Australian Housing Conditions: A Data Infrastructure
In 2024, the Australian Housing Conditions Survey will collect data from another 20,000 households. This research project is the biggest national survey collecting information on housing conditions across all Australian states and territories.
Researchers and policy-makers know very little about housing conditions. This data infrastructure will provide the knowledge base and comparison sample for national and international research, and allow better urban, economic and social policy development. This project is being conducted by researchers from the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, Curtin University and Torrens University led by Professor Emma Baker. The research is funded by the Australian Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme in partnership with the universities.
Participant information sheet Access the dataset Read the data descriptor
Our Housing Australia report
To celebrate the public release of the dataset we invited 20 leading housing commentators and researchers to explore the data and contribute short reflections on the state of Australian housing, homes and households. The collection of insights contained in this book give us a valuable and broad view of housing in contemporary Australia.
The research team
Professor Emma Baker
Emma Baker is Professor of Housing and has a PhD in Geography and BA (Hons.) from the University of Adelaide. She has previously held NHMRC and ARC Fellowships focused on examining the relationship between health and housing. She led the 2016 ARC LIEF funded project ‘An Australian Housing Conditions Data Infrastructure’ and its 2020 follow up, 'An Australian Rental Housing Conditions Data Infrastructure'. She has expertise in collecting, managing and analysis of large housing datasets.
Associate Professor Lyrian Daniel (University of South Australia)
Lyrian Daniel is a research-intensive Associate Professor in Architecture in UniSA Creative. Lyrian Daniel will use this Data Infrastructure, enhanced with linked environmental data, to explore the complex interactions between housing and household characteristics that affect indoor environmental quality, and contribute evidence for the development of a national standard for indoor thermal environments.
Professor Andrew Beer (University of South Australia)
Andrew Beer is the Executive Dean of UniSA Business. He has led major research projects focused on tenure effects and housing assistance. His research interests include the operation and functioning of Australia’s housing markets (including the provision of housing for persons with a disability), the drivers of regional growth, structural change within the economy, and the impacts of an ageing population.
Professor Rebecca Bentley (University of Melbourne)
Rebecca Bentley has a strong interest in quantitative research methods and multi-disciplinary collaborations are a key focus in each of these themes. Bentley will bring a health perspective to the development of the proposed Data Infrastructure to enable its use within the field of population health research to answer important questions about how conditions in the rental market shape population health in contemporary Australia.
Professor Wendy Stone (Swinburne University of Technology)
Wendy Stone’s research is highly industry engaged with substantial applied government and policy research experience. Stone will use the Data Infrastructure to extend existing evidence around housing, home and household wellbeing among lower income households in rental sub-markets, focusing on vulnerable population groups including families and children, people living with disability, single persons, elderly and migrant households.
Professor Steven Rowley (Curtin University)
Steven Rowley has extensive experience of leading, designing, administering and analysing large-scale surveys in the area of housing affordability, including three surveys of over 3,000 respondents in the last four years. Rowley's research focus for this dataset is on developing evidence on rental quality and wellbeing outcomes.
Associate Professor Andi Nygaard (Swinburne University of Technology)
Andi Nygaard’s research includes the processes of urban and housing systems change with focus on on long-term neighbourhood dynamics, housing market efficiency and affordability, international migrants in housing, neighbourhoods and labour markets, and institutional economics of governance adaptations in the provision of social housing.
Professor Kerry London (Torrens University)
Kerry London has a long history of research in construction project management research and has successfully obtained and acquitted projects (e.g. ARC Discovery and Linkage projects, CRC for construction innovation, Department of Industry, Australia China Science and Research Fund). In the last five years, London has led housing projects on innovation, off-site manufacturing, building information modelling, and collaborative practices.
Ms Claire Morey
Claire completed her Master of Philosophy in History at the University of Adelaide in 2021. Her area of expertise is domestic violence in
nineteenth-century South Australia, with a particular focus on economic abuse and divorce. Claire's role in the project is as project
officer, assisting in the management of the day-to-day activities of the project, including ethical approvals, survey commissioning and reporting to the CI team.
Publications library
This project is the third version of the Australian Housing Conditions Survey, which was initially carried out in 2016 and 2020.
To see how researchers have used the 2016 and 2020 Survey data, view the AHCD publications library below.
1. Aplin, T., Lowies, B., & McGreal, S. 2022. The home environment: influences on the health of young-old and old-old adults in Australia. Ageing and
Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X22000757.
2. Barlow C.F., Daniel, L., Baker, E. 2023. Cold homes in Australia: Questioning our assumptions about prevalence, Energy Research & Social Science.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103124
3. Baker, E., Morey, C., Daniel, L. et al. 2023. An Australian housing conditions data infrastructure. Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02739-2 .
4. Baker, E., Daniel, L., Beer, A., Bentley, R., Rowley, S., Baddeley, M., London, K., Stone, W., Nygaard, C., Hulse, K. and Lockwood, A., 2022. An Australian rental housing
conditions research infrastructure. Scientific data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01136-5.
5. Bower, M., Buckle, C., Rugel, E., Donohoe-Bales, A., McGrath, L., Gournay, K., Barrett, E., Phibbs, P., & Teesson M. 2023. ‘Trapped’, ‘anxious’ and ‘traumatised’: COVID-19
intensified the impact of housing inequality on Australians’ mental health, International Journal of Housing Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2021.1940686.
