Suitability of dwellings

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Key findings

At June 2023, of all social housing households with known dwelling size suitability:

  • Most lived in dwellings with enough bedrooms to adequately accommodate the members of their household.
  • The highest number of overcrowded public housing dwellings were in Major cities whilst the highest proportion of overcrowded dwellings were in Very remote areas.
  • Over a quarter (26%) of SOMIH households were residing in dwellings considered to be underutilised, the highest proportion across the programs.

In Australia, the suitability of a household’s dwelling size is commonly measured using the Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS). Broadly, the CNOS measures suitability based on whether a dwelling has enough bedrooms for the size and composition of a household (see criteria below).

This section uses CNOS to provide information on how suitable social housing dwellings were for households living in social housing on 30 June of the reference year. It includes information about households living in across the four main social housing programs in Australia.

Canadian National Occupancy Standard

The Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS) measure assesses the suitability of a dwelling for a household according to the following criteria:

  • no more than 2 people shall share a bedroom
  • parents or couples may share a bedroom
  • children under 5 years, either of the same sex or opposite sex, may share a bedroom
  • children under 18 years of the same sex may share a bedroom
  • a child aged 5–17 should not share a bedroom with a child under 5 of the opposite sex
  • single adults 18 years and over, and any unpaired children require a separate bedroom.

Based on the CNOS standard, housing utilisation will be described as the following:

  • Suitable or adequate: when it meets the CNOS household bedroom requirements
  • Underutilised: when it has 2 or more bedrooms surplus to the CNOS bedroom requirement for the household
  • Overcrowded: when it requires at least 1 more bedroom

Source: Statistics Canada 2021

For more information on the CNOS, see AIHW Metadata Online Registry (METEOR). Although this measure is useful for indicating overcrowding in dwellings, it does not necessarily reflect a household’s experience of overcrowding. This is because CNOS does not consider cultural differences in living and sleeping arrangements (Dockery et al. 2022). As such, its classification of overcrowding may not necessarily match the experiences of Indigenous and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse households.

Dwelling suitability

Most social housing households lived in dwellings with enough bedrooms to adequately accommodate the members of their household.

Most households (80%) were living in suitable or adequate dwellings, a further 15% lived in underutilised dwellings (Figure SUITABILITY.1; Table SUITABILTY.1).

Figure SUITABILITY.1: Households by suitability of dwelling size and social housing program, at 30 June 2014 to 2023

Households, by suitability of dwelling size, and social housing program, at June 2014 to 2023. This vertical stacked bar graph shows that across the social housing programs (public housing, community housing, SOMIH and Indigenous Community Housing), there were more underutilised households than overcrowded households, from 2014 to 2023. Across the social housing programs, the proportion of underutilised dwellings remained around 15% from 2014 to 2023. Likewise, the proportion of overcrowded dwellings has also remained stable, from 5.0% in 2014 to 5.3% in 2023.

Overcrowding

For public housing, the highest number of overcrowded dwellings were in Major cities whilst the highest proportion of overcrowded dwellings were in Very remote areas.

A dwelling is considered overcrowded if it requires 1 or more bedrooms, taking into account the size and composition of the household. In 2023, 5.3% (or 21,000) of social housing households were overcrowded. However, the level of overcrowding differed across the various social housing programs. Around 4.1% of households in public housing (11,600) and 4.0% of community housing households (4,100) were living in overcrowded dwellings, consistent with long term trends (Table SUITABILITY.1, Figure SUITABILITY.1). See the Social housing dwellings section for further information on the stock changes between the housing programs.

For SOMIH, over 1 in 4 (27% or 3,400) households were living in overcrowded dwellings (Figure SUITABILITY.1; Table SUITABILITY.1). This proportion has remained stable since 2018, after 5,000 remote public housing dwellings were added to the Northern Territory SOMIH data collection in 2017.

In Indigenous community housing, about 1 in 6 (16% or 1,900) households were in overcrowded dwellings.

Key characteristics of overcrowded households, at June 2023 (Table Suitability.4):

  • Over half of the overcrowded households in public housing (55% or 6,400) and SOMIH (56% or 1,900) had a main tenant aged 35 to 54 years.
  • For public housing, overcrowded households were mostly households with a mixed composition (5,900 or 51%) or sole parents with dependent children (3,400 or 30%).
  • Almost 80% of overcrowded dwellings in SOMIH were mixed composition (2,700 households).

Demographic data on dwelling suitability were not available for community housing.

Location of overcrowded households

Overcrowding in dwellings varied across the states and territories and remoteness areas.

At June 2023 (Figure SUITABILITY.1; Tables SUITABILITY.1 and 2):

  • The Northern Territory had the highest proportion (9.0% or 415) of public housing households living in overcrowded dwellings, however New South Wales had the highest number (2,900 or 3.1%).
  • Northern Territory had the highest number (2,600) and proportion (53%) of SOMIH households living in overcrowded dwellings. (Note: Northern Territory also has the highest total number of SOMIH households.)
  • New South Wales had both the highest number (2,300) and highest proportion (4.7%) of community housing households living in overcrowded dwellings, followed by Tasmania at 4.2%.
  • The highest number of overcrowded public housing households (8,200 or 3.9%) were in Major cities but the proportion was highest in Very remote areas (9.1% or 225).
  • For SOMIH, Very remote areas had the highest number and highest proportion (2,000 or 48%) of households living in overcrowded dwellings.

Overcrowding data by remoteness were not available for community housing.

Overcrowding in Indigenous households

In public housing, 9.3% of all Indigenous households were living in overcrowded dwellings while only 4.1% of all households were living in overcrowded dwellings. Similarly in community housing, 7.8% of all Indigenous households lived in overcrowded dwellings compared with 4.0% of all households (Table SUITABILITY.2).

Underutilisation

Over a quarter (26%) of SOMIH households were residing in dwellings considered to be underutilised, the highest proportion across the programs.

A dwelling is underutilised when it contains 2 or more bedrooms surplus to the household requirements. In 2023, around 15% (or 60,700) social housing households were underutilised (Figure SUITABILITY.1; Table SUITABILITY.1). However, underutilisation differed across the programs.

About 47,900 (or 17%) public housing households and 10,800 (or 11%) community housing households were living in underutilised dwellings. SOMIH had the highest proportion of underutilised dwellings across the programs (26% or 2,100).

Underutilisation data were not available for the Northern Territory for SOMIH or community housing.

Key characteristics of underutilised households at June 2023 (Table SUITABILITY.4):

  • Around 30% (or 13,900) of public housing households in underutilised dwellings were receiving the age pension (aged 65 years or over).
  • Within SOMIH, 60% (1,200 households) had a main tenant who was 55 years old or over.
  • Most underutilised dwellings in public housing (73%) and SOMIH (64%) contained a single adult.

Location of underutilised households

The proportion of households in underutilised dwellings varied by state and territory and remoteness area across the social housing programs. At June 2023 (Figure SUITABILITY.1; Tables SUITABILITY.1 and 3):

  • South Australia had the highest proportion of social housing households living in underutilised dwellings (24% or 10,500 households), while New South Wales (21,400 or 14%) had the highest number of households.
  • About 1 in 5 public housing households in Inner regional (19%) and Outer regional (20%) areas lived in underutilised dwellings, though the highest number was in Major cities (35,000 households or 16%).
  • For SOMIH, Major cities had the highest number (940) of households living in underutilised dwellings (and highest proportion at 28%), followed by Outer regional areas (490 households or 24%).

Glossary

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