Entries, exits and transfers
Households entering social housing
The number of new allocations has remained relatively stable for public housing over the last 7 years (Table TENANTS.1). In 2017–18, 20,400 households were newly allocated to public housing.
There have been some fluctuations in the numbers of newly allocated households in SOMIH since 2011–12, with a decrease from 700 in 2016–17 to 600 in 2017–18.
Data were not available for the community housing programs.
Households exiting social housing
Between 2011–12 and 2017–18, the number of households that exited public housing programs has varied (Tables TENANTS.1.1 and TENANTS.1.2). From year to year, the change in the number of households that have exited has ranged from a 6% increase (from 2012–13 to 2013–14) to a 6% decrease (from 2013–14 to 2014–15). Most recently, there has been a 14% increase in the number of households that exited, from 23,100 in 2016–17 to 26,400 in 2017–18.
In recent years there have been more households that exited public housing compared with newly allocated households in public housing. In 2017–18, 26,400 households exited while 20,400 households were newly allocated to public housing. This may be due to stock transfers from public housing to community housing.
For SOMIH households, there is considerable variability in the number of exits from year to year. This is partly due to housing stock transfers. In recent years, there has been a greater number of households ending their tenancy in SOMIH programs (as measured by the number of exits) when compared with the number of newly allocated SOMIH households. During 2017–18 for example, while there were over 600 newly allocated SOMIH households, around 1,000 households ended their SOMIH tenancies. This includes a number of SOMIH dwellings in South Australia that were transferred to community housing (Supplementary table TENANTS.9 and TENANTS.11).
Data for community housing were not available for this analysis.
Table TENANTS.1.1: Number of newly allocated households and households that exited, 2011–12 to 2017–18 (Public housing)
Year
|
Ongoing households(a)
|
Newly allocated households(b)
|
Households that exited(c)
|
Percentage change from previous year of households that exited (%)(c)
|
2011–12
|
323,423
|
21,365
|
22,850
|
. .
|
2012–13
|
321,213
|
21,299
|
23,509
|
2.9
|
2013–14
|
317,008
|
20,611
|
24,816
|
5.6
|
2014–15
|
314,963
|
21,410
|
23,455
|
-5.5
|
2015–16
|
312,219
|
20,502
|
23,246
|
-0.9
|
2016–17
|
310,483
|
21,387
|
23,123
|
-0.5
|
2017–18
|
304,532
|
20,418
|
26,369
|
14.0
|
Table TENANTS.1.2: Number of newly allocated households and households that exited, 2011–12 to 2017–18 (SOMIH(d))
Year
|
Ongoing households(a)
|
Newly allocated households(b)
|
Households that exited(c)
|
Percentage change from previous year of households that exited (%)(c)
|
2011–12
|
9,692
|
774
|
646
|
. .
|
2012–13
|
9,820
|
858
|
730
|
13.0
|
2013–14
|
9,790
|
777
|
807
|
10.5
|
2014–15
|
9,732
|
852
|
910
|
12.8
|
2015–16
|
9,660
|
797
|
869
|
-4.5
|
2016–17
|
9,574
|
719
|
805
|
-7.4
|
2017–18
|
9,200
|
646
|
1,020
|
26.7
|
. . Not applicable
(a) Ongoing indicates the household’s tenancy has not concluded.
(b) Whether the household was a new allocation for housing assistance in the financial year.
(c) Includes households living in housing stock that was transferred from public housing or SOMIH to community housing in the reference period. In 2017–18, in SA in particular, a large number of dwellings were transferred from public housing or SOMIH to community housing.
(d) Excludes NT data which were not available. The total new allocations for SOMIH in 2017–18 (including NT) was 1252.
Notes
- Data on transferred and exited households were only available for the public housing and SOMIH programs.
- Data may not be comparable across jurisdictions and comparisons could be misleading. See the relevant data quality statements for more information.
Source: AIHW National Housing Assistance Data Repository. Supplementary table TENANTS.9.
Household transfers
During 2017–18, 3% of public housing households and 3% of SOMIH households transferred to a different dwelling (Supplementary table TENANTS.11). This may have been due to state and territory housing authorities seeking to match tenant characteristics to household size. For example, by moving a single tenant household into a smaller dwelling to make room for a larger family household on the waitlist, or tenants requesting relocation to a different geographic area.
The rate of households leaving social housing (as measured by exit rates) was higher than transfer rates as for 2017–2018, with 8% (26,400) of public housing households and 10% (1,000) of SOMIH households exiting during the year (Figure TENANTS.6).
The following interactive data visualisation displays the number and proportion of households that transferred to, or exited from the 3 main social housing programs over time, from 2011–12 to 2017–18.