Tool № 06 · Housing & Affordability

Where shelter costs meet income.

SNHN's median rent is A$588/week against a median household income of A$2,639/week — a rent-to-income ratio of 22.3%. The catchment skews 50.7% separate houses and 39.6% apartments, but the mix flips dramatically by LGA: North Sydney is overwhelmingly apartments, Hornsby and Northern Beaches are mostly houses. Housing stress is a structural determinant of health outcomes; it shows up differently in each LGA.

Data vintage ABS Census 2021real per-LGA ABS ERP2024
Median rent
A$588 /wk
Census 2021 · SA2-weighted catchment median
Median mortgage
A$3,079 /mo
Households with a mortgage · Census 2021
Rent-to-income ratio
22.3 %
Rent A$588 ÷ income A$2,639
Avg household size
2 approx
Catchment population ÷ dwellings · proxy
§ 01 · Median rent

Weekly rent, per LGA.

Sorted from highest to lowest. Ratios are SA2-weighted by population within each LGA.

A$/wk · Census 2021
§ 02 · Median mortgage

Monthly mortgage payments, where it bites hardest.

Among households with a mortgage, the SA2-weighted median per LGA.

A$/mo · Census 2021
§ 03 · Dwelling mix

Houses vs apartments — same catchment, different urban form.

Each bar is one LGA's dwelling mix, normalised to 100%. The variance — North Sydney 80%+ apartments, Hornsby 80%+ houses — drives where ageing-in-place and home-care commissioning will land differently.

Census 2021
Separate house Semi-detached Apartment
§ 04 · Affordability

Rent as a share of household income.

The internationally common housing-stress threshold is 30%. None of SNHN's LGAs cross that at the median; but the lowest-income individual renters within an LGA can sit well above. This LGA-level view masks the SA1-level tails.

% · Census 2021
§ 04b · Mortgage stress

Monthly mortgage as a share of monthly household income.

The mortgage version of rent stress. Monthly mortgage payment ÷ (weekly household income × 4.33), per LGA. Same 30% benchmark for housing stress applies — at the median, no SNHN LGA crosses it.

% · Census 2021
§ 04c · Urban form × rent

Apartment share against median rent.

X-axis is apartment share of dwellings, Y-axis is median weekly rent. Reveals whether higher-apartment LGAs pay more or less per week — a structural lens on the rental market.

9 LGAs · Census 2021
§ 05 · LGA by LGA

Nine housing profiles.

Each card: median rent, median mortgage, dwelling mix shorthand, and rent-to-income ratio.

9 LGAs

§ 06 · Methodology + data gaps

Source data:

Known data gaps to address:

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