). Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia, 2019–20 financial year. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/housing-occupancy-and-costs/latest-release

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2025). Housing affordability. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability

The Conversation. (n.d.). Brand colour guide. Internal course resource.

Data sources used

The data visualisations use publicly accessible ABS data from Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia, 2019–20 financial year. The ABS release provides graph tables on housing tenure, mean weekly housing costs, housing costs as a proportion of gross household income, lower-income household housing stress, and recent home buyers by age.

Generative AI acknowledgement

I used ChatGPT mainly to help with the website design, R Markdown/CSS styling, and to find good layout ideas for the story. I also used it to get ideas for possible chart types. I checked and edited the final writing, data, visuals, and submission myself. I also used ChatGPT to correct grammar and make some sentences clearer.

Accessibility and design acknowledgement

The website design follows The Conversation’s colour guide from the course resources. I mainly used black, white, and grey colours to keep the design clean and easy to read. I used red only for important highlights. I also chose chart colours that are clear and easy to understand.

Code note

All five data visualisations were created using R. The main R packages used were tidyverse, ggplot2, plotly and scales.