Journal Article

Housing affordability, tenure and mental health in Australia and the United Kingdom: a comparative panel analysis

Authors

Publication date

2016

Summary

This paper contributes insights into the role of tenure in modifying the relationship between housing affordability and health, using a cross-national comparison of similar post-industrial nations—Australia and the United Kingdom—with different tenure structures. The paper utilises longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and British Household Panel Survey to examine change in the mental health of individuals associated with housing becoming unaffordable and considers modification by tenure. We present evidence that the role of tenure in the relationship between housing and health is context dependent and should not be unthinkingly generalised across nations. These findings suggest that the UK housing context offers a greater level of protection to tenants living in unaffordable housing when compared with Australia, and this finds expression in the mental health of the two populations. We conclude that Australian governments could improve the mental health of their economically vulnerable populations through more supportive housing policies.

Published in

Housing Studies

Volume and page numbers

31 , 208 -222

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2015.1070796

ISSN

16

Subjects

Poverty, Household Economics, Well Being, Health, and Housing Market

Links

University of Essex, Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to University of Essex registered users* - http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1598948~S5

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