Small area housing stress estimation in Australia: Calculating confidence intervals for a spatial microsimulation model

This study provides small area housing stress estimates by tenure type in Australia with a way of calculating confidence intervals for a spatial microsimulation model. Findings reveal that prevalence of housing stress for private-renter, buyer, public-renter and owner households are 59.6%, 33.2%, 6.9%, and 0.3%, respectively. Almost two-thirds of these households are located in statistical local areas (SLAs) in eight capital cities, and a large number of them are in Sydney and Melbourne. Estimates for private renters and buyers are significantly high in some capitals and southeast coastal regions. About 95.7% of SLAs show accurate estimates with narrow confidence intervals.