Renters are easily the fastest growing group of participants in Australia's $8 trillion housing market, yet little is known about them or the spaces they inhabit.
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The nation's cohort of renters grew 64 per cent over the first 16 years of the century, say researchers at the University of Adelaide.
That's twice the rate of home ownership increase.
In fact, for the first time in generations, there are now as many Australians who rent as there are outright home owners.
Despite this, there is a huge knowledge gap about the life of renters "beyond the front door", according to Professor of Housing Research Emma Baker.
"For a long time, we have lived with this notion that Australians are homeowners - now we have to adjust to the fact that future Australians are more likely to be renters," she says.
"The problem is, we just haven't known much about who rents, why they rent or what they are renting."
In the absence of a large-scale collection of information, Prof Baker has launched Australia's first national Rental Housing Conditions Dataset.
Funded by the Australian Research Council and Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, the project reflects the fact renting has moved from being a transitional proposition to something more permanent.
Accessed via the Australian Data Archive, the information generated features descriptions of renting households from around the country.
As well as revealing who the nation's renters are, what they want and what they can afford, it details the diversity of Australia's housing quality and conditions across the rental market.
As an adjunct to the project, a citizen science initiative has been designed to profile images and descriptions of accommodation submitted by renters.
Participants are asked where they live and whether they reside in a free-standing house, a semi, a terrace, a townhouse or a flat.
They can also nominate how old the dwelling is and how many bedrooms it has, as well as list any repairs the residence might need or issues that exist between tenant and landlord.
Prof Baker says the dataset fills in the gaps in mismatched data and small sample surveys that, until now, have been the only source of information on the realities of renting.
"We now have a resource that will be invaluable in informing future policy on housing, community support and infrastructure spending," she said.
Her research was conducted in partnership with UniSA, the University of Melbourne, Curtin University, UTS, Swinburne University of Technology and Torrens University Australia.
Australian Associated Press
