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Living in Australia community views

Affordable decent housing

Understanding the provision of ‘affordable decent housing’ goes well beyond the dwelling. It seeks to contextualise the community’s view on ‘housing’ with two additional features – both of which are critical to informing public policy and private sector directions: the perception of value (represented in the attribute as affordable) and quality (represented as decent). ‘Affordable decent housing’ is often selected as one of the most important attributes that makes somewhere a good place to live. It is typically of higher importance to younger people and poorly experienced in established urban areas. Read more about .id's views on the importance of 'affordable decent housing' here.

Affordable decent housing in Australia in 2025

Greater Importance & Worse Experiences

56% of residents selected ‘Affordable decent housing’ as an important attribute when considering what makes somewhere a good place to live, making it the 2nd most important liveability aspect for Australia residents overall. Residents rated their experience of ‘Affordable decent housing’ in their local area 4.5 out of 10, on average, making it the 16th most positively experienced attribute of 16.

Benchmarks

Importance
Experience
Australia 2025
56%
4.5
Regional Australia
56%
4.4
Metropolitan Australia
55%
4.6

Local Area

Importance
Experience
Australia
56%
4.5
Adelaide (n = 207)
58%
4.6
Central NSW (n = 198)
57%
5.2
Central QLD (n = 227)
57%
4.7
Central VIC (n = 218)
52%
5.0
Darwin (n = 199)
52%
4.4
Eastern VIC (n = 219)
51%
4.8
Far North Queensland (n = 220)
56%
4.3
Hobart (n = 168)
56%
4.7
Melbourne (n = 456)
52%
4.8
Northern NSW (n = 218)
59%
3.9
Perth (n = 333)
56%
4.6
Regional NT (n = 147)
65%
4.5
Regional SA (n = 144)
55%
4.7
Regional Tas (n = 145)
68%
5.2
Regional WA (n = 220)
53%
4.6
Rest of QLD (n = 37)
70%
5.4
South East Queensland (n = 531)
57%
4.2
Southern NSW (n = 207)
58%
3.7
Sydney (n = 430)
57%
4.2
The ACT (n = 188)
49%
4.5
Western VIC (n = 195)
56%
4.7

Gender

Importance
Experience
Australia
56%
4.5
Male (n = 1709)
54%
4.7
Female (n = 3037)
56%
4.4
Other (n = 39)
83%
2.7

Age

Importance
Experience
Australia
56%
4.5
18 - 34 (n = 593)
64%
4.5
35 - 59 (n = 1681)
54%
4.2
60 + (n = 2302)
49%
4.9

Significantly higher
Significantly lower