Rental is Australia’s emerging tenure. Each year the proportion of Australians who rent increases, many of us will rent for life, and for the first time in generations there are now more renters than home owners.

Though the rental sector is home to almost one-third of all Australians, researchers and policy-makers know little about conditions in this growing market because there is currently no systematic or reliable data. This project will provide researchers and policy stakeholders with an essential database on Australia’s rental housing conditions.

This data infrastructure will provide the knowledge base for national and international research and allow better urban, economic and social policy development. Building on The Australian Housing Conditions Dataset, in 2020 we will collect data on the housing conditions of 15,000 rental households, covering all Australian states and territories.

The project is funded by the Australian Research Council and The University of Adelaide, in partnership with the University of South Australia, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, Curtin University and Western Sydney University and is led by Professor Emma Baker at the University of Adelaide.