Median weekly rent explained Place Forecast Feature
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Median weekly rent shows the rent of the renting household in the middle: half pay less and half pay more. It comes from the Census, so there is a figure for each Census year.
Small-area figures are Place Forecast estimates based on Census data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It counts every renting household on Census night, social housing included. Homes lived in rent free are left out, and so are homes where the rent was not stated.
For a council, Place Forecast shows the median the ABS publishes, wherever it publishes one. The ABS works it out from each household's own rent. With only some landlord types selected, or in a Census the ABS published none for, the council's median is worked out from the dollar groups too.
The ABS publishes no median for small areas. It gives their rents in dollar groups, such as $350 to $449 a week. Place Forecast finds the group the middle household falls in. Then it places the median in that group as if its rents were spread evenly. So a small area's median can sit a few dollars from where the household's own rents would put it. A median in the top group, such as $950 and over, shows that group's lowest rent.
In 2011 and 2016 the lowest group, $0 to $74, also counts homes renting for nothing, which 2021 leaves out. So those Censuses' medians can sit a little lower.
Where a forecast shows rents by landlord type, Place Forecast also gives the median paid to each landlord type. The ABS publishes no median by landlord type, so each one is worked out from the dollar groups, for councils as for small areas. A landlord type's median is shown only where at least 30 renting households stated their rent. Not stated has no median of its own, but its homes count in the median of all landlord types.
A median cannot be added up. So a council's median never comes from its small areas' medians.
No median is shown where fewer than 10 renting households stated their rent.
Reading this data fairly
These figures show how people answered Census questions. Here are the equity caveats to keep in mind. They keep the numbers fair:
- The rents are what households paid in August of each Census year. Rents have risen since then. They are in dollars of the day, not adjusted for inflation.
- People who move tend to pay more than people who stay. So someone starting a new lease today is likely to pay more than this.
- Social housing rents are often set as a share of income. So an area with much social housing can read lower. Look at landlord type to see how many homes are social housing.
See the marker methodology for how these figures are calculated and their limitations.
To see how many households pay each amount, look at housing rental payments.