Affordability reshaping Australian households: report
Housing affordability is causing young people to stay at home for longer or to join share houses, a report released by Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese suggests.
The State of Australian Cities 2011 report said a steady trend, which has increasingly seen fewer people per household, showed unexpected changes for the first time since 1994.
In Victoria and the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland, the number of people per home has begun to rise.
The emergence of a new household profile could alter the way homes are marketed.
The average size of the Australian household overall, however, has decreased, creating greater demand for housing -- particularly in Sydney where the supply/demand gap is at its greatest.
The report also ranked Melbourne as the most liveable city in the world by international standards, noting Melbourne’s population growth of more than 600,000 people between 2001 and 2010 was faster than Sydney’s of 450,000 over the same period.
Adelaide was listed as the most livable by residents’ standards.
Public transport use – a key consideration for home buyers and sellers – has also increased, the report found.