The cost of housing and housing support

Vasantha Krishnan

This paper investigates what impact housing costs may have had on the financial outgoings of households over the past decade. Two sources of data are used for the analysis. The first is a population-level analysis of housing cost outcomes using Statistics New Zealand’s Household Economic Survey. The second is data from Work and Income Systems on those receiving the Accommodation Supplement.

This study demonstrates that escalations in housing costs have had the potential to affect the financial fortunes of individuals and households over the past decade. Housing assistance has been crucial in containing negative housing cost outcomes for many low-income New Zealanders. Housing cost outcomes are not uniform across the population, with considerable compositional differences in terms of who might be experiencing housing-related financial difficulties.