Mortgage affordability explained Place Forecast Feature
Abbreviated as MAID; referenced by 2 other explainers
Place Forecast Feature
Mortgage affordability shows how much of their income households spend on mortgage repayments. It counts dwellings with a mortgage, the homes being bought with a loan on Census night.
These figures are Place Forecast estimates based on Census data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
There are three groups. A home is in the first if its mortgage repayments come to 30% of household income or less. It is in the second if they come to more than 30%. The third group is Unable to be determined.
The 30% line is the ABS's own, and it applies to every household, whatever its income. Many housing stress figures use a different rule. They count only lower-income households, often the lowest 40% by income. They measure something different, so they don't compare directly with these.
Household income is worked out from the income range each person ticked on the form. The ABS notes this tends to put more homes above 30% than an exact income would.
Unable to be determined covers homes where the mortgage repayments were not stated, or where someone aged 15 or over was away on Census night or did not state their income. These figures count this group in the total, as ABS QuickStats does. Some other sources leave it out, so their share above 30% is higher. In a few remote areas a fifth or more of homes are in this group.
Only 2021 is shown. The ABS did not publish this measure for 2016.
To see the repayments themselves, look at housing loan repayments. To see how many homes have a mortgage, look at tenure type. For rented homes, look at rent affordability.
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:
- Above 30% is not the same as hardship. A household with a low income can pay 30% or less and still find it hard. A household with a high income can pay more than 30% and still have plenty left.
- A high share above 30% often reflects local house prices against local incomes. It is not a judgement about the people who live there. Reading it that way would be deficit framing.
- Interest rates rose after August 2021, so many households now spend a larger share on repayments.
See the marker methodology for how these figures are calculated and their limitations.