Housing costs increase more than incomes

Housing costs have increased as a proportion of household income over the past two years, Statistics New Zealand said today.

In the two years since 30 June 2009, housing costs increased while household income was relatively unchanged. As a result, the proportion of total household income that households spend on housing costs increased. The proportion increased from 15.1 percent in 2008/09 to 16.0 percent in 2010/11.

The proportion of households spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing costs increased from 19.5 percent in the year ended June 2009 to 21.8 percent in the year ended June 2011.

Components of housing costs that increased between 2008/09 and 2010/11 were:

average weekly expenditure on rent, up 6.6 percent

average weekly expenditure on property rates, up 9.3 percent.

Average expenditure on mortgages and loans was relatively unchanged over the two years.

Over the same two-year period, average annual regular income for households changed little – from $78,019 in 2008/09 to $79,159 in 2010/11.

These results come from the Household Economic Survey (Income), which is a shortened version of the three-yearly full Household Economic Survey. It ran for the first time in the year ended June 2008. The shorter survey runs in each of the two years between the full survey – to collect data on household and personal income, living standards, and housing costs.