Buying's one thing, holding's another: How much does Australian housing really cost?

Abstract

Despite widespread media reports on the problem of housing affordability, our research finds that user housing costs appear relatively modest except for the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the early 2000s. This paper presents estimates of the user cost of housing, a measure of housing affordability that takes into account the full range of housing costs and benefits for owner-occupiers and investors and the typical multi-year holding period for residential property. Our research also examines the differences in housing costs between owner-occupiers and investors.