6. Coulburn, L. & Miller, W. 2022. Prevalence, Risk Factors and Impacts Related to Mould-Affected Housing: An Australian Integrative Review. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031854.
7. Daniel, L., Baker, E., & Williamson, T. 2019. Cold housing in mild-climate countries: A study of indoor environmental quality and comfort preferences in homes, Adelaide,
Australia. Building and Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.037.
8. Daniel, L. Baker, E., Beer, A., Thien Anh Pham. N. 2019. Cold housing: evidence, risk and vulnerability’. Housing Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2019.1686130.
9. James L., Daniel, L., Bentley, R. & Baker, E. 2023. Housing niches: new directions for housing and urban policy, International Journal of Housing Policy.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2023.2254466.
10. Mishra, S.R., Wilson, T., Andrabi, H., Ait, D., Ang Li, O., Akpan, E., Bentley, R. and Blakely, T. 2023. The total health gains and cost savings of eradicating cold housing in
Australia. Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115954.
11. Oswald, D., Moore, T., & Baker, E. 2022. Exploring the well-being of renters during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Housing
Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2022.2037177.
12. Poruschi, L. and Gardner, J., 2022. Energy Disadvantage and Housing: Considerations Towards Establishing a Long Run Integrated Analysis Framework. Australian
Economic Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12494.
13. Singh, A. Mizdrak, Daniel, L., Blakely, T., Baker, E., Fleitas Alfonzo, L., & Bentley, R. 2022. Estimating Cardiovascular health gains from eradicating indoor cold in Australia.
Environmental Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-022-00865-9.
14. Valente, C.P., Morris, A., & Wilkinson, S. J. 2022. Energy poverty, housing and health: the lived experience of older low-income Australians. Building Research &
Information. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1968293.
15. Valente, C.P. 2022. Energy poverty and older Australians: The extent, causes and impacts (Doctoral dissertation). http://hdl.handle.net/10453/162794.
16. Veeroja, P., Goodall, Z., Guity-Zapata, N.A. & Stone, W. 2023. Private renters in shared housing: investigating housing conditions and mental well-being in Australia during
COVID-19. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-023-10038-w
17. Viljoen, C., Lowies, B., Lushington, K., & McGreal, S. 2020. Female perspectives on housing quality and household characteristics, perceptions and challenges: Evidence
from Australia’. Habitat International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2020.102276.
1. Brierty, R., Buckland, A., Crowe, A., Duncan, A., & Rowley, S. 2023. Housing Affordability in Western Australia 2023: Building for the future. Bankwest Curtin Economics
Centre. https://bcec.edu.au/publications/housing-affordability-in-western-australia-2023-building-for-the-future/.
2. Baker, E. & Daniel, L. (Eds.) 2020. Rental Insights: A COVID-19 Collection, The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited,
Melbourne. 10.18408/ahuri3125402.
3. Baker, E, Bentley, R, Beer, A and Daniel, L. 2020. Renting in the time of COVID-19: understanding the impacts. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/340
4. Daniel, L, Moore, T, Baker, E, Beer, A, Willand, N, Horne, R and Hamilton, C. 2020. Warm, cool and energy-affordable housing policy solutions for low-income renters.
AHURI Final Report. https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/338.
5. Dignam, J. 2020. Home-Baked: Housing, Heat and Health. Better Renting. Funded by Energy Consumers Australia Limited and the ACT Government. Report: "Home-
Baked: Housing, Heat, and Health" - Better Renting.
6. Dreesen. S. & Heylen, K. 2021. De impact van de COVID-19 crisis op de woonsituatie van Vlamingen, Een analyse van de Grote Coronastudie. Leuven: Steunpunt
Wonen. https://archief.steunpuntwonen.be/Documenten_2016-2020/Studiedagen/Webinar_Wonen_na_corona_25_februari_2021/paper-dreesen-heylen-de-impact-van- de-covid-19.pdf.
7. Dyrenfurth, N. 2020. ‘Rental Nation: A Plan for Secure Housing in Australia. John Curtin Research Centre Policy Report no. 5. https://national.sda.com.au/wp-
content/uploads/2020/09/Rental-Nation-A-Plan-for-Secure-Housing-in-Australia.pdf.
8. Liu, E., Martin, C., & Easthope, H. 2019. Poor-quality housing and low-income households. Shelter Brief No. 63. City Futures Research Centre.
https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Poor-quality-Housing-and-Low-Income-Households-Review-of-Evidence-and-Options-for-Reform-2019.pdf.
9. Pexa and Longview. 2023. Private Renting in Australia – A Broken System, Pexa and Longview White paper. Whitepaper-2-Private-renting-in-Australia-a-broken-
system_compressed-sm-1679450145.pdf (pexa.com.au)
10. Roche, D., Dwyer, S., Rispler, J., Chatterjee, A., Fane, S. & White, S. 2023. Domestic Hot Water and Flexibility. Report prepared for ARENA by UTS Institute for
Sustainable Futures. Domestic Hot Water and Flexibility | University of Technology Sydney (uts.edu.au)